the Master Bedroom (Before & After)

Hmm... where do I begin? This room had lots of potential. It was a blank slate - no working electrical, no overhead light, a drafty window, french doors to the sunporch and a bathroom on the other side of the wall (can we say... Master Bath?) From our initial walk of the house, we deemed this the Master Bedroom with plans for a Master Suite. I must have subconciously blocked this room from my mind, as looking back I can only find three pictures of our "before demo" pics.

Primary Use: Storage while other rooms were under reno

Love that pink spot? The flat white paint hides all the imperfections

Trim removed, after the new windows were installed.

We demo'd this room Labor Day Weekend, 2009. It took us Friday night - Monday night and we filled an entire 40Yard Dumpster with debri. That's not something we are proud of, but we needed to add electrical to this room, insulate the exterior walls and thus, we took down the lathe and plaster.

A year later... we were wrapping up the project. We were doing the exterior siding that the same time, so I hatched a plan to both motivate and help the pocketbook -  the "Do One Thing a Month Plan" was how it went down. Essentially September was demo, October was electrical, November was insulation, etc. etc. Then the summer hit and my cousin, David, was staying with us for the summer while he had an internship in town. He was our biggest motivator and help when it came to finishing this off. He showed up with a nail gun and between him and Swanky, spent each weekend on trimwork, painting and slaved away on the Master Bathroom. I'm pretty sure David was happy to go back to school so he could relax... I am forever indebted to him for his help.

I also couldn't be more in heaven with the tranquility of the room and to be in a finished space. We moved into the bedroom almost two years to the date of when we moved into the house. Furniture and styling? ...Someday...

Framed blueprints of my Grandfather's from the Navy. Handmade pillows by me.

DIY Curtains... Someday we'll get to purchasing dressers...

2010 reflections (part 2)

continued from last night... i got lazy.



June 2010

the weather turned around and exterior painting was finally making good progress

July 2010
with the help of my cousin, our Master Suite was progressing nicely.

August 2010again with the help of David, our Master Suite was kicking butt!

September 2010David killed this and we never would've finished without him, literally. Master Bedroom was ready to move in a year after we began!

October 2010
and same for the bathroom!
November 2010
we couldn't resist to paint the sunporch and occupy it off the master... our unheated office retreat!

December 2010
i framed some of my grandpa's blueprints from the Navy for bedroom artwork

2010 reflections (part 1)

a picture from each month of 2010...

January 2010

we started to frame the Master Suite while the exterior work started
February 2010
the exterior progressed well, despite the record rainfall

March 2010
swanky built some garden boxes and his garden

April 2010

while the exterior was nearing completion, our Master Suite was coming along...

with the shingling complete, time for some major paint prep
May 2010

small projects, continued

catching up by doing the "easy stuff" like small crafty type projects i can knock out in one sitting. tonight's activities included sewing some pillows from the extra fabric from the curtains i made, while i had the sewing machine out for other projects.




another recent project included the two framed images above the bed. they're blueprints from my grandfather when he was in the Navy. i was so excited to find them in a box... and happily framed 2 of them for our bedroom.

Master Bed/ Bath Progress

We spend all our time working and no time blogging...

Labor Day weekend marks the 1 year anniversary of when we started to demo the Upstairs back bedroom and pink bathroom to create an updated Master Suite - complete with electricity!
Here's our progress and hopefully next weekend we'll be moving furniture in!

The bedroom is awaiting paint touch up and cleaning of the floors, Sunporch is ready to prep for paint and the bathroom is waiting for fixtures to arrive as well as the glass door.

the upper private sunporch (Future Office) is now cleared for paint prepping and paint,

as well as home to our 400 lb claw foot that is too heavy to move easily.

the shower just needs the frameless door to be installed,
i am in love with the marble.



view looking into the corner where a pedestal sink will one day sit
(they're on backorder, of course)

an overall view of the bathroom

And then, there was light

Don't worry, this light is only a placeholder

It's a big day. The circuits have been landed and all systems are a go - the Master Suite has working power and lights. This is the first time ever, for that part of the house since we've moved in! Our alarm clock will no longer be powered by extension cord...

Master Bath Progress

David is kicking B-U-T-T when it comes to the carpentry and trimwork. We help were we can. Next will be installing the flooring and waterproofing/ tiling the shower. The waterproofing kit we ordered came with some missing pieces... so we're trying to make progress while we wait for the loose ends.

the future master

now that we've secured our loan and made the first payment we decided to start our master bedroom/ bathroom renovation. this will include ripping out the lathe and plaster on all the walls, a new window to replace the aluminum slider, reconfiguring an existing bath to include it with the bedroom as well as insulation and new wiring. this bedroom currently has no electrical (lights or plugs).

first step - remove trim and salvage for other projects.


second step - find a place to put the original window seat
(notice it missing from the above photo)
it couldn't have fit better on the porch between the column and wall. the porch actually used to have two beautiful built-in's but they were removed before we got the house when they were redoing the foundation and brickwork