New Year Construction

I hope you had a happy holiday season!  We had a wonderful Christmas.  The majority of our holiday was spent with family and friends, some that we don't get to see very often.  It was so nice, and yet also very busy, and sadly I didn't take any photos (if you can believe that)!  

The last of our company left on New Year's Day, and as Justus had a four day weekend, he didn't waste any time getting started on our upstairs bathroom project!  So I may not have any Christmas photos to share, but I do have some very ugly demo photos.  ;-)

 We've had this project on our to-do list for a couple years now, but it kept getting pushed back because it's a massive project and basically puts our upstairs out of commission for at least a couple months.  As usual, we'll be doing the work ourselves, although my dad is helping with the beginning stages (he's an Engineer and also has plumbing and electrical knowledge/experience), which helps tremendously.

The bathroom location involves about 3.5' into one of the upstairs bedrooms and another 3.5' or so into the eaves, so some of the ceiling will be slanted.  This was the best location, not only because of great access to the eaves, but also because it sits just about above the downstairs bathroom, which will obviously help when it comes to plumbing.   

In the photo above, the wood floors were cut out  and the wood paneling previous owners had put up was removed to reveal the original bead board.  (Oh look, more wallpaper to remove!) 

 There was quite a bit of discussion planning this past weekend.  (And a lot of laughter too... particularly when I was attempting to take a nap downstairs and there was some very loud hammering going on... not that I was complaining!) 

 The ceiling was cut out and the framing was started... this is the next step before plumbing.  I was pleasantly surprised to see how roomy the bathroom will be, as I had envisioned a room much smaller.  There will only be a shower, and it will be located in the corner closest to me here.  Fortunately, the bedrooms in our house are quite spacious, so this bedroom will still be a fairly good size, even after cutting into it like this. 

 And here's where we are now with the framing close to being finished. 

 We're planning to expose the chimney in the bathroom wall... I love the old brick.  This also provides a little corner for some storage. 

 We'll be exposing part of the ceiling (the slanted area in the eaves).  Unfortunately, we won't be able to expose the beams in the other half, as they were not anywhere close to being level. I imagine I'll leave the beams in their natural state (after prettying them up, of course) and paint the wood in between.  The walls will all be bead board painted white to match the rest of the upstairs. 

Look at this wood - isn't it gorgeous?! 

The door into the bathroom will be here on this wall, and it will be a barn door on a track (fun!).  Right now I'm busy trying to pick everything out, from shower doors to a sink, as we need to get it all ordered.  It's so exciting!  I can hardly imagine how nice it will be to have a bathroom upstairs.  Along the way (after the bathroom has a floor and walls - ha), I'll be removing wallpaper in the bedroom pictured and remodeling it a little.  Justus and I are also throwing around the idea of having our floors professionally refinished upstairs when everything is said and done.  (When Justus asked me what I thought, I nearly passed out with relief!  I think we've learned the hard way that some DIY projects are worth it and some are not!) 

Anyway, enough rambling, I'll keep you posted on the progress as it will be a while before it's finished!   

(And just in case you have some time to spare, here's a link to my Pinterest page where I've posted some really beautiful bathrooms that have inspired me!)