Atelier 918

Downstairs bath remodeling ideas

Our downstairs bathroom is really pretty pitiful, I don't think I've ever posted about it before. When we moved in the tile wall had been painted with latex. As we used that as our primary shower until we redid the pipes in the house as part of the upstairs bath renovation, the paint destabilized and started to peel off. That was when I found Peel-away, the paint stripper that's non-toxic. I used it for that area and was fairly successful, unfortunately the tile underneath was really ugly so we weren't much better off.

The space is pretty small but it is a full bath, complete with sink, toilet and bathtub with a shower head. The window and door trim as well as the base trim are all new and don't match the rest of the house. The walls were replaced with wall board that wasn't done that nicely. The door swings open and clears the toilet but not really by much. The floor is inexpensive tile. The toilet is junky, the sink doesn't stopper and the tub is pretty unremarkable -- a very downmarket little bathroom we have there.

Our ideas are to change the way the space is layed out, which involves a major change to the door. We're wanted to change it to a sliding door which will maximize space in the room and will let us move the sink and toilet to a more comfortable arrangement.

We already have a basin purchased, a hand-painted one that my partner brought back with him from Mexico last year.

We will definately get another Toto toilet for this bathroom as we have been so impressed by the one we installed into the upstairs bath.

We haven't given the flooring or tile any thought at all but in due time. We may coordinate this project with the kitchen renovation.

Touching up the edges

I was a good girl last night and pulled out the bathroom paint and an artists paintbrush and worked on straightening the edges of my paint job. The masking that we had done didn't work out very well so I'm having to compensate for it. It's starting to look better though, I'll keep working in this week so hopefully we can call it done soon enough.

The office floor and window in the laundry room are calling out for attention as well, I'm hoping to start getting these things sorted and out of the way in the coming weeks.

Today's big event is getting the gutters cleaned. With all of Seattle's rain it's been quite the year for gutters. Ours are still functioning well enough but it's time to get the leafy crap out.

Shower curtain in place

Last weekend we finally cut down the shower rod for the bath and got that installed. Then Sunday evening it was off to the store to buy the shower curtain. I decided that a cloth curtain would be best and we bought two -- one for either side of the support bracket, besides the shower/tub is larger than average.

This was a big deal, being able to talk showers upstairs. I woke up on Thursday to the sound of a shower and then it struck me just how unusual that sound was. We've been in the house for 5-1/2 years now and we haven't showered in the upstairs bathroom in years. The water pressure was so bad before that the water would dribble down and you would be freezing so we opted to shower in the bathroom off of the kitchen.

The new shower is great, spacious and comfortable, light and warm. What luxury.

Progress report

Not much progress on the house, I've been really busy with work. I'm almost done with the final coat of paint on the bathroom walls and we've got the mirror hung up and everything wiped down so we're reallly on our way.

We purchased a shower rod last weekend, it's an L shape one that has a supporting mount for the corner of the L. I've got to figure out what curtains we should use since I don't really want to disrupt the look of the fabulous glass tile wall. I'm thinking that I'll use either clear or else I'll go with a fabric curtain which might fit in more with the spa theme than just plastic.

Mom's coming for a visit

My mother, who just finished her radiation therapy for breast cancer (caught early thank goodness), is coming to visit at the beginning of October. What better impetus then for getting projects completed.

I think we can get the bathroom completed in time, well not sure about the shower as we still haven't purchased any track or anything to hang a shower curtain.

The office trim just has a few spots needing to get stripped down again so I'm going to try to get on that this week. After that my partner will do a sanding and then we're going to call the prep work done and I can start on priming the walls and woodwork. It's ambitious to try to get it done in the time alloted but we can try, right?

