Sunday, March 20, 2005

Bathroom Before & After

Unfortunately I didn't take photos before the demolition. Suffice it to say, the tiles were falling off the walls, the shower had zero water pressure, our sink only had cold water, and there was no electricity. We actually had an extension cord running into our kitchen for the light!

We did everything ourselves in this room except the run new water lines and refinish the tub. We used Magic Touch Refinishing and would never use them again. The only kind of "magic" they worked was that the tub magically started to crack after one month. We tried for months to get them to come back and fix it to no avail. We will probably need to have it redone at some point.

Our bathroom is small and typical of turn of the century homes. Because of this, we opted for a pedestal sink, rather than a vanity cabinet, which would make the room seem smaller. We also hunted down the narrowest toilet and pedestal sink we could find. The toilet is made by Toto. If you go their site, check out the "SoftClose" toilet lid. It has a piston, so it lowers gradually instead of slamming. It makes for a more peaceful house-no angry toilet lid slamming here!

Beacause of the small space we selected a predominantly white color scheme. At the time, we were not aware of all the options for period tiles, so we used standard 4x4 tile, but we went for a classic look with the black trim and white tiles.

Steve made the medicine cabinet (seen above)out of teak. Because we have a double thick wall, about 8" deep, we were able to make a deeper cabinet that holds toilet paper and our blow dryer, and lots of toiletries. It holds much more than a typical vanity cabinet.

Tub area- We put a hotel towel rack at the back end of the tub to hold extra towels because space was tight. Believe it or not, the towels do not get wet when you take a shower. It's not in this photo.

Bathroom was completed in Fall of 2002.

6 comments:

Emerld said...

WOW! What an amazing job! I remember when you guys did that too. lol

It's beautiful.

Kasmira said...

Lovely job! Looks like tons of tile work, but it came out nice!

Unknown said...

We are just beginning our restoration of a Chicago two flat and your blog is inspiring. Ours is on Wolcott just North of Lawrence (where the Sears is).

Glad to have found your blog.

Anonymous said...

I am so glad I stumbled upon your blog. I love everything you've done with your home. Can you tell me what material you used for the (black?) ledge by the window in your shower? I also live in RP, and have a very similiar bathroom.

Jocelyn said...

Hi Kimberly,

We went to Stone City and got a piece of black granite that we had custom cut for our sill(we gave them a template made of cardboard). You can find them online. One tip on installing the sill- it should be angled inward towards the tub slightly so that water runs into the tub and not into your window.

Anonymous said...

You did a good job.I use Magictouchrefinishing since 1995 and they restored 3 buildings and i'm very happy with them.