To my loyal readers.. a drum roll please.. we finally have photos of the New Bathroom!  I hope it lives up to all the hype!  I’m not sure where to start so I am just going to jump in.  (For a refresher of what it used to look like click here.)

Enjoy!

Shew.. It feels good to get that out there!  Now the pressure starts with catching you guys up on what we’ve been up to in the Kitchen.  As we speak Mr. vB is busy drawing up some new ideas.  I feel a trip to Ikea in our very near future!

Can you hear me shouting from the rooftops?? I am so happy to announce that the bathroom is FINISHED!  The bad news is that Mr.vB has the camera with him, so until he returns from his road trip I can’t take any photos to brag show you the finished product.  Instead I am going to show you all the photos I took during the 3 month renovation- start to finish. There are a ton, so hope you don’t get bored.   It’s an amazing transformation.  I hope you will feel the same by the time of the big reveal.  Here we go!

Pre-Renovation (seeing these photos again makes me realize how bad it really looked- I was in denial!)

Week One

All clean and ready for demo

Remember how we mentioned that we were worried that the original contractor had not properly sealed the floor of the shower?  This is what our new contractor found when they ripped up the existing floor.  Absolutely nothing.  The original dude had tiled right on top of the old hard wood floor.  ARE YOU KIDDING ME??

Week Two

This time we are making sure we have the proper moisture barrier!  The guys took down all the existing wall board and then hung this vinyl wrap between the new wall board and the studs.  Then they were going to install a proper shower pan and liner.  Plus a proper curb!

Week Three

Now let the tiling begin!

So while they tiled, we primed and finally framed in that window.  We also contemplated some wall paper.

Week Four

Still tiling…

Week Five-Twelve

During this 2 month period Mr. vB and I painted, and painted and then painted some more!  Those darn stripes were going to be the death of me.  Every time I thought I had enough coverage so you couldn’t see them, they would seep through again.  We also got the wall paper hung, the counter-top refinished, crown molding and shoe molding installed, new electrical outlets and face-plates, and all those other little accessories you’ve seen the teaser photos of.

As you can see A LOT of hard work has gone into this renovation/transformation.  I must say I am quite proud of how it has all come together.  And I’m really excited to show you guys the grand unveiling so stay tuned!

So the “leak” that I mentioned in yesterday’s post has turned into a full blown gusher tonight.  We aren’t too sure where the leak is coming from but we are assuming it is from when we vented the exhaust fan through the roof.  Remember that post? It was a nail biter!

I originally took this photo to show Mr. vB the gusher that was coming out of the exhaust fan because I know he won’t believe me when I tell him.  Then I just had to show you guys too!

Luckily I thought ahead when I saw the dark storm clouds coming and put an empty trash can under the fan to catch all the water.  I think we might need to add this to the top of our “To Do” list.

I am pleased to announce that for the first time this evening, in a very long time, I will be able to shower, use the toliet, and brush my teeth all in the same place again!! THE BATHROOM IS COMPLETE.  Okay maybe not totally complete, but pretty darn close.

Mr. vB got the gorgeous countertop back in along with one of the two sinks.  We also re-hung the medicine cabinets and the hand towel hooks.  We still have to hang a bit more trim, paint all the trim, and then fix a leak in the ceiling. Piece of cake….

Here are some sneak peaks.  I don’t want to do the FULL reveal until everything is finished and in place!!  But please sleep sound tonight knowing that I will be enjoying my bathroom to the fullest!

As promised, here are the before photos of our upstairs bathroom.

(Mind you we are on our 2nd renovation of this bathroom in just 4 years.)

Here are the photos of the bathroom before the vB’s moved in:

This photo is taken from the hallway.

Now that’s one way to install a shower. So what exactly was suppose to go in the gap between the shower and the wall?

And here are the photos of the 1st full renovation.

We added a full shower ROOM and double sinks to make this bathroom much more user friendly.  We also changed the swing of the door into the room, otherwise it would open right into the shower entry.  And we did end up having to sacrifice some space from the back room/office to create the shower room, but it was well worth it.  Especially during the middle of the winter when you can turn on both shower heads and warm both front and back!!

Please excuse how messy it looks- I took this prior to cleaning the room out for the demo to begin.  I think I was mentally over the room already so I barley made it camera ready!  This is also the view of where the shower/tub use to be located a foot off the wall!

Here’s the entry into the shower room from the sink room.  Remember the lovely curb? erh…

And here are the dual shower heads I was raving about!

So the 2nd renovation photos will still be a ways off.  The contractor thinks it will take almost all week to get all the tile in, especially because of the variation in patterns that we are using.  Mr. vB has also taken the wood counter with the 2 sinks off and is in the process of stripping and re-staining it.  We will also be repainting the walls, installing some new chrome shelving in the shower room, and some other tricks that I don’t want to divulge just yet. Gotta have a reason to keep you coming back for more right??

