House of Jen: April 2017

Thursday, April 27, 2017

Master Bath Completed

I have to say that I'm so happy the way this bathroom turned out, the whole house, but this bathroom makes me feel so "adult"

As I had mentioned the cabinets are from Ikea, they are not the bathroom cabinets but the same line that's in the kitchen. Apparently, Ikea does not authorize them for use in the bathroom, so I had to have the bathroom contractors install them on the side. I guess people use them all the time, but it does void the warranty. I have never regretted putting them in the bathroom, I got the exact sizes that I wanted thanks to the almost endless possibilities of combinations Ikea's kitchen line offer.

Those long flat drawers are amazing, I am in love with them, they hold all my make up, curling irons, hair brushes, etc. With out a doubt my favorite thing in the bathroom.

My second favorite thing about the bathroom is how the closet turned out. I was not excited to have a closet in my bathroom. (Its the thing to do in all of the new floor plans in Florida, but I've always thought it was kind of strange) I do have to admit I do not mind it as much as I thought I would, it does make since...

I just wanted it to look as clean as possible as I can always see it in the refection of the bathroom mirror. I went with the doors on the Pax units to match (as best as possible) the cabinet fronts. Like I mentioned in the last post about the bedroom the Pax end cabinets are wider than the Pax cabinets that hold the clothes, so they cover most of the depth of the cabinets.

Hello shoes...I know I needed something to house the shoes that was not on the ground. Nothing worst that trying to dig under cloths to find a pair of shoes, and since I didn't have the room for this, I went with below.

I knew that back wall would be the perfect place for a full length mirror

Shower does are from Home Depot, along with the toilet and the medicine cabinet is from Pottery Barn.

I also love that this bathroom has a linin closet right in the bathroom. That should be standard, but it seems their always in the hallway?

Blinds are from justblinds.com, the majority of the blinds are either from there or blinds.com. I've order a number of times in the past from both companies and have always been happy, they are very reasonable, easy to install, and give you so many more colors than Home Depot or Lowes.

I did end up having carpet put into the closet, but definable removed it from the vanity area, I love black eye shadow too much to risk it...

I love this after view, there's a pocket door in there as well as I said before I'm so glad I went with the extra thick trim.

Thursday, April 20, 2017

Kitchen Sneak Peak - Before and After

As I'm going through over a year of renovations, it's probably going to take a hot minute but in the mean time I came across these two pictures. The left is from this January and the right was the day I got the keys in February 2016. #ikeakitchen

Wednesday, April 19, 2017

Master Bath: Part 2

I've realized I was not perfect at taking a lot of "during pictures." But, I think there are enough to get the picture of what I've done.

This first picture shows the half wall that was replaced by a pocket door. Again, why the pillars?

I couldn't locate any pictures of the process of adding in the pocket door, it was a 24'in pocket door. We basically followed the directions to install the frame, then put drywall on both sides, being carful to use short screws and screw into the studs. The door it self was not hung until just before we put the final trim up.

Also you can tell, I ripped out ever piece of trim in the entire place. Every. Single. Piece. I did go with a wider door casing and 5 1/4 inch base trim. It probably added another $500.00 to the trim budget but so so so worth it! I love looking at it ever day and would of totally regretted putting in a standard trim, even though it would of been better than what was there, this gives the wow factor.

I'll talk more about all of the cabinets when I go over the kitchen but to start they are all from Ikea. (I promise I'll go over all the details) I went with the Grimslov line in the kitchen and all 3 baths.

I have to say I love this cabinet layout I chose for the master bath! Those long drawers on the left are amazing!

I did have Ikea install all of the cabinets, so besides the tile work, that was the only other area I had contracted out. Again, very well worth it! (sorry, besides carpet and granite)

Here is one of the last "during" photos I have. The mirror is from Home Good, and the lighting is all from a local shop call Ray's Eletric, I get an industry discount there, which make the prices similar to a Home Depot or Lowes but much more options. I believe the brand for the bathrooms and dining room was Hinkley.

The facets and toilets are the same in all 3 bathrooms. Both from Home Depot (I'll source then in another post) I used a lot of the same elements in all of the bathrooms because I wanted to give the house a cohesive look.

