Mistress Maker

When I bought this house, it was only 1.5 bath but when I'm done it will be 2.5! A lot had to happen to fully utilize this space as a bathroom. The highlights:

Structurally supporting the joists correctly in the basement to support a tiled in showed and stackable laundry.

Brand new plumbing to accommodate all the new fixtures.

Moving the doorway to the center of the room so I could fit laundry in comfortably.

Ripping down ceiling tile and replacing it with drywall.

All new electrical wiring for each sink vanity including GFCI outlets and individual vanity lighting.

All new ceiling light electrical for recessed lighting, ceiling fan, and a nightlight.

If you read my last post for my half-bath remodel, you'll know I'm sampling from Victorian, French, and old country colonial styles for my house. For my master bath, I wanted to keep the ornate designs you would expect in victorian and french styles, but leaned a little bit more toward french country/colonial since this is a private room and not an entertaining space.

Budget breakdown for this room:

Master Bathroom Total - $3,937.00

Toilet - $42.51

Vanities - $1064.21

Sinks HD 6/15/21 - $173.06

Shower & Misc Menards 6/16/21 - $1508.51

Tile & Electric HD 6/20/21 - $315.15

Mirror & Lights Overstock - $182.45

Wallpaper - $136.28

Menards 9/9/21 - $38.36

HD 9/24/21 Vent - $5.28

HD 9/20/21 Cement Board - $59.24

HD 9/21/21 Marble Pencil - $178.71

HD 10/12/21 Shower Head - $233.24

The 'original' half-bath last remodeled in the 70s

My house being 120+ years old, I'm trying to keep to that vibe while still making it feel fresh/modern. Stylistically, I've been sampling from french decor, victorian, and old country colonial.

My style of house (Upright and Wing) was mostly built by tradesmen and didn't have flashy things typical of other houses from the time period. I'm trying to incorporate some of that flashier stuff in appropriately just to give it a bit more character. Typically, Victorian homes had parlor rooms with the best finishes in the entire household. To keep to that trend, my living spaces meant for guests have the more elegant victorian/french finishes while the other rooms will have more of a rustic french country/old country colonial vibe.

Floral wallpaper has almost always been popular, but early 1900s trended toward tiny floral prints. This house was built in 1900 so the floral wallpaper felt appropriate, but I opted for a more modern, bold print.

Victorian and even colonial homes had wide trim, wide plank floors, and wainscoting/bead-board commonly in the home. (In fact my house has all those things, but in very, very bad condition with cheap soft pine). I covered the bottom half of my walls with thick 5" trim and bead-board. Chair rails will be coming soon!

Mostly finish trim work in the half-bath

How I Saved Money with this Renovation

The vanity was found on Facebook Marketplace for $50 and repainted to go in the bath.

The vessel sink and faucet cost around ~$130 altogether. (Trying to buy a sink the size I made using this vanity and vessel sink combo would have been well over $200 new)

The chandelier was found on Facebook Marketplace for $50. The couple I bought it off of said it belonged to their parents who obtained it in the 50s/60s (french provincial was popular for a while)

The mirror I antiqued myself and got it off Facebook Marketplace for $20. Find out more here.

Breakdown of costs (minus plumbing which I budget separately because I'm replumbing the entire house):

Half-bath Total- $482.37

Toilet - $87.42

HD 10/20/21 Sink - $56.41

HD 10/20/21 Faucet - $80.03

Wallpaper - $49.08

HD bead-board - $52.98

HD Supplies - $48.27

Amazon Ceiling Medallion - $10.16

More Wallpaper - $33.08

Hardware Amazon Barn Door- $48.95

Hardware Amazon Shelving - $15.96

Keep in mind my bath was completely gutted when I started! I saved a lot of money doing this myself and thrifting items.

The first few pictures shows some repairs I made. Part of the framing had chipped off. I fixed it by using some miscellaneous stuff I had laying around which was hot glue and wood filler. Then I just sanded down the wood filler a bit.

I then gave the wood filler a base coat of somme orangey gold acrylic I had. The color of this didn't matter too much because I covered the entire mirror with Rub'n Buff Gregorian Gold after.

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I started with a base coat of oil-rubbed bronze metallic spray paint from rustoleum. I also have this one hand because it's one of my preferred finishes so I repaint things all the time with it!

After getting a solid base coat of oil-rubbed bronze (especially in the crevices) I sprayed with antiqued brass spray paint from rustoleum. I sprayed about 3 layers over the entire piece just enough for the oil-rubbed bronze coat to show through a bit.

I continued to spray with the antiqued brass but only in places that would be easy to clean. It makes sense that this piece would be darker in areas that are hard to clean and lighter in areas that are easy to polish.

There ya have it! If you want more depth to your piece, there are techniques out there for getting some really dark colors into the crevices. One technique I think is using watered down black paint with a small paint brush painted over the crevices so it can settle in them. But I'm lazy and that sounds difficult! I'm happy with my results!

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Putting blocking between the joists in the basement.

Adding joist hangers to all the joists below (previously notches and splitting)

Heading off two different joists that were just hanging there in the void or need moved for utilities

Fixing the damaged subfloor with floor patching

Rewiring the entire kitchen to update old wiring, remove bad can lights, and adding gfci outlets.

Made a window smaller to put the sink beneath it.

Lots and lots of drywall patching...

Obviously a lot of finishing touches need to be added, but it's usable!

The countertops are quartz with an extra fancy edge. Cabinets are dovetailed plywood with maple doors. Breakdown of cost:

Sink & Faucet - $424.65

CREDIT FOR SINK HD 6/14/21 - (-$32.99)

Cabinets - $6,476.76

Cabinet Install - $1,800

countertops - $4,054

Fan - $141.57

Labor 6/7/21 - $104

Labor 6/6/21 - $150.00

Labor 6/10/21 - $200

Kitchen Liners - $54.47

Kitchen Metal Pullout - $95.84
 HD 10/12/21 - 50.65

That puts the total for the kitchen renovation at $13,518.95. Holy crap that's a lot of money. Yea it is. But this is a $25,000 dollar kitchen when it's all said and done. If I would have paid an electrician, a plumber, and a drywaller to come out and do all the stuff I did, my bill would be a lot bigger.

Termite damage

Poorly built 'structural walls'

2x4s cut down to 2x2s holding up joists which caused floors to sag

Joists just completely cut off and left unsupported

Giant holes cut through the sill plate

Joists improperly supported across long spans (no blocking or bridging)

Notched joists splitting

Sinking posts

Now I'm not a carpenter, or a structural engineer for that matter, but I've been referencing Renovating Old Houses by George Nash. It's got a lot of really great DIY information for fixing common issues in old houses. I definitely recommend picking up a copy if you plan on doing any structural work on your house new or old! There were things in there I could not find through searching the web.

Another great reference is the This Old House YouTube channel and Home RenoVision. I have really gotten a lot of great information from these resources and fully recommend them!

If anyone is interested in how I solved any of the above listed problems in details leave a note! Otherwise, those references have all the information you need!