What''s Your Home Renovation/Remodel Project?

[gardengloves]

So many on PS are buying homes, building homes, remodeling, renovating, DIY or having others do it. What''s your great design project?

I just love design and working on a project. My husband has construction skills so we do the work ourselves, our main costs are the materials. I''m an apprentice in training. DH is chief contractor!

We bought a 15 year old home two years ago and have been through every room remodeling. This is our love and hobby. We tore out carpets, replaced with wood, redid the kitchen, the master bath, powder room, and of course, my favorite- the garden. There have been so many great threads on homes and remodels , that I thought I''d share a few of my own pictures, and hope others will share your projects.

So to start.. the master bath remodel...this one went on from September through New Year''s- a lot more work with plumbing, tiling than we ever imagined We replaced everything, with marble tile floors and shower, tub, vanities... before... demo was half the work, carting away debris the other half... here is the before photo

 

[gardengloves]

master bath after

 

[gardengloves]

tore out the stair carpeting, added chair rail and picture molding to wall-- before

 

[gardengloves]

Stairs after...

 

[gardengloves]

redid kitchen

 

[gardengloves]

added wood floors, midway through project

 

[gardengloves]

added French doors..

 

[Irishgrrrl]

GG, you have done some GORGEOUS things with your house!!! I absolutely LOVE that master bathroom! Drooooool!!!

DH and I are currently trying to work up the nerve (and funds!) to completely gut and redo our downstairs bathroom. The good news is, it''s only a half bath so there''s no tub/shower to worry with. The bad news is, it''s FUGLY!!! We have to basically tear out everything . . . walls, floor, ceiling, the whole nine yards. We''ll have to put down new subfloor and do new drywall. We''re planning to put beadboard paneling about halfway up the walls, ceramic tile on the floor, new sink, new toilet (DH wants to keep the old one but I''m working on him!), and lots of painting. The only thing that *isn''t* getting replaced is the door. (We live in a 100-year-old Victorian and the doors have character so we''re keeping them and just repainting.)

I have been wanting to do this project forever, but we never had the time/money/energy until now. I am soooo dreading the project, but I''m SOOOOOOOOOO looking forward too the end result!!! Did I mention that the bathroom is currently FUGLY?!?!

 

[gardengloves]

after French doors.

 

[gardengloves]

We added chair rail and picture molding to the dining room

 

[FrekeChild]

Gardengloves, it looks beautiful! Now, can we see pics of your garden?

I''ve been up to a couple small things. Our house was custom built 8ish years ago, so these things were really minor, just somewhat irritating. The first was an indoor gardening project that took way more work than I first thought. We went from 12 giant potted plants to about 7 smaller ones. Now there is room for my recumbent exercise bike and some other stuff so it''s now a lovely workout/sunroom.

 

[FrekeChild]

And after.

 

[FrekeChild]

See? There is even room for the coffee table again!

 

[FrekeChild]

I have another one, but I have to go eat. I''ll be back to oogle your pics and post a couple more when I''m done!

 

[gardengloves]

Thanks Freke, gotta collect picture of the garden, but oh boy, planted a kwanzai cherry that went gangbusters, husband made a stone stacked kidney shaped garden bed that is my play pen...

I am like a child in sand box...thanks for sharing your pics... I love it!

 

[gardengloves]

My favorite before and after ... the family room... this room was painted a BRICK red color from floor to two story ceiling... we had to rip out builts in, PRIME, and paint to get it where we wanted it... BEFORE photo

 

[gardengloves]

after, painted cream colored Ralph Lauren neutral called Parchment... , but that was a lot of work

 

[gardengloves]

Thanks so much, the shower was so much work- it''s really my husband''s love. He added shelves, a bench, tiled floors with onyx, the glass doors were a piece of work- fixtures from England, but its a delight to shower in this.

 

[MichelleCarmen]

Freke - I LOVE how your plant renovation turned out. Looks like a room from a magazine!

I''m a huge house plant fan. . .it''s a fun hobby, isn''t it?

 

[gardengloves]

Breakfast nook after

 

[gardengloves]

before, breakfast, brick red, faux painting- great bones, but we needed to get to our color palette

 

[gardengloves]

Freke,

I love a garden sun room- How awesome... thanks for posting.. wish I had an indoor room for plants. I am getting into orchids, more like sucked into it and unable to resist...