Since Seattle's gotten cold and wintery all of the sudden, I was in the mood to make some soup. Here's my recipe in case you want to make some too:

Turkey Vegetable Soup

1/2-1 whole onion

1 large carrot diced

1-2 ribs of celery diced

1 turkey cutlet diced

1 box of chicken broth

1 vegetable bouillon cube

1 cup of pearl barley

Bay leaf

Black pepper and salt to taste

Parsley

Heat up a little olive oil in a large soup pot and saute the vegetables and then add in the turkey and stir occasionally to help it cook evenly and not stick. When the vegetables are firm but most of the way cooked, pour in the box of broth and then add in more water until the pot is more than halfway filled. Throw in the boullion cube and a bay leaf. Add in the barley. Bring it up to a boil and then lower down to a simmer. Add in parsley, salt and pepper when it's close to done for taste. When the barley is cooked through it should be ready, adjust thickness of the soup with water if too thick.

You could also add in other chopped vegetables such as tomatoes, mushrooms, turnip, pepper, parsnip, beet, kale (add towards the end of cooking so its not over cooked), etc.

Soup is easy and good for you.

Repainting and August

We decided to smooth out the bathroom walls as I had mentioned. Sanding was finished the other night and now it was time for me to step in and do my part. I primed over the patches and found some more spots needing a little polish so once more until I can do the final two coats of blue on the walls. The trim will need to get painted another weekend.

I dropped by the paint store the other day to pick up another trim brush. I know all about laying a bead line and using an angled brush -- heck I even went to art school and I worked in an art museum painting galleries while I was in colllege -- for some reason cutting in wasn't working out so well last time I tried. I hope this new brush helps.

It's been so dry lately as Seattle is known to be in August, well at least if you live here you know that. The garden's been feeling a little grumpy about the lack of rain so we've had to do a lot of watering. Well alot is a relative term, it's just a good drink twice a week. The rainbarrels of course are almost empty except for a downpour a couple weeks ago that replenished the supply a wee bit.  At least the grass doesn't need mowing.

While driving around Seattle today we saw a sign advertising the Seattle Tilth Harvest Fair in a few weeks. We'll try to hit that as time permits.

Smoothing things out

I mentioned that we needed to do a little more fill work around the bathroom. We've now got enought coated that we'll have to do a serious priming and repainting. I feel like we are going backwards but I guess we just need to do what has to be done and it will be that much better going forward.

Nothing much else to report.

Over and out.

Still fairly quiet

My partner has been moving some plants around in the garden, enjoying the nice weather we've been having in Seattle. He's mostly adjusting things so that there is more balance -- some plants overgrew in their previous locations so we're finding new spots where they fit in better.

I got back on the paint stripping in the office last weekend. It's been a while but I needed a break. I really need to crank on it now if that room is every going to get done.

The bathroom is still awaiting completion. We decided to do one more coat of patching to smooth out some remaining imperfections. No, it won't ever be perfect but we want to help get rid of the glaring issues before doing the final coats of paint.

All in good time.

Quiet around here

We haven't been doing much about the house other than cleaning, entertaining and yard work. It's been a nice break from all the construction disruption.

The bathroom still needs another coat of paint, a shower curtain and a window curtain but it's in regular use now and we are so happy with the results. Since we haven't showered upstairs in five years we aren't missing that at all and the jetted tub is such an upgrade who is to complain.

Hooray for better water pressure. Hooray for a sink with a single faucet that mixes hot and cold. Hooray for the amazing flushing mechanism on our new Toto toilet and the brilliant soft close seat.

Ta Da!

Well almost. We still have to do a second coat of paint and paint the trim (a few more pieces need to be nailed in place) but it's looking pretty done now.

The funny thing is that we thought the plumber hadn't come yesterday to install the toilet and we were bumming. Hours later my partner went upstairs and low and behold it had been there all afternoon. I was downstairs cleaning and cooking and getting ready for our birthday party. A big topic of conversation for the evening was the toilet -- who had tried it, #1 or #2 and a lot of oggling the soft close toilet seat. Gone are the days of slamming toilet seats, though it was never an issue in our house. That's technology though.