So the weekend was productive, which always makes me feel good on Monday.  Mr. vB played on Saturday with his brother and dad on their new boat, while I hung around the homestead to catch up with some old buddies.  Then Sunday we got down to business on the bathroom. My job was to put a few coats of “kills/primer” on the lime green & blue walls and Mr.vB decided he was going to frame in the new glass block window.  (when I say new, i mean like 9 months new..haha.. we just never got around to framing it in)  Here is the window before:

Here it is mid framing..and check out my great paint job on the walls.  Can you still see the lime green & blue?

We still need to add the finish trim and rosettes so it will match the rest of the windows in the house, but otherwise here is the finished product!  Nice eh??

Hard to believe it’s only been a week, but the bathroom has undergone a TOTAL transformation.  I was telling Mr. vB last night that I feel like we have gone from a youthful, bright design to now a more sophisticated, modern feel.  The contractors start tiling the shower room today, which is really going to be exciting.  I have drawn out the tile pattern several times and I still love it- I just hope it looks as good on the actual walls!

I’m working on a “before and after” post so you guys can see the transformation as well.  I am just waiting on Mr. vB to scan a few of the before photos and email them to me.  I hope to have that post out later today or tomorrow.

In the meantime, here’s another teaser to leave you with…

So Mr.vB and I came up with a Plan B for our bathroom tile pattern last night.  It still involves a good amount of that lovely 8×10 tile, but also some smaller 6×6 tile which appears to be much more readily available.  So today I only had to go to 2 Home Depots.  I also got a phone call that the 3×3 shower floor tiles were ready for pickup. Here’s what my car looked like by the end of the day.

Now who is going to help me get all this tile into the house??

It doesn’t appear that Boots has any interest in helping…

Yes, as some of you already guessed we are re-tiling our main bathroom upstairs!  Very exciting, but it means no showering, toileting (is that a word?) or teeth brushing in the upstairs bathroom for TWO WEEKS!  (Luckily we do have a full bath in the basement we can use and I don’t have to hit up my neighbors to stay clean.)

So the contractors showed up bright and early on Monday and got to work destroying demoing the tile floor in the sink room and the entire shower room. But before I get too far ahead of myself, let me explain what got us to this point.

Remember when I mentioned that Mr. vB had moved into a fixer upper.?  Let’s just say the bathroom was first on the list to be totally gutted.  (I will post the original bathroom photos very soon)  After Mr. vB got the new plumbing, new walls, and new electrical in place in was time to hire the tile work out.  And unfortunately he hired the WRONG person to do the job.

Exhibit 1

Here is the lovely “curb” from the sink room into the shower room.  Was it too much to ask for some tile on the face of the curb??  I mean the exposed concrete has such a finished look doesn’t it?

Exhibit 2

And here is where the “tile guy” decided to not tile the edge of the wall that lead into the shower and instead leave the drywall exposed to the water.  SO Brilliant!  Does anyone else see the mold growing on the face of the drywall?!?!?!

Exhibit 3

Can you see here how focused the tile guy was on making sure that all the grout lines were super even?!?  He even made sure to line up all the tiles so they were in a nice straight line… NOT.

But the biggest issue of all was that a proper shower pan and liner was not installed under the tile and could have caused major water damage to the ceiling joists below.   I would LOVE to report this guy to the Better Business Bureau, but unfortunately the paperwork/receipt got lost and I have no clue who this guy is.  Use our horrible experience as a lesson to get referrals on contractors and to not always take the cheapest deal out there!!

So we are 3 days into the new construction and now I am going tile crazy.  I like to think that I am passionate about my design ideas- others might call me a bit obsessed.  Point in case-  I have been to 5 different Home Depot’s in the past 2 days.  And I will be headed to about 5 more tomorrow.  Why you might ask??  Well Mr. vB and I have fallen in love with a simple 8×10 wall tile for the shower room which we need 17 boxes of.  The first store only had 2 boxes, no biggie I thought.  I kindly asked the helper person to see if another store had the remaining 15 boxes.  GET THIS- each store in the Richmond Metro Area had recieved only 2 boxes .  That meant that I would have to go to 9 different locations to get all the tile I needed to complete the entire shower room.  I think I need to come up with a plan B!!  I will keep you updated!

I have been loving reading your guesses as to what has been going on today at Chateau vB.

My favorite so far is from my buddy Catherine in Mississippi.  She wrote, ” Installing a slip and slide in the hallway?”.  Great guess but no!  Don’t give Mr.vB any ideas!!

Here are Two more Hints.  The last one I think is a dead give away.  But keep the guesses coming!

Can you tell what are in these trash cans??

Yes- this is a toilet in the guest room!

ANY IDEAS??

Mr. vB and I are up to another home improvement project starting tomorrow.  We are quite excited, but our life will be a bit disheveled for the next 2 weeks… wanna guess what we are doing??