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Fixer Upper Bathroom Before and Afters… fixer upper style bathroom makeover with clawfoot tub, watery paint color and sliding barn door.

Super excited to share the before and after photos from our Fixer Upper bathroom. Last month I shared the upstairs black and white bathroom and this bathroom is another one of my favorite rooms in the house. Sorry it’s taken me so long to get the post written. Crazy what a little demo and paint can do to a room. I really love how it turned out.

My original plan was to do a marble tile and shiplap the entire bathroom, but once we ran into 100x issues (read the before posts if you’re curious)… it was no longer in the budget. We also really wanted to keep the original baseboards and wood floors but when it came time to demo, they really weren’t salvageable in this room. Luckily we could save the gorgeous door and wood trim around the windows. So while the plans I had for this room didn’t quite come together as planned, I still love how it turned out. If this is your first time here you can see my first post on it here , the demo post here, the progress post here and paint colors here.

If you remember the before photos, itt was so crowded in that space and there was way too much going on. The floors were also rotting, so we had to take all that beautiful wood out. 🙁

On the other side, it was even more crowded. The sink was so tiny and the laundry closet stuck out to wear you could barely get to the toilet. I knew it all had to go. So my husband basically gutted the entire bathroom (rock star status) and then we had that tiny hall space that lead into the next room turned into the laundry. It really opened up the space.

Once that back closet and tub were gone, I felt like I could breath again. SO much better! Everything was re-drywalled and painted by the professionals. We salvaged this barn door (obsessed) from an old shed in the back, that we had to tear down. I knew I wanted to use it somewhere in the house and thought it would go perfect on this back wall to cover where the stackable laundry machine will go. I found the sliding hardware here. We had it professionally sealed to hold all the paint in. I really love the weathered look it has. It tells a story in this house that is over 125 years old, yet gives a modern farmhouse vibe as well. 

Ah, so much more fresh, clean and OPEN! Also, I could just die over this claw foot tub. Seriously so dreamy. We found it at Kohler and I pretty much am obsessed with it!

On the right of that pole is where the toilet and sink were before, so now we were able to put in a much bigger vanity (with storage) and the toilet could have it’s own space.

We also had this mirror put up, the two sconces on the sides and canned lights in the ceiling. So much more light!

We went with chrome fixtures in this bathroom and I’m really loving this shiny faucet. It sparkles in the sunlight.

I made this ‘fresh and clean’ sign to go over the tub and will share the tutorial next week! It was super easy and inexpensive to make.

Fixer Upper Bathroom Sources:

• Clawfoot tub, vanity, faucet, toilet and towel holders: Kohler
• Paint color: Watery from Sherwin Williams
• Mirror (ps-it’s half off right now)
• Sconces
• Flower holders: Magnolia Market
• Rug, soap dispenser and towels: Target

More posts from our 1888 FIXER UPER:

• • Purchasing the fixer upper 
  • DEMO
  • Progress
  • Finished kitchen
  • Finished downstairs bath
  • Finished B&W bath
  • Paint colors

If you have any questions, feel free to leave them in the comments 🙂

Thank you to Kohler and Sherwin Williams for partnering with us on this post. This post does contain some affiliate links. 

Black and White Bathroom …I’m so excited to share with you the upstairs black and white bathroom ‘before and after’ from our 1888 fixer upper!

We had a little open house last weekend before we officially put it on the market and I have to say, I think everyone that walked upstairs said “I love the bathroom tile!” It is such a small space, that I knew the walls needed to be white, so it would feel more bright and open. I decided since everything else was white, we needed something bold and fun on the floors. I really love how it came out!

Here is the before photo if you remember from my first post…

Basically we did a complete gut, down to the studs. My husband did most the demo, and pretty much just went to town with the hammer. I really hated how the toilet was the first thing you saw when you walked into the room, so we had that moved to the back left. We also took out the tiny tub and expanded the bathroom about 4 ft. into the master, so that we could have a bigger shower put in.

By the time we were done, everything was completely transformed! It’s crazy to look back at the photos when we bought it. It took us a long time to get here, but it turned out better than I could have imagined!

I decided to go with a little more modern feel for the bathroom and go with the oil rubbed bronze finishes. I really wanted a darker grout with the subway tile, but the plumber had started doing the white grout and at that point I just went with it. We just needed to get it done. The white definitely really opens up the space.

