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Our Next Project: The Main Bedroom / What it looked like during the inspection, what it looks like now, and what our plans are.

August 19, 2022 by jessica Leave a Comment

The next home project I’d like to tackle is our bedroom. It’s not a train wreck by any stretch of the imagination, but we haven’t done much with it over the past couple of years as we focused on other rooms. There are aspects of the space that I love and won’t be changing (and I’m still as smitten with that duvet cover as I was when I first bought it), but there are other aspects that I’m no longer fond of and items that were intended to be placeholders until we had money to invest in this space. Plus, I’m no longer thrilled with the jewel-tone accent wall I picked out when we closed five years go.

So, I thought I’d share photos of where the room has been over the years, along with what it looks like as of this morning with a few un-styled snapshots. You’ll also find my design punch list below!

First up, here’s what it looked like the day we did our inspection:

What a lovely, tranquil escape, right? Who wouldn’t want the focal point in their bedroom to be a hanging shoe rack?! 😉 Whenever I feel like we haven’t made enough progress in our home, I look back at some of these photos and I’m taken aback. It’s a testament to looking beyond someone else’s stuff and seeing potential in a space. We didn’t even need to do a lot to this room to make it look better right off the bat: we had the floors refinished in the house shortly after closing and we put a fresh coat of paint on everything. Painting the paneling (ahem, “vertical shiplap”) white brightened up the space immediately. We also had to take the tree down that you can see through the window above because it was dying, which opened the room up to natural light.

I knew I wanted some color in this space and chose a dark teal. It did turn out brighter on the wall than I had hoped for when we painted it five years ago, but it wasn’t too far off from what my style was at the time. Since then, my preference in paint colors is a lot more subdued — think colors pulled from nature in the Pacific Northwest; not the tropics. I’m going to keep an accent wall, though, however controversial that may be.

The photos above are the progress and after images of our floor refinishing. The stain hue is Early American, which offers a warm, classic finish that’s appropriate for the age of our home. (If you live in Madison and need your floors refinished, let me know. The person we used was fairly priced and did a beautiful job. Every tradesperson that has come over has commented on how great our floors look.)

One of the challenges in the space that I talked about here was that there was a doorway cut between two of the upstairs bedrooms. We worked with a local carpenter to create a shallow built-in that you’ll see below. The opposite side is drywall.

The built-in continues to give me a ridiculous amount of joy and it’s the perfect space to put the little trinkets I collect on vacation. Our carpenter did such a wonderful job matching the frame of the built-in to the trim of our doors. Unfortunately the vent had to go right there because it was cut into the floor when they opened up the wall, but it doesn’t bother me that much. I might swap out the grate for something decorative down the road, but it’s not that much of an eyesore in person.

So, that brings us to where we are now:

A peel-and-stick paint sample of Racoon Fur is on the wall. I don’t think it’s the color I want as it has purple undertones in some light.

Here’s what I’m planning to do:

Repaint the paint accent wall with a more subdued color that works with the existing duvet cover, but could also work with this blanket that I recently bought. I gravitate to blues and greens, so I expect any future bedding to be in those color families.
Buy a new bed with a wood headboard. Our current bed was a $200 Amazon find — a steal for a king-size bed. We bought it when we lived in the apartment because we needed something and knew that we didn’t want to invest in a bed until we had a house. It’s time to upgrade. The top is snagged from cat claws and it gets stained with hair products. I hate it.
Swap out the lamps. Those were around $15 at Target when we moved in and needed something. The scale is too small for a king bed.
Add curtains. We have roller shades that will stay to block the light. I’d like drapes to soften the room, but also to visually widen the window where the bed sits so the scale isn’t so wonky.
Style the bed with a selection of throw pillows, but not too many since they’re annoying to move every night.
I’d love to upgrade that Ikea dresser, but it’s fine for the time being.

Here are some of the paint swatches I’m considering:

And here’s one of my initial mood boards for the space:

Wish me luck! If I can get the painting done and choose a bed in the next few weeks, I think we’ll be in a good spot! And if I don’t get that far, rest assured that this before-and-after moment gives me some peace:

We’ve come a long way already.

