Friday, February 6, 2015

Bathroom Remodel Day Five

Hello everyone!

More progress has been made in the master bathroom.  The sink faucets were purchased.


I love the high gooseneck style and the fact that it swivels.

Here is what we had.


And here is what we have NOW.


Notice my new soap and toothbrush holder?  They arrived too!

So, I have two matching sinks with these faucets and bathroom accessories now.

Next, we bought the shower lever.


The only thing we wanted was the lever (shown in the middle). But, we had to buy it in a package that sold all of these items.   I have a hand shower (that I'll share with you in another post) that was installed as well.  We had to have a plumber come out and install this for us because our 19 yr old house was set up with old hardware that no longer fits the new hardware sold at stores.  A plumber was also needed to cut a hole in the wall from behind the shower (in the toilet room) to gain access to change out our old hardware.  Argh!  This is quickly becoming a very expensive shower.


Now, we have to paint over the wall panel installed over the hole cut in the wall.  

Now, I understand why people gut bathrooms in older homes to renovate them rather than trying to make simple cosmetic changes.  Nothing is simple when your house is almost 20 years old!

We are STILL waiting on more quotes for our shower enclosure.  We're anxious to get started either way we go with it.

However, there is ONE more big problem that we discovered today after speaking with our plumber.

See this?



Well, the faucet will have to stay.  We will change out the brass drains. Those are easy.  However, we will have to remove this faucet and paint it (like we prepared to do with our shower) in order to save our sanity and our money.  Our current set up for the tub is just like our shower and we do not have easy access without quite a bit of construction.  I'm so disappointed by this because I was really looking forward to having a beautiful gooseneck faucet with pretty handles right here.  Our tub is the first thing you see as you enter the room too. 

Can I just tell you how much we dislike the builder that built our home right now????  You would NOT believe how much money we have spent correcting things that he did wrong in this house.  It has been problem after problem and we're finding shortcut after shortcut that he took. 

Ok, I just had to vent for a moment.  Renovation projects cause that sometimes. 

 I hope you'll stick around for the final reveal after all is finally complete!  

Thanks for stopping by!

~ Kelly ~

28 comments:

Julia said...

I love that you consider a 20 year old house "old".

Unknown said...

You should contact Ask This Old House. they might be able to help. I love there show.

Lisa @ Texas Decor said...

Oh, I feel for you on the frustrations of renovating. We've also come across several things through the years that our builder did incorrectly. Short cut after short cut. It makes my hubby furious every time we find a new mistake they made all those years ago. I love the faucet you chose though! A swivel one is perfect for in there. The finishes, colors, and styles you've chosen are exactly what I like too. I think we're long lost sisters. ;)

Art and Sand said...

I had to laugh about considering your house old. Our house was built in 1927 and everything has really changed since then. We bought a new toilet when we were doing some cosmetic changes - loved the old look of a new toilet, but the toilet wouldn't fit where the hole in the floor is so we had to go with something we don't like. Our next change to the bathroom will have to be a complete gut job.

Stacey said...

We had a house once that required constant repairs of things that were done wrong too. It's so expensive to do that...and frustrating too.

Your new faucets are beautiful. After you paint the tub faucet you'll love it too. Have you checked into the possibility of changing the knobs?

Unknown said...

The faucets look nice. Unfortunate that you have to deal with the frustrating parts though. I'm just catching up on your bathroom updates and look forward to seeing the reveal. Our home is 16 years old and the builder used chrome faucets. As we are doing our updates we are sticking with the chrome (or brushed chrome) because I don't want the headaches either. Hoping I can find chrome handles that fit to replace the plastic handles in the showers, otherwise the rest of the shower pieces will stay the same. The sink faucets all need switched out though.

Wanda said...

Love this day by day tour. You have really done a wonderful job. Can't wait to see what you do with the tub faucets.

Unknown said...

Oh, and we know about builder short cuts too. When finishing the basement we discovered that the pipes, including the main water intake pipe, was bent by the plumber stepping on the pipe and pulling, not with a pipe bender. No wonder we couldn't get good flow and luckily it was discovered and fixed early on.

Linda said...

Looking great!

Deserae said...

