Well things are moving along. It took a while to get the work started.  The first problem we encountered was - snow, lots and lots of snow. And we are in Texas, we do not do lots and lots of snow! We had the demo work scheduled for themiddle of February with the foundation the next week, which if you watched any news, anywhere in the country you know that was the great freeze in Texas. EVERYTHING shut down for a week. My contractor was great about getting my demo in as soon as we thawed out and were able to confirm we had no plumbing leaks from the great freeze of 2021. The foundation people also pushed back a week to the first of March.

The next problem was the foundation company suggested no flooring or walls or doors be changed for at least a month.

The freeze created sheets of ice on the docks.

The contractor and I had planned on working on the plumbing while we waited on the foundation to settle or (whatever the heck it had to do). Well…. getting a plumber in Texas if you did not have water spewing out of your house was harder than getting an audience with the queen in March ( and April). This also led to shortages of every type of plumbing supplies. I however never think about the nitty gritty plumbing supplies like elbows and piping. These were in very short supply in March in Texas. Home Depot plumbing aisle was suddenly the hot spot in every city and town. The plumber would agree to show up, then he would call to say there was another emergency at some senior’s home and would be there another day. Then when he would show up, he would saunter in, look around and declare he needed something else. It was a darn good thing we had a month before tile could start because it took this plus some to get the plumbing ready for the tiling. The initial plumbing work involved moving the vanity faucets down the wall, replumbing the shower with new valves, adding a handheld and moving the shower head up ( we have some really tall people in our family and we like our shower heads higher than most).

We also needed to get the drain and plumbing set for a freestanding tub with a tub filler. A freestanding tub has no wiggle room for drain placement so you must jack hammer to get it exact. I selected a side location for the drain on my new tub since this is closest to the existing tub. The freestanding tub fillers are also less forgiving to place. You must jack hammer the floor to the exact location and sink the base beneath the floor. (This is an added expense you need to add in to your budget if you really want the look)

Luckily one of my design project habits has been no project starts until all materials are ordered and in hand. There is nothing worse than having a crew scheduled and you find out your tile is backordered or worse.. the most dreaded phrase in an interior designer’s life… discontinued.

The electricians were also able to work on the project before the month was out and they came out and completed my long wish list for them that included the bathroom, bedroom and some other areas. I tend to think if you get a trades person out you should get everything checked off your list. (For some reason I always have an electricians list). I planned to move the vanity down a bit and change the bar lights to sconces on either side of the mirrors. This meant I had to figure out for them (and the plumbers) exactly where the boxes would be installed and hope they could set them where I wanted. We were already replacing the drywall because we had removed a plate glass mirror and moving the vanity so I was not concerned about destroying the drywall to get the placement. The “garden window” had been lit from inside and it was on its own switch so pulling that over to add a chandelier above the tub was pretty easy. We had two vents in the bathroom and did not really need both so we are keeping the one above the shower but replacing it with a humidity controlled fan with better lighting. We added some extra cans to improve the lighting in the space- the sconces will not provide as much light as the bar lights. There are so many switches in this bathroom-8, yes 8 light switches! I was hoping to eliminate some but we will have to see.

The sconces and vanity plumbing were roughed in while we waited for the foundation to settle

The contractors also framed out some changes we were making in the bedroom. The entrance to the bedroom and bathroom has almost a foyer that you walk into. The original doors to the bathroom were bifold double doors. These were right next to double doors into a linen closet. It became apparent almost immediately after moving in this did not work well. They were constantly banging into each other and the bathroom doors would open into the “foyer” and the two got caught up all the time. The bathroom door ended up off its hinges and just had to be eliminated. We decided with the tight space we would build a LARGE barn door to free up the floor space. The closet was accessed by a door in the bedroom. I thought about reducing the size of the bathroom opening to a more normal size but in the end I decided I liked how it opened it all up. I decided to knock out the linen closet to create the closet door opening in its place. The linen closet had deep shelving on the bathroom side so this will be perfect for adding shelving to store the linens.

The door from the bedroom into the closet was removed to make the “foyer” feel more open and the bedroom a bit less cluttered looking.

Have you been checking out the other great projects in the Spring 2021 One Room Challenge??

So many great ideas! This is where you can see the projects from professional designers and some talented DIYers.

Spring 2021 One Room Challenge

Join me next week where I talk about all things tile! Including how to drive your tile contractor batty!

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