Before and After

It's taken me long enough, but I can finally show you some renovation pics!

Bathroom:

When our house was built, the owners at the time decided to change the plans for the en-suite bathroom in the main bedroom. They were elderly and didn't want a bath, so they built a wall in the middle of the room that would be the bathroom and installed only a shower, toilet and single basin, using the other half of the room as a walk-in cupboard.

The spare bathroom, on the other hand, has a bath and no shower. In winter, being cold-blooded, I find that the only way to get warm is to immerse myself in piping hot water. We would often use the guest bathroom to bath, but when we had guests staying with us, we were stuck with our shower, which had a broken sliding door that needed to be forced closed and still let cold air in because it wouldn't shut properly. The guests, on the other hand, were stuck with the bath, which is difficult for people like my 85-year old granddad to use.

So we installed a hand shower in the guest bathroom, broke through part of the wall that had been built in the bathroom and used what was the walk-in cupboard as a spot to install a lovely bath.

We found a way to fit in our new bathroom without moving any major water points. We added an extra basin and an extra shower (inside the existing shower). That last bit is one of my favourite things... Now TSC and I can shower together and he can have his luke warm water and I can have my scalding hot water. I've been explaining the necessity of this to everyone who has seen the bathroom: I believe all serious marital discussions should ideally take place in the bath or shower because it's very difficult to fight with a naked person ;-)

Anyhoo... Here are the pics...

Before

If you look closely here you'll see the towel rail lying on the floor. We tried fixing it on numerous occasions and it just kept falling off. So glad we have nice new, sturdy towel rails!

It may look innocuous, but this non-closing shower door was evil.

The walk-in cupboard

During
Here's where we broke through the wall from the existing bathroom into the walk-in cupboard...

After
Now we just need more stylish laundry bins!



Still can't believe this was the walk-in cupboard!

The Bedroom:

Once we'd put a bath in what was our walk-in cupboard, we obviously needed to find a new storage solution, which meant installing new cupboards. We also had to replace the carpet, which was worn through in some spots, and the skirtings. You'll see why when I show you a pic! The ceilings had pulled away from the cornices, allowing dust from the roof to pour into the room and make TSC's allergies a million times worse than usual, so we fixed the ceilings, rhinolited over them and put in new cornices and a new light fitting. While we were at it, we installed a vanity for me so I don't clutter the new bathroom with my make-up and hair accessories, and we also replaced the curtain rods.

Photos...

The revolting skirtings. We've now replaced most of these around the house with Meranti wood ones. The originals were made of a substance that was almost like cardboard - you could pull the things apart with your bare hands!

You can also see how worn the carpet is here - it's actually threadbare under the skirting on the left side of the pic.

Fixing the ceilings and prepping the walls...

This pic shows where we built up the old doorway to the walk-in cupboard and the rhinolite, stillwet and patchy on the ceilings.


New paint, fixed ceilings, new cornices and a new light fixture...


The finished room:


I LOVE these cupboards (thanks Louisa for the recommendation). They run the whole length of the wall and one of them opens up as the entrance to the bathroom (the one you can partially see on the far right of the pic)

The new cupboards opposite the bed, along with my dresser and the new curtains.

I'm so chuffed with the way my heart-art headboard substitute worked out! Our old headboard was too big for the room. We actually had to take it apart to get it out once the cupboards were in!

So that, my lovelies, is what I have been preoccupied with over the last six weeks. I'm very glad it's all finished and I am supremely happy with the end results. But now I want a break from home improvements for a bit ;-)

PS: HAPPY BIRTHDAY to my amazing TSC. We didn't finish the renovations before my bday, but I'm glad we did it before his.