I found these fun fixtures at Kohler and think they help tie in the “vintage” feel of the home.

I also found a few wood accents to help bring in a warmer tone. Definitely makes it feel a little more cozy. 

Here’s a little selfie reflection going on… this bathroom was so hard to photograph 😉

My husband added some white floating shelves last minute and it was nice to get some additional storage space.

And I’ll just leave with one last photo of the tile because it makes me smile every time I see it! Hope you enjoyed this little tour …let me know if you have any questions. More photos from the house to come!

Black and white bathroom sources

• Tile: Amazon or Overstock
• All plumbing, Mirror and fixtures: Kohler
• Paint: Pure white from Sherwin Williams
• Basket and jars: Target
• White floating shelves: White floating shelves
• I love you sign and ‘towels’ hook: Hobby Lobby
  

  More posts from our 1888 FIXER UPER:

  • Purchasing the fixer upper 
  • DEMO
  • Progress
  • Finished kitchen
  • Finished downstairs bath
  • Paint colors

 Thank you to Kohler and Sherwin Williams for partnering with us on this post. This post does contain some affiliate links. 

Our 1888 Fixer Upper Progress… things are coming together and we are so close on getting to the fun, cosmetic parts of the renovation!

I finally have another update on the 1888 fixer upper. Sorry it has taken so long, but there really hasn’t been much progress up until now. Things are really starting to come together now and it makes me so happy! I was really hoping this house would be done by the end of the year, but it doesn’t look like that will happen. We are getting SO close though! I think it will for sure be done within the next month. If this is your first time here you can see my first post on it here and the demo post here.

If there is one thing I have learned with this project it has been patience. Okay… so I don’t know that I’ve completely learned how to have patience, but I’ve realized the saying my grandma always told me growing up to be true. “The art of life is adjusting.”

The paint is done on the exterior and I am completely in love! We now have a turquoise door and the porch is just about done! Just needs a little paint touch up and then I can show you the finished entry way. Woo. The house is also now completely covered in snow and it is so beautiful.

I promised you upstairs photos and while the above photo looks a little scary, I’m happy to say as of a few days ago, it is all fixed and cleaned up. We basically had to get new support beams added and re-drywall it because the ceiling was broke when we bought it. Now we just need to get all the cosmetic work done up there (paint, floors, fixing trim).

The bathroom is also coming along nicely. There was one snag (nothing surprises me at this point)…the vanity wouldn’t fit once the shower door was hung, so I ended up having to order a pedestal sink. I didn’t love the idea of having one, but at this point, it will work just fine. The floor tile is also done now (can’t wait to show you the floors -they look amazing) and it just needs all the paint, lighting and finishing touches at this point. 

The downstairs bath is also so close to being done! I ended up going with the color ‘Watery’ from Sherwin Williams. We just had this beautiful Historic claw foot tub from Kohler installed and it adds the perfect “old” new feel to the space. The grey vanity also didn’t fit this space, so we’re trading that one for a smaller one as well. We measured before the thick trim was on and that was our fault. Live and learn, right?!

We’re getting so close and it really is starting to really come together. Now it’s time to get everything cleared out so the floors can be refinished. You won’t believe how many dumpsters we’ve ordered. I’ve lost track at this point, but I’m guessing at least 15. I just ordered the last one today (please pray it’s the last one), so I’m excited to see all the clutter gone! YAY!

The brick also was set last week and it looks amazing. Much better than the old painted red brick.

The original trim is also getting hung and painted this week and looks amazing! Possibly my favorite detail of the whole house! My eyes pop every time I walk in! It took my new crew several days to piece it all together, but I’m so glad they were able to save it! It definitely would have been a lot cheaper to just buy new trim, but that was my favorite part of the house.

The kitchen is SO close to being done as well. It is SO much more open now that we knocked the wall down and raised the drop ceiling. We did shiplap on the ceilings and love the look. All we need now is the lights, hardware and to install the rest of the trim around the bases. It’s going to look so nice once everything is cleared out of there and cleaned up!

Our original plan was to do more shiplap throughout the house, and subway tile all the way up the walls in the kitchen, but we are WAY over budget on this house…so we’ve had to start cutting everything else that we haven’t already ordered or purchased.

