Masterful Bath

Before

After

Oh, how long I did yearn to see this before and after photo with my own eyes.

This toilet room in its "before" state was a nearly perfect representation of the previous owners' taste in decor. Not only did they like to use a lot of fancy wallpaper like what you see above, if something happened to the wallpaper — like, say, a stain or a tear — they just papered over it. Never mind that the paper didn't match. I mean, wallpaper's wallpaper, right?

We lived with this look in our toilet room for close to 2 years. And as bad as it was, it beat the room next door, a full bath, which was reduced to a construction zone. We tore the room out within three months of moving in -- stripped the walls down to the studs, left gaping holes that led to the outside, tore linoleum off the floors. We never thought it would be that way so long.

But this bathroom was our biggest challenge so far in this house. The shape was so awkward and the size, too, so strange, that it took us nearly a year just to design the thing. We didn't know where to start. All we had were a few simple goals: We wanted to keep it a full bath, which meant we didn't want to lose the bathtub. Losing the tub would mean the house wouldn't list as a 3 bedroom 2 bath should we ever decide to sell. But we're shower people, not bath people. We knew we wanted the shower to feel spacious and luxurious. That's where we would be spending our time. In a space as relatively small as this one, the obvious choice would be a built-in shower/bath combination, but something about that felt really downscale. After much debate, many trips to Expo in Westwood, several torn up copies of Dwell magazine, and hours spent trawling home decor Web sites, we arrived at a round Japanese soaking tub. Once that was settled, the other pieces began to fall into place.

It has to be said that we got a lot of help on the designs for this room from the now defunct Expo, a subsidiary of Home Depot. They had a service where you could get a personal decorator to design your room, and you either pay $750 or spend over $5,000 and get it for free. I think our tile order alone put us over the $5K mark, so it was not a tough decision. It also has to be said that we blame a lot of the delay in our designing the space on the first designer Expo gave us. It wasn't until we asked and were switched to a designer by the name of Carmen that we started making some real progress.

Other than tile, we knew we'd do better pricewise buying materials on the Internet. It kind of pains me to think of how much money we spent on hardware, until I factor in how much we saved not paying retail. I mean, if you want to know why Expo went out of business, all you have to do is look at those price differences.

Before

After

Another interesting decorating device the previous owners employed was to paint over windows. Don't like that extra bit of light? Nothing that a little paint can't handle. That and decals. Damn, did it take me days to get the decals off of everything when we moved in. I worked the sliding glass doors with a scraper until my hands were worn and nicked. We replaced the louvered window above with a 40" X 67" picture window. The shade is a woven wood with taped edges from JustBlinds.com and cost $153.38. It has a privacy backing on it.

Before

After

They loved their decals. Not sure if you can see how deep the new tub is, but it actually goes down into our floor. I think it's 34" deep, but it only rises 17" above our floor. We were able to do this because our house is on a raised foundation and there was ample room in the crawl space below. The tub filler is perfectly flat — kind of hard to see here — but if I had it to do again, I would put it in the ceiling. You'll see in the pictures below that we put one of the shower heads in the ceiling.

Before

After

Previously, the bathroom had a double sink and smacked of 1950s luxury. Gold faucets. Ornate cabinets below. Yegh. In the "After" picture above you see the soaking tub on the left, and on the right you are looking directly into the shower. The square in the middle is an indentation in the wall for shampoos and soap. We installed a window above to let a little light in and moisture out.

Before

After

This is the view from the master bedroom, currently occupied by our au pair. We extended the wall and put in a true doorway, framed craftsman style. It's a slider.

Before

After

Just another view from Karina's room. I only have so many "Before" pictures, so I gotta milk them.

Here are some names and details for anyone who wants to geek out on them:

Tub: Americh Beverly 4040
Tile: 3 kinds
Coffee sandstone: polished — for the walls on the bathtub and shower side
Coffee Sandstone: honed — for the floors
Rhythm dark Glass — for the walls on the sink side

There's a fourth tile on the floor of the shower but I can't find it in my records. We had to order it at the last minute because the designer didn't realize you couldn't have 10 x 20" tiles on a shower floor. You have to use a really small tile to prevent slippage.

