Hallway

So this is one of those projects that nobody will ever notice that we did, but it was really bugging us that it was unfinished. The previous owner decided to try some "modern accent walls" which is great but not really in the small hallway with a lot of corners in a historic bungalow. So, it the result was that it looked like they just forgot to paint a few walls.

Anyhow, this whole project started when I decided to repaint the inside of our hallway cabinet / pantry, which needed some tlc after years of use. Since I had the correct color out, it snowballed into painting the rest of the lower hallway which then lead me up the stairs since we wanted to paint that area the same color as well. It wound up taking almost the whole day to "paint the pantry" but we ended up with a much more cohesive hallway.

One Man's Trash...

Is another man's wife's makeup vanity. So, we'd been looking for a cabinet to modify into a makeup vanity for the master bath for a while. I was sort of starting to think that I was just going to have to make something from scratch. I knew I could build something from scratch, but didn't really want to spend the time that I knew it would take to do it right. Let's face it, I'm not a cabinet maker. (Though I've found that I am a pretty good cabinet modifier.)

Anyhow, just as I was ready to start planning a custom cabinet, this little stack of drawers (minus the top drawer) showed up in the ally. The house on the corner just sold and apparently the basement was stuffed with junk that the new owner wanted to get rid of. I know this was in the basement because it smelled like a damp basement, I mean really smelled. So, I threw this smelly thing into the back of the van and got to work measuring. The smell has since abated.

I wound up cutting part of the top drawer section off, both because it was missing the drawer, and because I wanted to achieve a lower overall height. Next, I cut the back 4" off to achieve the proper depth.  After doing this, I had to reinforce the whole back since I had cut out so much of the structure of the cabinet.

Plans this week are to strip the whole thing and get a few coats of shellac on it over the long weekend. The pictures below show the whole thing mocked up to check how everything fits. When it's finished, the baseboard will continue around the bottom of the cabinet and the top will be white marble (another salvage yard purchase, though I have to have the marble cut to the right size and have the edge finished) The Drawers are a little wider than I would have made them if I had started from scratch, but there's still room to fit a small vanity-bench to the left of the drawers if you were to slide it in length-wise.

In the end, I know this will look better than something I could have built with so little time and money invested. Under all of that paint is a really well made, solid oak cabinet with dove-tail drawers. It's probably as old or older than our 82 year old house and should look right at home. I can't wait to start stripping it...  

Period-Correct Faucet is "Correct"

While flipping through a book I got from the library last night, I came across a period illustration of the faucet I just restored. The book, The Vintage House Book, dates the ad to 1931, one year after our house was built. So when selecting the sink and faucet, I chose the correctly-dated faucet within a year. Not bad if I do say so myself.

Main Floor Bathroom Restoration

Well, it took longer than expected (of course), but the main floor bath is complete. The centerpiece is our restored 1920's Kohler sink with original Kohler faucet and legs - very appropriate for a Wisconsin Bungalow. I found it at the salvage yard a few months back and was interested in buying just the faucet. When I asked about it, I was told that I could have the sink, faucet and legs for $40! So, I took the whole thing home and had to convince Nicole why I thought it was a good idea to restore a 80+ year old sink. She caved and told me the cost of the restoration would be part of my Christmas present. So, Merry Christmas to to me!

The restoration of the sink entailed removing the faucet, valves, drain, etc. to have the basin reglazed. In doing so, I sheared the end off of a threaded rod, essentially destroying a key component of the faucet. I thought I was going to have to cut my losses and buy a "modern" faucet, but figured I'd at least try to locate the part. After some searching on the interwebs, I found a place in the suburbs that specializes in plumbing supply.

When I went in and explained what I was trying to do, they gave me a hard time (in a friendly kind of way) telling me that they sell new faucets, but humored me and pulled out a really old, dusty book of Kohler parts diagrams and looked up the part. They soon found that they actually had four in stock (despite the part being discontinued). They also located all of the seals and other wear items that I would need to put it back together.

Other components of the bathroom restoration:

Skim coated / repainted all of the plaster walls
Installed a reproduction 1930's porcelain light from Rejuvination
Installed a 1930's vintage glass towel bar from the Detroit Antique Mall
Installed a nickel plated shower rod from Restoration Hardware
Stripped the paint off of the door (we still have to polyurethane it in the spring)
Cleaned, stripped and polished all of the various hinges and hardware in the bathroom
Replaced the modern light switch with a vintage original (salvaged from the old garage before it was torn down)

All told, it took a little over a month and was aggrevating having the house torn apart again so soon after the (almost) completion of the master bedroom, but we're thrilled with the results. Here's a quick mash-up of before and after:



First Christmas Tree

So, it's not our first Christmas tree, it's actually the same Christmas tree we bought a few years ago for our tiny apartment in Chicago. But it looks so much better in our new home, I think it probably feels better too not being blasted by a radiator. Anyhow, MERRY CHRISTMAS!