I can’t wait to show you everything once it’s completed! The floors are getting sanded and being stained the week after Christmas, so I’m crossing my fingers Mike and his painting crew (who are awesome!) will be able to finish the majority this week. There will still be a lot of touch ups and more cosmetic stuff (like hanging bathroom mirrors, etc) after the floors are done… but then we really will be finished! WOO HOO!

Hoping I’ll have some finished photos to show you after the New Year! Thanks for following along on this journey. It sure has been a crazy fun ride!

Our 1888 Fixer Upper DEMO Time …this house should have been on the HGTV fixer upper, because more went wrong that we ever imagined!

Last week I shared about the fixer upper we purchased over the summer. Today I’m going to share all about the DEMO! It’s taken me awhile to post about all of this because the whole experience has been so crazy and caused me alot of anxiety. I’m finally ready to post more about it. I’m telling you this house should have been on the HGTV fixer upper, because I would have loved to have seen Chip’s reaction to everything that came up. Plus, how fun would it be to hang out with JoJo?! I seriously love her style!

I’ve honestly NEVER seen a house on HGTV where so many things went wrong. Everyone working on the house has said the exact same thing. My mom had me watch ‘The Money Pit’ recently and then I began to feel better *a little* better about the place. So it wasn’t quite as bad as that… but close. I have a feeling this is going to be a long post… 😉

I shared a little bit about the DEMO process in the last post. My husband did most of the DEMO on his own. I have to say I was pretty impressed. The place turned into a complete disaster though. Every time I walked in, my heart skipped a beat (and not in a good way).

We found some fun stuff along the way. One of the coolest things we found was a Billy Hitchcock baseball card in the floor boards. I wonder if someone hid it there back in the day…

We also found this hair dye bottle which I thought was pretty neat!

We also found this vintage map under the drywall upstairs. I was bummed it was mod podged onto the wall, or else I would have kept it.

Originally we were planning on keeping the plaster walls, because it would have been a whole lot cheaper, but we found out pretty early on we were going to need all new plumbing and electrical work done, so it was going to be the best option to just get new drywall. The walls were also severely cracked and had about 7 layers of wallpaper on them, so to get all that off and the get them smoothed out it was going to be pretty expensive. My husband took all the walls down to the studs to save on costs and then they were ready to go for the electrician, plumber and drywallers.

Once my husband took out the strange tub, the bathroom already felt so much bigger! He also took down all those walls below in the kitchen plus the drop ceiling and that was a much more open space.

The process was scary… as you can see…

But it already was looking so much better. The house was really well built and had strong bones!
So once all the DEMO was mostly complete, it was time to bring in the contractors to start the renovation. I acted as the “general” contractor and got several bids and estimates from all kinds of different companies for different tasks. If you can think of a job, I probably was calling about it. Looking back I wish I would have hired a General contractor because it was very time consuming and draining.

I knew once it was complete it was going to be amazing though. I had decided at this point that it would be the perfect place to use as a studio. I just kept thinking of the end vision. The first thing we wanted to get started on was the outside. The paint was almost off and in pretty rough shape, so we knew it was going to need to patched and repainted from the get go. There was also a summer kitchen, you can see to the far right that we knew needed some help. It acted more like a shed, so we weren’t planning on spending too much there.

The painters got started right away and then we didn’t see them for about a month. It was on and off that we saw them that summer and when they were there they did a great job. It was definitely a bigger job than they anticipated. It was frustrating having the outside in progress for so long, but it is looking REALLY good now! We also had to redo the siding up top and get a couple new windows put in. But that was just the beginning…

We hired a guy (we’ll call him Mr. J) to do most the drywall, paint and a few other repairs. He told us about a week after he started that the outside “shed” should be taken down. We ended up finding out it was never permited, so knew that was the best decision.

The inside of it was in pretty bad shape and we found out the foundation was basically hollow. I have no idea how this place held up as long as it did. 

I had them save all the old windows and doors and then they tore it down. That was a sad day and definitely an added expense we weren’t planning on. I have to admit though, once it was gone it felt a lot better already. This same week we found a puddle in the kitchen from a rainstorm and found out there was a leak in the roof. So Mr. J told us we needed a new roof. So there went more of our budget. 