Doors: Valley Sash & Door in Burbank, stain-grade douglas fir
Lights: I'll have to get back to you on that.
Mirror: Ikea. It's funny, but I bought this mirror used on Craig's List for $20, and it used to hang in the entryway of our old house. But that crazy round shape went so perfectly with the tub that we had to keep it. And by the way, I got ripped off at $20, because that's about what they sell it for new at Ikea.
Glass Shower Doors: Alladin Glass in Canoga Park. tel: (818) 700-7833. I found them on Angie's List and thought they were great.
Toilet: Toto
Construction: Conger Construction. Call Oscar Conger at 323.337.3630. I highly recommend him. An honest man who does good work. I really enjoyed working with Oscar and his men. How many people can say that about their contractor?

As I put this together, I'm realizing I'm missing a lot of details. So for now, I'll skip to the pictures. I'll try to do an update with more details when the hour is a little less late.

Accidental Makeover

Before	After

We finished one bathroom before ever moving into the house. It was the upstairs bathroom, and we needed it to be done before we moved in so that we would have at least one place to shower and pee. We did it black and white and in a style that fit with the Craftsman look of the back of the house, and for some reason it didn't take long at all for us to choose the look. By contrast, the second bathroom took almost a year to design. It has been under construction for well over a month now, and as I write this the workers are prepping the walls for tiling.

The construction of this last bathroom became a bit more pressing when we realized we would need the adjoining bedroom to house our new au pair, Karina. By a near miracle, our contractor managed to close off her room from the bathroom construction just in time for her arrival — truly a photo finish. Karina slept in Poppy's bedroom her first two nights while the paint in her own room dried.

So, in finishing the bathroom, we managed to knock out another room in the process. This is the downstairs bedroom, and I think the pictures tell most of the story. What you can't see in the "before" pictures though is the smell. When I first came into this house, I was sure it was occupied by homeless people. This room in particular had a smell that packed a wollup.

Window before	Window after

And the closet still doesn't have any doors on it, but we're working on that. It's an unusually deep closet, so I'm still considering adding some shelving. I read an ingenius tip for a deep closet in some shelter magazine. You put shelves in the back half of the space and hang clothes from a bar in the front half. Then if you need something from the shelves, you just reach through the hanging clothes. I'd like to try it.

Closet before	Closet after

Here is a quick breakdown of this room:

We replaced the window with the same Superior vinyl windows in the color Almond that we've used in the rest of the house. The door next to the window is a vintage door from architectural salvage stained dark and the frame is Craftsman style but new. The door to the bathroom is a single-light white lami from Valley Sash & Door in Burbank. We chose a modern door here because the rest of the bathroom doors are modern, as is the bathroom itself. The door frame is Craftsman style — but you know it's new because there wasn't really a doorway there before — just an open walkway with shutters and apparently some curtains. The light is a George Nelson knock-off from the annual Modernica sale. The bookshelves are Ikea and have been with us since Richard Drive. That's a whole other blog posting. The rug is from Home Depot. I went there looking for some industrial strength, kid-proof floor protectors and came away surprised at how many cool rug styles they have. The rug is thrown over hardwood floors — which we discovered under the old owners' carpeting and refinished along with the rest of the house before we moved in.

And here, a final pic of the room in use:

Karina, unpacking in her new room with Poppy, the day of her arrival.

Show Time

Before

You would think that being on maternity leave I would have all the time in the world to update my blog.

Doesn't exactly work like that.

In fact, I've been burning to post these pictures of our most dramatic makeover of all for a long time. Now that I'm about to return to work, I'm forcing myself to take advantage of Poppy's naptime to do something other than pick up toys.

Hard to believe it has been almost a year since I first spoke to the folks at the shoe "Desperate Spaces" on HGTV. I came across their casting solicitation on Craigslist while perusing the TV listings. We have some friends who have done well renting their house out for shoots, and I figured some producer somewhere must be trying to find a house that looked like a crack den to use in his/her production. Among the ads was one that said "Do you have a room in your house that is so bad it makes you feel DESPERATE?" And I thought to myself, take your pick. You could do a whole series on the rooms in my house that make me feel that way. So I answered the ad, and after a lovely visit from segment director Art, Jim and I found ourselves — and our office — accepted to the show. Within months our space would be getting a TV-style makeover.