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12 Neutral Home Decor Finds for a Summer Refresh

July 1, 2022 by jessica Leave a Comment

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5 Tips for Surviving a Home Renovation

June 22, 2022 by jessica Leave a Comment

^{My favorite sneakers are $20 off with this link! You can toss them in the washing machine if they get dirty!}

It has officially been five years since we closed on our house! It feels both like time has dragged on and flown by — and I think that has a lot to do with whatever stage of home improvement we’re in at the time! 2022 has been our home’s most transformative year yet with two bathroom renovations. I have a lot of emotions as a reflect back on the past five years: excitement, pride, frustration, annoyance, exasperation, appreciation … and so many more, but thankfully I’ve circled back to excitement and pride after we handed off our final check to our contractor and finally got to enjoy the end result of the projects that took so much time and money. Renovations aren’t easy and I wanted to share five tips for surviving a renovation if you have one of your own on the horizon.

PLAN CAREFULLY

I can’t overstate the importance of planning when it comes to your renovation, and it’s going to impact all aspects of the project. Here are a few things to keep in mind:

Save more money than you think you’ll need, and have a plan in place if your project creeps and goes beyond what you hoped to spend. We ended up getting a HELOC to allow for cushion when our project went 100% over anticipated costs.
General contractors are in high demand right now. Expect to book at least six months out.
While you’re getting quotes from contractors, work on creating a mood board or source list for your project. (Here’s mine for the main bathroom and the one for the powder room.) You’ll want to have all of your products selected before work begins. While you’ll have some wiggle room when nailing down things like paint colors, it’s easier to have a solid direction right out of the gate.
Decide who is responsible for ordering products, materials, and fixtures. Is it going to be you or your contractor? For our project, I purchased the fixtures and our contractor was responsible for securing the other items. We had a shared Google spreadsheet to track my product selections, colors and finishes, who was responsible for ordering it, and where it was in the delivery process. Many products have a long lead time that you’ll need to account for. Other items, like a bathtub or vanity, are oversize and heavy. Do you have a place to store it if you order it? Can you even move it to the storage location if the shipper leaves it on a pallet outside of your home?
Make sure all of our items are in-hand by the time your project begins. Construction takes a long time as it is and you don’t want an unnecessary delay if something hasn’t arrived in time.
Consider pet or child care. Demo day is especially loud and not the best environment for sensitive ears. Can you spend the day elsewhere?
If your bathroom or kitchen is under construction, plan how you’re going to accommodate for those missing utilities. Do you have another bathroom you can use? Do you need a gym membership so you can shower? Do you need to find more slow cooker recipes so you can “cook” in another room?
Protect your home’s surfaces, especially the flooring. We had our contractor put down X-Board surface protector on each surface the team would be walking on to protect our hardwood floors and stairs. We ended up having one ding on the floor where something was dropped, but managed to avoid any additional scratches.

Minimize Construction Dust

Everyone warned me about construction dust, but I had no idea how bad it would be until we were in the midst of things — and that was even with daily vacuuming by our construction team! Talk to your contractor up front about ways to mitigate dust. They will likely be putting up a plastic barrier, but there may be other things they can do. On demo day for our main bathroom, they put a filter in our window that blew air out of the house and we turned the furnace off to avoid having too much dust circulating. Keep doors to your other rooms closed and consider getting an air purifier for your bedroom (we have this one). Despite all of that, though, you’ll have dust to clean up after your project is complete. Use that as an opportunity to do a deep “spring” clean, no matter what season it is! And, don’t forget to change your furnace filter afterward!

Communicate Clearly

The success of your project is going to rely on your ability to communicate with your contractor about expectations, design, and timelines. Choose a contractor who has a communication style that matches your own. Our contractor was around our age and would text updates and questions, and had read receipts on so I knew when my own comments had been seen. He was also respectful and receptive to my thoughts and concerns when hiccups inevitably happened. I’d also urge you to check in with your contractor whenever you have a question about the process or if something doesn’t seem like it’s going how you expected. You’re the client and you’re paying a lot of money, so you should feel good about the work that’s being done. It’s easier — and oftentimes cheaper — to correct a mistake or change course when you first notice an issue than it is to wait.

Clear communication also extends to your relationship if you’re embarking on a renovation with a partner. Renovations are inherently stressful with money concerns and routines upended — and you two might have different ideas of what’s “good enough” if you hit a snafu. Recognize that your partner may also be overwhelmed and do what you can to empathize with them rather than misdirect any reno frustrations. You’ll be a stronger team at the end of it!

