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Wednesday, February 10, 2016

New Master Closet!

In order to enlarge our en suite we had to take over Anthony's closet.  What happened to his clothes, you ask?  We expanded Nerissa's closet to include both.  Here's how it was done.


Nerissa's closet is hard to see in this picture.  It is simply a reach-in closet with bi-fold doors at the back of the right wall in the above picture (on the far side of the bed).

(Please excuse our mess, but we're constantly shifting things around as we renovate the house.)




In the above floorplan, our original closet is shaded gray.  It was 3' x 10', however 4' was over the stairs making the space difficult to use efficiently.



We consulted with two custom closet companies to determine the best layout for our closet, but were incredibly underwhelmed by their solutions.  So we came up with our own.




Our solution included building stairs over the sloped floor so that we could access the entire 4 foot area (it was impossible to walk up the steep slope).



And we did exactly what you see in these renderings.  We added doors to two of the cabinets, but other than that our closet exactly matches our renderings.  I have some pictures, although they do not do the closet justice.  It's really hard to get quality pictures in such a tight space (the rendering images were done with "invisible" walls).  The pictures below are of the closet, rotating from left to right.  If you imagine you are standing in the picture above, the pictures below start on the right and each cover a small section of the rendering.








And here's a picture of what the "bumped out" closet looks like from the bedroom.


Not bad, huh?  Now we just need to spruce up our bedroom!  LOL



The En Suite!!!

The en suite is perhaps our biggest accomplishment to date.  We struggled to find a design that had everything we wanted...two sinks, and a double shower with two benches...and fit in the space we had.  We were expanding the bathroom into an adjacent closet, but that still gave us a bathroom that was less than 6' x 12'.  Somehow we got everything we wanted and better yet, the bathroom feels spacious!

Here are the pics...

Before

As you can see, prior to our renovation the bathroom was TIGHT!  On the left wall were the vanity with single sink and further back, the toilet.  On the right wall was a very small corner shower stall.  The whole bathroom was about 6' x 7'.  Somehow, all 6 of us got ready in this tiny bathroom each day.  Thus the need for a larger space.

 
Anthony's Closet to Right of Bathroom

Adjacent to the bathroom was Anthony's closet.  We used this closet to expand the bathroom another 4 1/2 feet.  Here are the results...

Rendering

After

Rendering

After

Rendering

After

Full length mirror...

...hiding a large built-in cabinet.

Going with pedestal sinks instead of vanities limited our storage space to just the two medicine cabinets.  The solution...a custom cabinet hidden by a full-length mirror that our awesome contractor built right into the wall.

You might be wondering what happened to Anthony's clothes?  Stay tuned...


Our Office...The slowest renovation ever!

So back in 2012 we started working on one of our rooms.  We had never furnished the room, but had plans for it to be a bedroom.  We had new crown molding and baseboards installed, as well as a new light/ceiling fan.  But as life unfolded, we realized it needed to be used as an office.  We quickly threw two desks, two chairs, and a printer in the room and left it at that...for more than three years.  We turned our attention to converting the smallest bedroom in our house, which was previously our office, to Raymond and Ryan's bedroom.  We then did our nursery, replaced our siding, did the hallway bathroom, and more.  I did eventually get back to the office to make it a warm and inviting room.  Here are the results...

Before

Rendering

After

Before

Rendering

After

And here are a few more pics...


View From the Door

The Desk

The Closet (we still need to put books on the shelves)


Saturday, November 14, 2015

Our Kitchen from the '80s is History!!!

The kitchen is done and in record time!  Demo began on September 28th and our kitchen was functional again by October 23rd, LESS THAN 4 WEEKS LATER!!!  From October 23rd to November 6th our backsplash and pantry shelves were installed, and our built-in bench was constructed (we had a few other things done during these two weeks, but not in the kitchen).  Now all that remains are some very minor finishing touches.  WOW!!!  Kudos to our General Contractor, Tom, for getting our kitchen done quickly and with minimal disruption to our daily routine.  (He's now moved on to the Master Bathroom expansion...YAY!)

So what do you think?

Before

Rendering

After

Before

Rendering

After

Before

Rendering

After

Before

Rendering

After

Built-In Bench Storage

Pantry Before
(This pic was actually taken before we moved into the house.)

Pantry After

And what about that amazing 12" x 24" tile Tom installed?  The tile extends from the kitchen into the family room and sunroom, as well as the utility room, bathroom, and pantry.  It was a pain to lay, but it's GORGEOUS!!!


Bye-bye 1980s!  Hello 2015!  :-)

Note for anyone who is wondering where we got our cabinets and bench from: Tom built our amazing built-in bench with storage himself.  Our cabinets and granite countertops were purchased through and installed by Reico (this was coordinated by Tom...he'd worked with the company on several other homes).  Reico was so easy to work with, super responsive, and kept on schedule.  I couldn't be happier with the quality of their cabinets and countertops or their installation.

Wednesday, March 11, 2015

Hallway Bathroom - Check!

We've completed another room!  Our hallway bathroom has been updated, including all new fixtures and tile!!!  What do you think?

Before

Wait!  First, I should mention that this was our original tub surround!

OK, so starting over...

Before

Rendering

After

Rendering

After

New Vanity, Medicine Cabinet, and Light Fixture

Cubby for Soap and Shampoo

I love this glass subway tile!!!

...and this porcelain mosaic floor tile (which is actually more green than red)!!!

The hallway bathroom came together so beautifully.  I can't wait to move on to our next project (we're not sure what it will be yet)!  Stay tuned...

*** Updated 3/12/2014 ***

After noting how red the floor turned out in all the pictures, I tried to get a more accurate picture.  This turned out to be much harder than expected.  The real floor has a lot of green in it, but the green doesn't show up well in the photos. The closest I could get was this...


This is what it should look like...

Porcelain Mosaic Floor Tile Stock Photo