It's Begun! Bathroom Remodel Part 1 - Pocket Door

10 months or so ago I posted about our desire to redo our master bathroom and I'm happy to say that we've (or rather, Matt) started it! After we went to Bedford Springs resort last May we both really wanted to rip out our builder's basic bath and remake it to our taste. Here's some pictures that we're drawing inspiration from:

Guest bath at Bedford Springs Resort

Featured bath from TOH September 2006

Victorian-style vanity from I have no idea where

The first step in this process is the 'water closet' or the toilet 'room'. This is a dark little room with nothing in it but a light fixture and the toilet. Seriously. The floor plan (below, I had to reverse it to give you our 'as built' plan) shows a window and a linen closet in this room, as well as a swinging door. We only had the door, which would completely block access to any storage cabinet. I also just noticed, the toilet in the plan was toward the inside of the house. Ours in on the outside wall; consequently, sometimes in the winter when it's really cold and windy the pipes freeze and it won't flush. Lovely. (The shower drain also freezes, we are really looking forward to fixing THAT problem!)

Home of future pocket door

Home of future window

Home of future storage cabinet

Some pictures of the rest of the bathroom - our eventual goal is to replace the tile, install a tile shower, replace the vanity, lighting, etc.

Saturday morning Matt removed the original door to the water closet & cut into the drywall to install the pocket door kit. Pocket doors are SO under utilized. I know they're a pain for builders to install, but they save so much space! Anyway.

New header and studs installed.
The door (10-light french door!) is currently being painted,
hopefully for installation by this weekend.

And of course, no project is complete without small people watching and 'helping'. Or in this case, seeing how tall Sarah is :)

I can't tell you how excited I am that this project has actually been started! We've been talking about it for almost a year, and it will probably take that long to get finished, but I'm ok with that as long as there's somewhat steady progress. I've discovered this weekend, much to Matt's dismay, that I really really really like tearing apart the house and changing it :) Now to figure out how to make some money doing that...