If you look closely at the base under the 3 windows you can see there’s about 4 inches of space in between the wood and the cement edge. The addition was done very poorly several years ago and water was getting in there too. So we were told we would basically need to rebuild that whole wall.

After the back part was down I get a call from Mr. J saying the job was complete. I met him down there and I walked up holding my baby on my hip after dropping my older two off at school. He requested the next check (mind you we had already paid him half up front, so he still had a lot of work to do to make up for what we had paid him) and I said “I thought you said the job was complete.” He said “it is.” Now imagine me standing right by that rock (almost about to fall in this giant hole). I looked around at all the trash, the roof still hanging over the door and the cement super rough. I knew there was definitely more work on the outside, but I wanted to see what he had done inside, so I asked him to show me. At this point the insulation, drywall and a support beam was supposed to be in place.

I walk in and this is what I see. The middle section wasn’t removed, the support beam wasn’t in place and the drywall certainly wasn’t complete. Mind you, he was already two weeks past when he said he would be done in our contract, so I was very upset. If you know me in person, you know I don’t get very upset easily. I was literally at a loss of words though.

The flooring, which was also supposed to be leveled, was basically kicked in and a complete disaster. There was no way he was even close to being done. I literally couldn’t believe what I saw.
I said “I cannot pay you any more, until the job is complete.” He started yelling at me and coming closer, while I’m holding my baby and I walked right out that door in tears. I couldn’t believe what just happened and I was in complete shock.

Luckily a friend of ours who was replacing the windows happen to show up at that time (tender mercy right there), or else I would have been in fear for my safety. He listened to me sob and I told him I had to find someone else to hire. After dealing with Mr. J for the past two weeks and having him lie to me several times, I knew we needed to fire him. We knew we were we going to lose thousands at this point, but I couldn’t ever look at that man again. I wasn’t able to get ahold of my husband until later that night (he was in surgeries all day), but he ended up firing him that night. Come to find out, he had already picked up his stuff and left the job before we fired him.

SO come to find out the roof his crew had done, was done very poorly. So we ended up losing what we paid Mr. J for the roof and were out even more money after having to hire someone else to fix it. It was a complete nightmare.

Come to find out Mr. J had changed his business name 3 times in the past year, had committed several crimes, had been using 3 different last names. Moral of the story… don’t ever hire someone before during a thorough investigation and getting several referrals.

At this point we had to look for a new crew to hire the job. Luckily, we found one fairly quickly and they were able to start a couple weeks later.

The first thing they found were more problems. They took off part of the front porch because it was starting to slant and figured out the whole porch was basically hanging on top of a 4×4″ piece of wood. It’s pretty dark, but you can see it is basically hollow under there. Great! So, this was another added expense, fixing the foundation and basically rebuilding the front porch.

Later that week, we found out there was a family of raccoons living in the attic, right above the front porch. That was another issue all on it’s own and one we quickly hired the animal control for. I could probably write a whole post just about that… but one month and a new porch ceiling later they were finally gone and everything is now sanitized.

The good news was that the new crew started when they said they would. The first thing they did was finish the back roof and support beams.

It looked SO much better already inside. I loved how open the kitchen was now and was finally started to get excited about the project again.

Then they started on the foundation, porch and then they started finishing the insulation inside.

Next, they had to take down all the trim and baseboards (don’t worry they are being saved), and started putting up the drywall. Getting the drywall up, made such a difference already. I was so excited about the new crew, until recently. We went with my husband to AZ for one of rotations and they told us it would be done in two weeks. We got home four weeks later and the bricks were still sitting in the yard and the inside literally looked the exact same. The painters made us aware that they hadn’t seen the crew and started finishing the siding on the adition they were supposed to complete, so they could finish painting. The whole time we were away we tried calling, emailing, texting and could never get ahold of them…

Holy cow, this post is getting long. I didn’t even get to the upstairs… I’m going to have to leave that for another day. My baby just woke up from her nap!

To be continued… stay tuned!

More posts from our 1888 FIXER UPER:

• Purchasing the fixer upper 
• DEMO
• Progress
• Finished kitchen
• Finished downstairs bath
• Finished B&W bath
• Paint colors

Our 1888 Fixer Upper …how we got started and where we are going with what was a run-down home into a charming house!