I don't want to bore you with too many details, but here are a few that most people want to know when they hear we were part of a TV makeover. The show took 4 months to plan, but only 2 days to shoot — that's a full-blown makeover in two days. The budget for the room was supposed to be $2500, but we feel we got much more than that out of it. We were not only pleased with the result, we felt the whole process was very smooth and we had a good time doing it. The whole production team was very respectful of our home, and the designers went to great lengths to accomodate our desires. While we did not have a say in the final design, we were able to tell them about things we liked and disliked and challenges we were facing in desiging the room. They really came up with some interesting solutions. The production was pretty grand and made quite a spectacle of our house for those two days. For instance, here's how the front of our house looked during the shoot:

During

You'll find the "after" pictures below (remember, you can click on any image on this blog to see a much, much larger version of it), but here are just a couple things of note that they did: They took out the whole fireplace. That was huge. It wasn't a working fireplace, although there is a full-blown chimney on the other side of the wall. We think it probably got damaged in some long-ago earthquake, so they just sealed it up. It was a hideous hangover from the 60s, so good riddance. Here is a picture of the fireplace in process:

During

You'll also notice a brick wall in the "Before" Picture above (at the top of this post). That was not actually brick, but a faux brick — I don't even know what to call it — it was just faux brick that was hung on the wall. If you knocked on it, it actually rang hollow. Taking that out was one of the first things we did. You'll notice that the show replaced the 7 mis-matched bedposts that served as a stair railing with something much more cool and modern. And they hung a very heavy bookcase on the wall above our cold air return, making a wall that had previously been somewhat unusable (because you can't block a cold air return) suddenly usable again.

OK, 'nuff said. Let's get to looking at the after shots.

After

Just want to give a special thanks to the whole staff and crew of Desperate Spaces. The house really felt like it turned a corner after this re-do, and we are very appreciative. You can view just a tad more about this makeover on the HGTV Web site at http://www.hgtv.com/hgtv/shows_hdesp/episode/0,3183,HGTV_30737_59868,00.html.

Clearance

We cleared the yard.

This is one of those projects that definitely falls into the category of I Just Can't Take It Anymore. I couldn't tolerate another day living with the plants and leaves and crap we took out. You can't really see it in the before pictures here, but there were these five sort of tree-shrub plants that were just about human size scattered around the yard, and I found them really scary. They were like great zombies with raised arms and loose-hanging flesh. At the last minute we decided to take out a full-grown fig tree of sizable girth that hulked in fully half of the yard. I was torn over taking down a mature fruit tree which could bring, if nothing else, resale value to the house. But the fact is, the figs it produced were flavorless, and it attracted just about every kind of pest, from flies, to racoons to rats. I'm so pleased with the result, so good riddance.

We paid $550 to Rene at J&J Tree Service to do the job. He's the same tree pro we used last year to butcher the half-dead Chinese elms and extract the yucca monster from the front of the house. He's super quick and thorough and I think his prices would be hard to beat.

No, the toys in the pictures below didn't come with the house. My mother has been on a Craigslist toy binge and picked up these two ugly little numbers for our 2-year-old daughter. They may be a bit of an assault on the eyes, but Poppy loves that little slide and boat-shaped sandbox. Until we put in landscaping, why not give her a little playground at home?

We're far from finished on this yard, but just clearing it made such an impact.

Dirty Laundry

Never thought a laundry room could make me so happy.

Although I still haven't had a chance to sit down for the money talk with you, suffice it to say that the international credit crisis has put a damper on a lot of our renovation for the time. So instead of mapping out grand plans for what our next project will be, we've been choosing them based on what we absolutely under no circumstances can tollerate any more. Case in point: The laundry room. What made this room a particular nuisance before we redid it, was that it was adjacent to the kitchen and so visible from all the front rooms, and also that we tore the ugly linoleum floors out months ago to see what was underneath. The tar paper that we found below was torn up and mottled black and no matter how much cleaning we gave it, it still felt disgusting under your feet.

The reason we didn't do this room earlier is that we couldn't decide if the look of the room should be an extension of the kitchen, or of the back bathroom which has yet to be designed. Before our money issues cropped up we had visions of extending the room out and creating some space, but in the end we dumped those in favor of getting the project DONE.

Here's a breakdown of the project:

Doors:

Home depot. The one leading outside is alderwood, which I love. Very little grain. I think it cost about $300. The one leading to the kitchen is oak, which I don't like nearly as much. Something about the grain gives a really traditional look to wherever you put it. We learned a thing or two about our own tastes in stain during this project. We've always leaned toward a really dark stain for the trim elements, but in this case we chose this light chestnut stain and were really happy with the result.

Window:

Believe it or not, that little bitty window cost about $400. Same brand and style of the rest of the windows in the house, Superior in vinyl purchased through Lowe's. I felt that it's small size and extremely high placement was a bit of a creative risk, but it was also the only way I could see to fit a window in there and also meet the practical needs of the room: A stacked washer and a large storage space, like a broom closet, pantry or even just a big rack full of supplies. Since I took these pictures we've gone with the rack option, and I couldn't be happier. The window really worked out.

