Monday, July 23, 2012

Once Upon a Time

Once upon a time a couple people moved into a new house. Their third new house in 3 years. They had looked high and low for a house that would suit them and Hubs sister. Although two master suits would have been nice in the long run we were lucky to find a house with one and room to experiment. This is a story about that experiment.

What started out as the "work shop", as it is labeled in on our house map that the previous owners left, has recently gone under a transformation. Previously it was a corner of the basement located under the kitchen. SIL lives in the basement. We thought this would be better then giving her a tiny room across the hall from us. So far it has worked out amazingly. But this corner of her floor was a typical cleaned up basement. It is where the original cabinets of the house had lived for some time. It also housed the water heater, water storage for the baseboard heating, and various other things along those lines.
When coming down the stairs the door on the right is one of two entries into the "work shop" and the soon to be door into the new bathroom.  the room runs the length of that white wall (between the brick pillars).

This is the other corner of the basement is is a 90 degree right turn from the previous picture. The pillar in the right hand side of the top  picture is the same pillar on the left side in this picture. These double closet doors lead to the same room. We kept these here since you would need a large door access to the guts of the house if they need replaced down the road. This is also where SIL keeps her bed and has PLENTY of room to spare not to mention the whole rest of the room.

The bathroom isn't finished but to to compare some before and after pictures. I had pictures of the frame process, but they were lost along with my phone mid summer. Hopefully these picture make since even though you can't see everything!
This is those double doors again. From this point of view the inside has not changed too much. Those base counters have been flipped around to face the wall they are currently on. We wanted to keep an area for utility work (clean paint brushes etc) and we also couldn't come up with a reason why would take up the entire corner, work around the heating/water and still have a functional bathroom that made since.

Before

After 1

After 2

The alcove in the after 2 is the area under the stairs in the before. The wall is directly next to it, wasting no space and has about a foot and a half mini wall making up the door way. That is a 60 inch shower surround in the after. It has the shower head coming out of the ceiling with the control knobs to the right of the surround. It is basically directly in line with with window in the before picture. The room does not go back the length of the room. We needed to get to the fuse box and plumbing in the far back corner of the before picture. If you look closely in the after 2 to the top right hand corner you can see a piece of wood hanging from the ceiling. This is a place holder for a sliding "barn door" that will section off the water closet part of the bathroom when needed.

I could not get an interesting picture at this angle if I tried at this point. I would need to stand in the shower and all you would see is a green wall and possibly a toilet. The toilet is located in the bottom right corner of this picture. Left of the door (the two toned wall) is now a closet that is waiting for doors.

 This picture is now also impossible. I would have to stand in the shower, look through a wall, see a vanity area, and look through another wall.

Not the same angle as the one above, but the right light is directly in front of the chimney and the open space for the mirror is the water tank area. The wood boards will be "floating shelves" just as soon as they are finished drying from being stained. This area is directly across from the opening to the water closet.

If you could see though walls from this point you would be able to see majority of the bathroom. You could see all of the vanity, the shower (blocking the window)), toilet (under the white cabinet), and the alcove under the stairs. You would only be missing the new closet directly across from the alcove.

 There are no before pictures of this angle because I never would have thought it was needed. The opening on the right will be a closet with many "french doors" that are being converted from a set of bi folds. this is the space between the hot water heater and the wall that apparently I have no pictures of.

Think of the entire bathroom as a large I. The bottom left is the alcove under the stairs that will get shelves eventually. The top left is the water closet that closes off with a barn door. The top right is a vanity with floating shelves and wall lighting. Concluding with the bottom right closet.

The tile, obviously, is what we used through out the house in all the revamps. Hope this give you a better understanding of the new lay out and how far it has come. Now, to go work on it more!


1 comment:

  1. I'm impressed with your progress! I've been waiting over 10 years now for a powder room in the basement - and it's not even started yet...
    love your house - kitchen turned out great! that stove is beautiful!

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