Moving onto the master closet, if you remember the closet is direct opposite of the back wall of the bathroom.

Here is before... it was just two bars of each side, some dust filled louvered doors that were affixed to the ceiling and then a curtain rod across the center

Nothing fancy...

So, I may or may not have a thing for shoes? Especially heels, so I knew I wanted something similar to the shoe shelves that I put into my closet when I was still living at home. I was very limited by space and knew I needed to utilize every inch. I learned the hard way that a lot of older houses only put 7 1/2 foot ceilings in the upstairs. Had no idea! So I had originally bought and had delivered the Pax system for 8 foot ceiling, then had to drag them back, and buy the shorter of the two heights

So, I ended up getting two 39 5/8 wide and 13 3/4 deep Pax cabinets, both of those were installed on opposite walls.

Knowing that the close was open to the I wanted a finished look to the closet. Also due to space, I had to purchase the narrow depth Pax cabinets, so the hangers hang over to the center of the closet about 5 or 6 inches. If you can see, the Pax cabinets with doors are about 6 inches wider than the sides of the cabinets in the back.

(You'll get what I'm saying in the next post about the finished closet)

Tuesday, April 18, 2017

Master Bath: Part 1

Welcome to my master bath, it's straight out of the 70's - note the openness of the sink to the bedroom- why that was ever popular is so beyond me. The bath has one sink and no master tub, but out of the three properties I've owned this is the biggest square footage wise, so no complaints! I'll keep dreaming for that soaker tub next time around...

So being a foreclosure every was just kina gross, shower was no exception, it had a plastic pan and cheap white tile on the shower walls and floor. I ended up having the whole bathroom demoed by the tile guys, and I think it was something that was worth it!

So when I started, there was a door to the shower/toilet room, and the vanity was open to the bedroom and closet with carpet. Again - carpet in bathroom? Why?

Professional gut job, I ended up using two of the Baster dumpster bags from Home Depot. They worked really well, and held quite a lot. My only complaint was that there was like maybe a $20.00 savings to pick up two at the same time from the same place. I would of though the discount would of been greater.

At this time I decide to remove the door going into the shower area, and put a real door (well pocket door) into the bathroom.

I used 24 x 12 tiles from Home Depot on the floors (of all 3 bathrooms) and the shower walls. They had a linen pattern but I like that they were neutral and cheap, at less than $2.00 a square foot.
(It was in stock at the time, but I don't believe its still carried at Home Depot anymore, but similar to this)

I knew I wanted some type of an accent tile, but if you've ever shopped for accent tiles, or tile in general, its crazy expensive. I couldn't find anything I liked at Home Depot, and ended up at the Tile Shop. I got lucky and this Glass Brick was like 60% that week and I picked it up for about $8.00 a sheet.

I had the time run to the ceiling in the shower, and the accent tile laid vertical for a waterfall look. They ended up using about 7 sheets so for less than $60.00 it added a lot of value.

I also had two shower shelves built into the side, as I can not stand shampoo bottles on the floor or those hanging racks.

I went with a light grout called Alabaster, I believe it was the brand that was sold at Lowes.

After the finished tile: I think this was the first project that was "done" but it was one of the only projects I had paid to have completed, so I always appreciated that I didn't have to lay tile.

That's the master closet to the right, that was smaller than the last house :( but I'm really happy how it came out using the Ikea Pax system.... more to come on that...

Welcome back!

It's been a busy year of renovations...(maybe more on that later)

But I'm back and ready to share my latest (and possible last) renovation. This was quite the undertaking...way more trips to Home Depot to even count! When the check out lady knows you, you know you hang out there too much.

I bought a foreclosed condo and completely gutted every room, there was literally not even a closet that stayed as is. It was exhausting, emotional, frustrating, but so rewarding and something that was needed at the time in my life.

I'll start with the before, there was NOTHING worth saving....

I'll break down each room, I haven't seen these pictures in almost a year, and WOW I forgot how far we had to come to get to where it's at today, I have to give so much of the credit to my uncle and my parents. They signed up, mostly unknowingly, to take this journey with me.