Paint:

We found a color called "Butter" on sale at Restoration Hardware that we thought coordinated nicely with the Arabian Red of the kitchen. But they didn't have it in anything glossy enough for a laundry room. I took the paint chip/sample to home depot and they matched it perfectly in a paint texture called "kitchen and bath" which allegedly resists mildew.

Tile:

Same we used in the kitchen. Porcelain tile from California Tile in Burbank. This turned out to be a good choice because extending the tile from the kitchen with that clear door makes the kitchen feel bigger.

Light:

Restoration Hardware, on sale for $79. You know, it's not that I'm a fan of Restoration Hardware. Those mall chain stores never thrill me. I hate Pottery Barn, and I might hate West Elm even more for posing as high design. But it just happens that I keep finding things at Restoration Hardware that work.

Labor:

Clearly the most expensive part at $3,500. Francisco, of Castro Construction went off the grid for a while, but thankfully returned just long enough to get us through this job. He's about to be a daddy, so congrats Francisco!

Door Hardware:

Omnia Industries, Inc. Style 32 Latchset in stainless steel purchased from ATG Stores online. We liked the way this style echoed the knobs on our kitchen cabinets.

And that's it for this room. Amazing how even a project as small as this can feel mammoth when you're going through it. The dust. The washer and dryer in your dining room. The parade of workers going in and out. But looking at the before and after shots, I'd say it was worth it. Take a look below for the after shots.

The Great Wall

Absolutely shameful, how long it's been since last I posted. What can I tell you that you don't already know? Just so busy!

The house, in fact, is stagnating due to financial circumstances outside of our control -- like, the collapse of the entire mortgage industry, to start.

But before I go into that, I present you the last great change we made to the house before we ran completely out of money. Yes, we built a wall.

I didn't take great pictures of the wall before we enhanced it, but let me describe it to you: Cinder block, about 4 1/2 feet high, painted Pepto-Bismol pink. The previous owners had added some height to it by propping up about 2 feet of press board along the length of it -- but at least they painted it the same shade of pink. A few rains later, the press board had disintegrated in places, fallen down, and any passerby could just glance right into our living room. Add a couple graffiti tags and, well, you get the picture.

Since the base of the wall was actually pretty sturdy, we decided not to knock it down. Instead we brought it to the regulation height of 6 feet and covered it in the same stucco found on the rest of the house. I've never loved stucco, but at least it all matches.

Still needs a paint job, but happily, I can prance naked in the living room again without random people looking in on me.

Fan Mail

Since we moved to this neighborhood, Jim and I have enjoyed so many encounters with our neighbors. We're such a local curiosity that it's been fun to invite our neighbors into the house and show them what all the construction has been about. We've received messages of support -- and often relief -- all the way around. Almost universarly, our neighbors have expressed how pleased they are that finally someone is fixing this eyesore up.

That said, I just wanted to share with you a lovely message left, purportedly, by one of our neighbors, on both our car windshields -- two copies, just to ensure we'd get the message:

Dear Neighbor,

I understand, that it is a huge undertaking to buy a house for your family, and try to refurbish it , all while trying to go out and earn a living for them.

I also understand that, you would want to refinish the inside of the house for your family's well being & comfort before tackling the outside ...

BUT, Enough is Enough ... You have a RESPONSIBILITY to your neighbors to do something about the exterior of your home! It's a fucking scandal, and it's been like this for a long time.

Again, I'm not telling you to spend your money outside, when there are important things to attend to inside. But, get your lazy ass out there and clean it up (get rid of the fence, the vine/branch, the foot tall weed-lawn). That doesn't cost a thing, it just requires you to put forth some effort.

I know what it's like to be up til 1 or 2 am, everyday for a year, swinging hammers, and then get up and go to work the next day. But, I'm going to venture a guess and say ... YOU"RE NOT THAT GUY. I don't see it. I don't hear it.

Show some self respect, and clean up your property.

And a hand written message at the bottom:

BTW. I wrote this only after listening to so many other neighbors complain.

Didn't even sign his (or her) name. The coward.

Now, I'm not sure that I even want to do this message the honor of ridiculing it. I'll only say how much I love that last handwritten line -- an intimidation tactic that I, myself, mastered in high school. "It's not just me who thinks you're a bitch. Everybody's talking about it."

I'm thinking small person, down on himself, looking for someone to kick to make himself feel better. Wish I could tell him it just doesn't work like that.