Be Flexible

There will be hiccups along the way. There might be a product that’s out of stock or an item you ordered that just won’t work in your space due to what’s going on behind the walls — or, in my case, the brand of tile you picked for your walls doesn’t have a matching bullnose option and you have to figure out a new trim solution. Despite your best laid plans, something will come up that will throw you off course. Be nimble and open to your contractor’s suggestions — and be willing and able to make decisions on the fly (or at least after sleeping on it). I know you might want to replicate your inspiration board to a T, but every house is different and has different challenges to work around. The longer you wait to make a decision, the longer the timeline gets and the more expensive the project becomes.

And, even if you’re quick to change course, accept early on that the project will cost more than the quote. Save another 50% before beginning the work to allow yourself a cushion if it comes to that. If you don’t need to spend it, you’ve just given yourself a sweet little vacation fund to celebrate!

Create Renovation-Free Zones

Create a space in your home that’s free from renovation reminders — and renovation discussions. Your life is going to be chaotic during the process, so give yourself a refuge to mentally check out and enjoy your evenings!

Please leave any additional advice in the comments!

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Main Bathroom Renovation: The Cost Breakdown

June 10, 2022 by jessica Leave a Comment

So, how much did all of this cost? A lot. And way more than what our original quote was.

I do think it’s important to be transparent about renovation costs so others aren’t blindsided by prices when they’re doing their own remodels. Prices vary depending on where you live, and your contractor’s experience and expertise. Plus, you don’t know what you’ll find when you open up your walls. I’ll share more about the half bath in upcoming posts, but when we got behind the walls and saw our old cast iron plumbing, we decided to update it to modern PVC pipes which was an expected cost, but a smart decision to take care of it when the room was down to the studs to prevent possible plumbing issues down the road related to old pipes.

In this post, I’ll break down the costs by three areas:

Labor – This is self-explanatory. We paid our contractor $65/hour and $30/hour for the trainees that were on the job occasionally. Due to what would turn out to be a wildly inaccurate quote, our contractor eventually did a blanket 20% discount on labor and did roughly $6,000 in labor for free.

Materials – This includes things like lumber, paint, nails, backer board, caulk, etc. Tile is also included in this section.

Fixtures – This will account for the finishings that you saw in the reveal post. It includes things like light fixtures, the tub, faucets, etc.

I’m excluding the cost of updating our plumbing, which came to $3,040.47. We removed all of the cast iron plumbing in the house and replaced it with modern PVC pipes. Cast iron eventually erodes and creates rough surfaces inside the pipes, which leads to drainage issues like clogs. We also discovered that the pipes were pitched incorrectly in the basement, so that was all corrected with that above price. It was money well spent.

Here’s where we came in at:

Permits – $242

Labor – $19,670.25

Materials – $4,945.24

Fixtures – $4,223.68

Grand Total – $29,081.17

To put this in perspective, our original quote for labor and materials was approximately $12,000. We decided to remove the original built-in cabinet and rebuild it to match the new one, so based on the original quote, that would have added another $1,300 to our estimated costs. We anticipated an additional 30% to account for unexpected costs, but we certainly didn’t expect to come in as high as we did by time the project ended — and this was after the labor discount. We ultimately decided to take out a home equity line of credit to allow for a cushion while we pay this back.

When it’s all said and done, though, I’m sure we’ll have “renovation amnesia” and will forget some of the financial stress. We’re certainly very lucky to be in the position to take on such a bougie remodel and I don’t take that for granted. It really ended up being worth it and it’s really an investment in our home which will pay off when we eventually sell, but it’ll also pay dividends now with our enjoyment of our home — and peace of mind that we’re no longer having sustained water damage!

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The Main Bathroom Renovation – Reveal Day! (All Sources Linked)

June 8, 2022 by jessica Leave a Comment

Reveal day is finally here! It’s been a long process that started back in April 2020 with a kitchen ceiling leak that was attributed to water leaking from our tub faucet and working its way through the floor and into the kitchen. Our bathroom was never anything to look at (before photos here), but the leak really accelerated our plans for a full bathroom renovation when timelines — and budgets — allowed. It feels a bit surreal to have it done and I don’t think I’ll ever stop admiring it whenever I walk past.

It was incredibly important to me to have the main bathroom feel appropriate for a house from the 1920s and I think we nailed it with traditional materials and fixtures. Some areas had to be modernized based on product availability, like the tile edging, but I think it all came together beautifully.

I could go on and on about the details and decisions, and how we landed where we did. But I know you’re here for the photos today, so let’s get to it! (I’ve also linked the other bathroom posts below, and included a list of sources at the end.)