(This post is our Christmas Card this year since we've already had our share of addressing envelopes in recent months...) 

And Bathroom

Having a new bathroom has been one of the best parts of the renovation. It was also one of the hardest DIY projects to handle. The hexagonal tiles we chose, although period correct and now very beautiful, were a low point of my life to say the least. I had no idea that a material object could cause me so much anger and frustration, but I was not defeated and now the bathroom is exactly what we wanted. Although the make-up vanity for the corner is still on the to-do list, we are happy to be enjoying our new en-suite bathroom.

A Complete Master Bedroom

Through this renovation process, we have found that a job never really seems to come to an end, so you have to find a way to just be happy with where things are currently. Currently we are very, very happy to finally not only just have a functional Master Suite, but a gorgeous one that we designed ourselves. From tearing down the walls to hanging the chandelier I convinced Mike was an absolute necessity.

Here's a few pics of the room in it's current state. We still have a few odds and ends to wrap up, but it's so nice to have a cozy attic bedroom "finished" for the winter months ahead.

As we post more on the Blog, we plan to go back through our renovation pictures of the bedroom to document a little more of how we got from the "before" to the "after", so stay tuned.

Details

While we still have a lot of work to do on the inside of the house before it's "done", we've begun to focus on some of the smaller projects that we've been meaning to get around to. The milk chute has been on that list for a while, as we plan to use it as a place for keys since it's next to the door.

I stripped the inside when we first moved in, while I was in my "looking for something to do" stage of new homeownership, (before we had any concrete plans for the upstairs renovation). Nicole spent part of Saturday finishing what I started by painting the inside and creating a custom stencil.

Apart from the fact that it's a cool detail, Nicole also did the stencil as a dry run for our plans to create some sort of Art Deco inspired border stencil for the cetral hall and stairwell.

There's more to come now that we're not undergoing a major renovation and planning a wedding. We've also decided to try to make the blog a little more informational by adding a local resources section on the side. Time will tell if that's useful, as we don't have any followers here in Milwaukee, but as we update the blog  we hope to transition it into something that's a bit more informational for other Bungalow / old house owners and figured that would be a good start.   

Wedding + Renovation = Us

Planning a wedding, honeymoon, and renovating half of your home all within the same time period may have not been the smartest thing we will do in our lives. But now that it's all over, the amount we accomplished is so worth it. Through all the stress, sleepless nights, and one or two small arguments (I can choose to remember it however I want...its my life), we learned a lot about each other probably more than we wanted to, but we grew from it and got to end our renovation with a wedding. I don't recommend starting a renovation to get to know your partner but it certainly works, especially the night when you start crying over tile at 2am. Now that we are back home were going to enjoy our house as is... just kidding Mike is already starting tearing apart the downstairs bathroom. Pictures to come.

Tile tile and more tile

This may not look like a lot of progress but this has probably been the most tedious project of our renovation thus far. It took about 36 hours to complete the shower (grout not included yet) but we are really happy with the final outcome and cannot wait to finish the floor and put the final touches on.

Growth in the Garden!

Our once sad little garden is finally starting to look better thanks to Nicole's Aunt Marlene and her donation from her beautiful garden in Michigan. She gave us some great plants that will do well in the sun and so far are doing very well. Thanks again!

Progress and Paint

We painted the bedroom and made some progress in the bathroom putting up the sheetrock.

New Dining Table

Finally it arrives!

Hooray (for e-bay)

We have the bedroom almost completely primed, but still have the ceiling to do, so I'm holding off on a new post on the bedroom until that's done. So, in the mean time, I thought I'd share our most recent ebay finds:

Who the hell would buy a lot of assorted rusty hinges you ask? We would! They will look much more appropriate when we install the "new" closet doors. Some of the smaller ones will work for the hidden built-in in the bathroom, as well as the laundry hamper mentioned in the previous post. The extras will find a home somewhere else in the house eventually. Besides, for $14.00, you can't really go wrong on a lot of old hinges.

Also purchased this week is a super Art Deco 2-bulb light for the hall in front of the new bedroom closet: 

We may paint it white or silver to blend in with the rest of the finishes in the room, but I'm a little apprehensive to paint over the original finsh (if it is original) We'll see once the e-bay finds arrive in the mail this week. 

Drywall

While the Bay View Bungalow has seen lots of action lately, the blog has been collecting dust on the interwebs. So, we figured it's time for an update of some kind.

Nicole's parents came out a few weeks ago to help us hang the last of the drywall (Thanks!) and we have mudded the entire room. (though this is not reflected in all of the photos.) So, here's our progress - it's finally starting to look like a room. Also complete is the cabinet to the left of the built-in that will house our laundry hamper. When all of the wainscoting and trim are comple, it will be hidden behind a hinged panel within the wainscot.