Okay friends… I’m finally getting around to posting about our 1888 fixer upper. If you follow on Instagram, you may remember this photo I shared about 5 months ago. Yikes, has it really been that long?! So sorry! If you follow me on Facebook, you may also remember this live tour I gave of the house a few weeks after we purchased it.

SO many have asked for updates and to be honest I just couldn’t find the energy to write about it all (SO much has happened since we got those keys)… but lots of photos and more from the whole process coming your way!

This charming house on sixth street has been on my mind for the past year. Every time I drove by this little run down house, my heart skipped a beat. One day I happened to drive by this 1888 year old house near the historic district downtown and noticed a for sale sign in the front yard. I called my husband right away and told him we had to look at this house. We both are obsessed with Fixer Upper and Flip or Flop, so we thought it would be fun to renovate one of these little houses downtown when the right one came up and we had enough saved up.

Once we both walked through the house, had it thoroughly inspected (we’re talking had it inspected for every last thing, because if it was falling apart, we weren’t going there) and prayed. After we weighed all the pro’s and con’s of this house on sixth, we decided to put in an offer. They came back the next day and told us multiple offers were put on the house and to come back with our best offer. We didn’t feel right putting in a higher offer, so we told them our offer stands as is. As we were headed to a family reunion and decided if it was meant to be, it would work out. A few days later, we received the call that our offer had been accepted. Understandably, we were pretty shocked, as we thought our lower offer wouldn’t have cut it. We were excited this house was ours and begin planning the renovation right away.

With peeling wall paper (7 layers to be exact), scratched up floors, worn red walls and not much to love inside the home, when most people walked into this little house, they saw a run-down home with .

But what I saw was beautiful home that had been loved for over 100 years. I imagined all the kids that had run around on those beautiful hardwood floors. I looked at the wallpaper on the ceilings and saw 6 layers of different styles and patterns. I saw the homemakers in this home that must have loved it so dearly. I saw the charm and character that this little home possessed. The 12-inch trim baseboards and large glass blown windows stole my heart the second I walked in the door. I knew this little home had so much potential and I couldn’t wait to give it the love it deserved. At this point I had thought about using the downstairs space as my studio and renting the upstairs, but we weren’t quite sure.

Here’s a quick little tour around Our 1886 Fixer Upper….

The kitchen was definitely in need of some love and was starting to fall apart. It was an addition later on and had no character at all. Also, i felt so closed in, so I knew the first thing we would be doing was raising the ceilings and tearing out walls.

I also planned to get large open windows and do a sink in the corner looking out upon the yard. Also, I knew by adding some tall white cabinets, white subway tile and a light grey paint on the walls it would really lighten up the space.

This wall between the kitchen and living room was very strange and the plan was to knock that wall down right away to create a more open floor plan 😉

Here’s some photos of the bathrooms…

Our plan was basically demo this bathroom down to the studs and start with a fresh slate… leaving the gorgeous trim and doors, of course.

The upstairs bath would also be gutted. The plan for upstairs would be to extend the bathroom into the master to create a bigger shower, do a fun patterned tile on the floors and to create more space for toiletries, etc.

This tub was so tiny! Seriously, the tiniest tub I had ever seen.

Here’s a few more photos from upstairs…

The only things we really needed to do upstairs was patch the hole in the roof, paint, refinish the floors and a few other cosmetic things.

Starting the demo on Our 1886 Fixer Upper…

As soon as we figured out the game plan my husband and I (okay my husband was doing the dirty work and I was planning and calling all the contractors) got right to work.

My husband was finishing his third year of residency and the last 2 weeks of that 3^rd year his days were short, luckily. By short, I mean an 8 hour day… but he starts really early in the morning. Since he was done around 2-3 pm these days, he decided he would start demoing this sweet old house. He worked SO hard tearing out floors, removing layers and layers of lath and mortar in the walls, taking down wall paper and removing walls… but more on that later.

The kids loved helping, but most the time it was better for me to keep them home.

Looking forward to sharing more…

More posts from our 1888 FIXER UPER:

• • Purchasing the fixer upper 
  • DEMO
  • Progress
  • Finished kitchen
  • Finished downstairs bath
  • Finished B&W bath
  • Paint colors

XO – Jamielyn