Other Weekend Progress...

There were some times where I couldn't help R with the plywood this past weekend, so I found other ways to be useful. I worked on the sidewalk a little...

There's that rock that got in my way... It's kinda hard to see because of all the sand and leaves, but I think I worked it in pretty well..

Once I literally hit an impasse (asphalt with electrical wires underneath... a job for R), I moved back indoors and tackled the downstairs bathroom.

The downstairs bathroom is something on my "Things to Get Done Before Party" list. In the past year, this room has become our dumping zone (when we run out of room in the Dining Room.. seriously.. it's bad). We rarely use it, so who cares that it's so full of crap that you can't walk in there! But we have some people coming to the party would would rather not walk all the way upstairs to use the bathroom, so it needed to be done. I spent a couple hours organizing everything in the room into piles, then realized that I had piled myself into the room and couldn't get out, so I had to re-pile everything. Most of the stuff went in the basement, a ton went in the garbage and some got packed up in a box to go in the attic. Now all that's left is the window casing for the kitchen and a couple boxes that will be unpacked when we finish the kitchen. Yay! R's comment was "What? There's a floor in there?" I mean seriously... our Christmas tree stand was in there. And still had some dead needles and branches in it. So embarrassing!!

Half Bathroom Inspiration

I'm having the hardest time coming up with a design for our downstairs bathroom. The room is currently a full bath (with a tub/shower combo). The room is huge! When the house was remodeled to have indoor plumbing, they just turned an entire room into the bathroom. It's a strange space. Too big for a full bath, let alone a half bath, yet, what else would you do with the extra space? There is a utility closet right next to the bathroom, so I don't need that. I'm planning on using the lean-to and half of the existing bathroom as my pantry/extra Kitchen storage, so I don't need that. I can't come up with anything else.

If I just leave the bathroom the size I was planning (which is essentially half the size it is now because the back half where the toilet and tub are will become part of the pantry), it's still very large. And the window and radiator are pretty much dictating where everything can go.

There are a couple things that I definitely want to include in this bathroom. The first two are pretty simple requests. I want an elongated toilet (the toilets in our apartment seriously spoiled us.. we can't go back to normal round toilets) and a pedestal sink. I think that the pedestal sink would fit much better with the era and feel of the rest of the house. But that leaves me without any necessary under-sink storage. I found this picture online which I LOVE. The room is large enough that I could do this and not lose any important space. They put a wall about 18-24" out from the door wall, adjacent to the sink, creating cubby holes for baskets and towels. I love it! I figure I could have one small basket (maybe the top basket) where I could store simple cleaning supplies (paper towels, Clorox wipes, etc.) and the rest could have hand towels, soap, lotion.. It's open storage, which usually I find to be messy, but I think it could work.

This picture also has tall beadboard, which is another thing I'm planning on for this bathroom. The beadboard would be painted white to match the trim in the rest of the house, and I think the wall above would be painted a color similar to the living room in the above picture (dusty blue-ish). I also love having a little shelf at the top of the beadboard for decorations.

The beadboard is both pretty and necessary. The wallpaper in the existing bathroom wasn't installed correctly, so when we went to remove it, it took off the first layer of paper on the drywall underneath. If possible, we plan on only replacing some of the old drywall... what will be above the beadboard. We'll install the new beadboard over the old drywall and cut out the old drywall above. This will save time and money. And of course it's nice because I was planning on tall beadboard in here even before we knew the condition of the walls.

The floor in the bathroom is currently painted white. I think I will keep the floor painted (though a new coat/different color). I like that the bathroom is its own space because of the different floor color. The whole house has wide wood flooring, but it's stained in every other room. I just need to figure out a color I like. I don't think I'm adventurous for stripes or a really bright color. I need something neutral...