Stay tuned for an update after we get the walls primed.

Insulation (not cotton candy)

I don't understand how something so happy and fun looking could make your eyes and throat burn so badly. I also don't understand why they don't make goggles, work gloves and masks in womens sizes. I felt like a child playing dress up with their parents clothing all weekend, which is probably how the insulation found its way into my eyes and mouth. (and no it does not taste like cotton candy)

Either way we have made a lot of progress this weekend, all of the walls are now insulated, the wiring is complete and we even started putting up some drywall. For the first time we are able to see the size of the room and we are really happy with plans thus far.

And for the record if the room is cold and has drafts its Nicole's fault, if the lights go out or outlets do not work its Mike's fault. I only wish everything else could be so cut and dry.

A newly insulated room.

Getting the first of the drywall up.

Hey look we still like each other!

First yard work day!

So what does the first warm day of the year mean for new-home buyers? Go ride our bikes? WRONG! It means get off your ass, and get the sticks and leaves out of the yard so the neighbors don't think your bums. For us it also meant getting rid of the massive amounts of neon orange wood chips, if anyone can enlighten me what era orange wood chips were in style please do.

We reused some pavers that were oddly scattered throughout the yard to hold in our new soil and we planted some seeds, I say seeds because I am doubtful they will become more than that. But we have a lot of wild flowers that are growing nicely that I am sure I will find a way to kill.

Progress

We have water! Thanks to the "hired" plumber also known as Dad. I don't think I have ever been so excited to see running water. Working on the built-in where the tv and other things we are sick of looking at will hide. The weekend was mostly plumbing, the built-in, framing out the last wall, and finally getting rid of the last of the linoleum tile. We also picked up the bulk of our materials for the next couple of weeks including the drywall and cement board. We got some unexpected hail on Sunday, luckily it didn't slow us down.

04.01.11

Took a night off from upstairs to switch out the sconces and hang our mirror.

Curb Appeal

Ok, so this is a filler post since we don't have alot  to show in the way of tangible progress lately. Immediately after making an offer on the house, we got a little overzealous and explored options to add some curb appeal to the house. (If only renovations were as qiuck as they are in photoshop)

Sometime in the '60's the owner of the house decided to "modernize" the front porch by removing the tapered columns and putting in the faux wrought-iron "gems" that are there now. There is also a cheap hardware store light fixture to top it off. The decorative shutters and bright red trim aren't helping either. So, after our bedroom / bathroom renovations are complete, this is the next project on the list.

So far the only thing that we do have for the porch restoration is a period correct light fixture sans glass globe (thank you ebay). It's sitting in our growing pile of house parts in the basement.

Weekend Warriors

Nicole's parents came to lend a helping hand on the master bedroom/bathroom renovation this weekend. Getting the framing for the bathroom and closet was first on the list of things to do, then plumbing. We got a lot done and learned a lot. Very excited to see the layout of the room coming together, and it was a fun weekend visit with the parents.

Framed out bathroom and closet.

Adding the plumbing to the shower.

Ripping up the linoleum tile with Mom.

Mike's first cut on his new saw. Our house warming gift!

The before picture.

The after.

We stripped 4 salvaged doors for the upstairs, they came out great!

Thanks for all the help!

Bathroom Renovation - Inspiration

Bathrooms have to be one of the hardest rooms to decorate and renovate. You have to organize so many functional items into the smallest room in your house. Having a clean slate has been fun, but also had its challenges. We are deciding what is the best way to organize the door, vanity, shower and hopefully linen closet. Moving the toilet is not a option, so we have to work around that as well. Picking out the tile, colors and decor is the fun part. I couldn't help but marvel at these finished bathrooms.

Bathroom Inspiration.

Master Suite Renovation - Before and Demo

When we bought the house we knew the master suite / bathroom was lacking, but I don't think we realized how much until we started trying to use it. The closet is very small, well small considering my love for clothes, purses, shoes, but whatever its small. The half bathroom was a good thought and we are very grateful someone took the time to plumb it, but it stops there. The vanity sink is one huge watering hole that splashes everywhere when you attempt to do anything with it, so its pretty much a room with a toilet. So again days into moving in renovation begins. At least no one can say were lazy.

That's where the waterbed would have went, and the lava lamp right over there.

And the tile comes off the ceiling.

Meet Hazmat Mike.

He said he was smiling under his mask -- I don't believe him.

This is a picture we found in the attic, The back reads Dennis Juella. We think he picked out the green linoleum tile.

Master Suite Renovation - end of weekend reno. 1

That is where the bathroom was on the left.

Highlight #1 was we found salvageable wood under the green linoleum tile. We think they will be gorgeous refinished.

This is our backyard currently. The backyard barbecues may have to wait, unless everyone is up to date on there tetanus shots. Which is funny because Mike and I were trying to recall when we last had ours.