 

[gardengloves]

This is the stacked stone kidney shaped garden bed in the front yard my husband built for the home we sold.

I had a baby Kwanzwan cherry tree that is now magnificent, I know cause we drove by and visited old neighbor friends, I watered the heck out of that tree in its first years and gave it good foundation to grow - still miss it, but hope to have new bed in our new house and plant new kwanzan this year.

 

[PumpkinPie]

Gardengloves - can you please come live with us for a few months? just enough time to use some of your amazing skills!

 

[FrekeChild]

Gardengloves, these are awesome! Can I come live with you for a while? Your house belongs in a magazine!

Here is my other mini project. Our builder totally copped out when they sent their "cabinet makers" over to put this thing together. My mom wanted it to look like a piece of furniture and to me it just looked...well...cheap. Her bathroom vanity was custom built by a real cabinet maker, and it is very well made. So here's her vanity, which is more of what the one in my bathroom should have looked like...

ETA: Sorry that the room is a mess... nieces and nephews leave their wake...

Hers:

 

[FrekeChild]

Here we go. It is just....well some of the wood is warped, and in person it's very apparent that they did the minimum. I had already removed the original hardware (it had been painted white in an attempt to help beautify the whole thing). The 4 knobs that are there were knobs my mom had bought a couple of years ago, and I found hidden in one of the drawers.

Mine (ours) BEFORE:

 

[FrekeChild]

Between the over all aesthetic and the fact that dog hair would massively pile under the vanity, I decided it needed to be covered up. So new hardware, a coat of paint and the addition of 5.25 inch baseboard moulding.

ETA: please disregard the mess! We were still moving in at this point!

Bathroom NOW:

 

[janinegirly]

Nice thread and pictures.

We are still in planning phases of our major house project--once permits are approved, we will start digging. This should be in 3-4weeks. We live in a traditional colonial so want to retain the charm even though there will be alot of changes. This is what''s planned...

*gut kitchen and make into mud room
*create new kitchen space with breakfast nook
*adjoin new kitchen to existing family room space (which will be expanded)
*gut bathroom upstairs. Make larger by joining with existing master bathroom
*add bedroom (will be master suite with walk in closet, new master bath).
*new windows, new trim throughout house
*new roof, new siding, recessed lighting in new spaces

It''s a lot!! I hope to post pics once things get started. I''ll certainly be coming for feedback from you liadies who''ve been through it and have better design taste!

 

[DivaDiamond007]

Wow! You gals live in nice houses!

DH and I bought our first house last year and moved in on Halloween. It''s a 1949 Cape Cod. We (er, I) have so many projects that I want to do:

- Add an addition to the back of the house to accomodate an actual dining area and second bathroom. $$$$

- Put a half-bath in the basement. $$

- Finish the attic area into a master suite an additional bedroom/office and full bath. $$$$$

- Paint the exterior of the house and/or get new siding. $$$

- New windows. $$$

- Put a flagstone patio near the screened-in porch that is attached to the garage. Working on this! FREE!

- Get the Man Cave organized. By this I mean putting away the stray boxes down there and getting it set up as living space. Right now it''s acting as a catchall and driving me nuts!

- Set up the "spare bedroom" in the basement. This room is off of the Man Cave and is small, but there is a closet and a normal sized window so it''s technically a bedroom. We''re just going to put a futon and night stand in there and call it a day.

Since we moved in the only major thing we''ve done is paint the living room and hallway and put in new vinyl floor in the only bathroom.

 

[artdecogirl]

Freke, I love your sunroom!!!! Great tile.
That is on my list but I am afraid I have more important things like a new roof, yuck, thats not even fun just necessary. We recently finished turning a attached garage into a family room, I will post pix when I can find them.
Gardengloves, your home is lovely! the doors really make it flow. And I like how the stairs turned out, very nice, are they slippery at all without any kind of runner? I ask because we have wood throughout the house but left carpet on the stairs because of our dog, she was 13 years old and did not get around to well and we thought they would be to slippery without the carpet and now that she is gone we thought about tearing it up but just can''t decide what to put there. Would love to see garden pics! Maybe a new thread?!