The woes of remodeling a bathroom...I know them oh so well!!! Love your new faucets!! Fingers crossed you don't run into any more "shortcut surprises".
~Des

Unknown said...

I hear you Kelly! Things always go wrong, or not as planned. And it always takes longer than anticipated. Your goose neck faucet is a huge improvement. I love those. I'm thinking about changing out the faucets in our master bathroom, which is a 90s addition. Like you, I thought it would be quick and easy. Hmm...you've got me rethinking though.

Katie Mansfield said...

I think you will love it. I'm sorry about the roman tub faucet. I hated ours. We did the gut job and it was awful. I can't wait for the reveal.

primrosesattic said...

Kelly looking forward to the finished room.
Rosezeeta.

Brenda Pruitt said...

I know it's incredibly frustrating, Kelly. I trust houses built 50-75 years ago over houses built 25 years ago. The older houses just seem to be built better. Or maybe the builders had more integrity.
Brenda

Kim @ Savvy Southern Style said...

We had to cut into the wall to install our new shower faucet and thank goodness for our large crawl area under our tub where Doug went to get to the lines for the tub faucet. It was a job!

20 North Ora said...

I am getting ready to have one of my bathrooms redone and am very nervous about it. My house was built in 1951 so it's really old - especially the plumbing. Am having to have a lot of it contracted out so here's hoping it goes smooth!

Yours is looking great.

Judy

Linda @ Itsy Bits And Pieces said...

It's going to be so pretty, Kelly! Any chance you can repaint the tub faucet where it is? I've always thought every job takes three times longer than you think...and costs three times more money.

Amy at Ms. Toody Goo Shoes said...

You're getting there! I can understand your disappointment about the tub faucet :( About a year ago, we talked about building a vanity in our bathroom, but we haven't done anything yet, because we're afraid that it will lead to other unforeseen problems.

Blondie's Journal said...

I think the swivel faucet is so cool...I have to tell hubby about it. We were planning to do a few small renovations to our main bath and now we've found the floor under the bathtub may be rotting. OMG-$$$$. Our house is 80 years old...that's OLD!

Keep up the good work...sometimes it just is what it is. Builders always seem to take shortcuts these days. Terrible.

Jane x

Vickie @ Ranger 911 said...

I feel your pain, Kelly! Whatever we do in our old house, it's one roadblock after another! I'm sure your bathroom will look gorgeous when you're done, and painting the faucet will make a world of difference.

Marissa said...

Love the improvements~
Makes such a difference.
Something we need to think about replacing Why oh Why do they all go out all at once... My kitchen faucet spurts out water when washing dishes, and our shower head is literally falling apart... UGH....

Scribbler said...

I feel your pain. We have had similar problems with our house, about the same age as yours. We just got rid of the tub altogether!

This N That said...

Most builders have all kinds of short cuts that save them a bundle!!
You'll do it right..

Cynthia said...

Sorry to hear about the short cuts the builder took. John and I were and are that the man that built our old house and the new were very good builders. They did everything top notch. No short cuts and great finishing. The new house was done even better. Our builders for the houses lived in both neighborhoods. They are and were known all over town.

Love the knew touches. Can't wait to see it all finished.

Cindyh

NanaDiana said...

Kelly, I am sorry that you had so many problems with the builder. If you paint the bath faucet it might be possible to find something besides the "crystal" hot and cold knobs that would fit the set you have.

It is getting there and what you have done so far is great! xo Diana

cynthia lee designs said...

Kelly...I feel your pain. We want to remodel our hall bathroom and the half bath in our master bedroom. Our home was built in the 1950's and has been remodeled over the years by several families that lived here before us. We were told that it would be easier for us to gut them and start over for scratch. That is what we did with the kitchen remodel a few years ago. It is scary to see what things really look like when you start remover things and it seems there is always more problems than you realize.
I love the faucets that you chose...so pretty and has a farmhouse feel to them.
~Cindy

Anne said...

Love your new hardware!It's always tricky installing isn't it!

Shirley@Housepitality Designs said...

Love your new bath fixtures and sorry to hear about the tub fixture problem; however, I know that it will look great after you paint it!!