Once you fill the crack, you can never go back

The addition struck over 15 years ago.  My father looked up at the ceiling of a neighbor's recently remodeled Eichler and thought it looked different somehow.

BEFORE:

AFTER:

Now we caulk every ceiling when it's being repainted.  Just a wet finger and some caulking is all that's required (and a strong neck).

You may never look at the your tongue and groove ceiling the same way again.   Sorry!

Some "Before" Pictures

Here are pictures of our current master bathroom, which had a low-cost remodel done shortly after moving in.  The primar focus was to expand the shower from the original 3x3 stall.  In addition, the original vanity and tiled counter-top (with huge grout lines!) had to go.

First, a shot from the master closet:

 

You can probably tell that the expanded shower pan is a standard sized fiberglass unit, which are a little too short for the space, so about an inch of gypcrete (?) board was added under the tile on the far wall to make it flush.  But otherwise it was easy to install, at least compared to our remodel concept where the shower floor starts level to the rest of the bathroom and slopes down to the drain (which may not even be feasible).


The main issue with this shower is that I should have raised the height of the showerhead, because we have to duck under to get your hair wet.

 

The vanity cabinet was actually custom built by a friend-of-a-friend that does mostly kitchen cabinets.  The countertop is a standard 48-inch Corian prefab unit that was relatively inexpensive.  This setup is very functional with lots of storage, but not very attractive, despite the cool drawer pulls I found.  Just too much white, and somewhat hulking.

Sweet Home 3D

This is an excellent software package for laying out room designs and then visualizing them.  Best of all, it is high-quality, free software that works on Macs, PCs, and even Linux.  Definitely worth checking out:

http://sourceforge.net/community/potm-200910/

Tom and I have been using this software for the last few months, and while it requires a bit of an engineer's mentality to take accurate measurements and adjust the furniture models to your exact dimensions, the end results can be quite realistic.

And it also prints out nice blueprint style documents:

Note that the Concept sketch a few posts earlier was done by our general contractor, who wanted to learn Google Sketchup.  Also a fine product, it emphasizes a different but also interesting visual style.

Model 914 Floorplan

Here is a quick scan of the Eichler Model 914 floorplan, coming from a photocopy of the Meadow Park sales brochure.  This is the model that I grew up in, and is pretty similar to our Eichler, except where the outside wall zigs in at the garage / all purpose room in the 914, it is a straight wall in ours, but then it does zig in at the living room.

What you can't tell from these floorplans is the roof pitch.  The two I've lived in have peaked roofs with the high-point centered over the garage centerline.

But a few houses down the street there is a very similar model with a multi-tiered flat roof, and also one with a peaked roof where the highpoint is offset from the garage centerline.  Both of those also had the middle bathroom moved next to the master bathroom, which is a tweak I've never liked since it also loses the door to the outside and feels more cramped.

I'll try to upload a few more floorplans from the brochure...they're all quite interesting.

The Concept

Here's the basic layout that we're thinking about:

We were heavily inspired by Barry Briscoe's remodel, and love the idea of opening up this small space as much as possible.

The main changes are removing the wall between the sink and toilet/shower room, and enlarging the window in the shower, and (possibly) adding a floor to ceiling slit window in the closet area.

The main considerations we have to get comfortable with are:

• steam from getting into the rest of master bedroom
• splashing from the open ended shower stall
• loss of valuable closet space with the floor to ceiling window
• whether resale value will be hurt by lack of privacy doors, etc.

If you have any thoughts or experiences, please leave a comment.  Thanks!

Fixtures 'n Things

Here's the shopping list we came up with for the tile, fixtures, and furnishings for this project.

• Floor Tile: Porcelanosa - Silk Verde, a modern gray/green textured porcelain tile in large 17x26 rectangles.  For master bedroom, bathroom, and shower.
  
• Wall Tile: Porcelanosa - Glass Acido, light blue with white pinstripping in 12x35.  Will probably run it vertically rather than horizontally.
• Sink: Catalano Domino 100 ceramic basin w/aluminum leg stand and Dornbracht Meta 2 faucet.
• Mirror: custom built-in 24" wide mirror / medicine cabinet.
• Lighting: Ginger Kubic 3.2" sconce on either side of mirror.
• Shower: More Meta 2 fixtures with 10" downpour shower head and shower wand.
• Toto Aquia III toilet
• Panasonic WhisperWarm ventilation fan.  Much quieter than our 20-year old Nutone.
  

Unfortunately the recent fire at the Dornbracht factory has pushed back shipments of any chrome finished parts, so we may have a 10-12 week delay.

Great store and even better book

We love the Bridget Biscotti Bradley Bathroom Book!

It has tons of great pictures as well as reminders and tips about everything you might need to consider during your bathroom remodel.

We stumbled upon the author's store in Menlo Park, Reclaim, where we found the book.  They also carry lots of interesting tiles and other green materials for home building.  Definitely worth checking out

Our Eichler

First some background before we dive into our current thoughts on remodeling the master bathroom.

As part of the Royal Manor tract in Palo Alto, we believe the house was built in 1958 or 1959, based largely on the toilets, which have 1958 embossed inside on the tank cover.

It is very close to the Model 914 design that I grew up in a few miles away - what I call the "twin hallway" design.  But I think the master bedroom & bath layout may be very similar to many other models.

Previous owners had remodeled the kitchen significantly, turning it into a larger, more open design, and had added Nutone bathroom vent fans up in boxes on the roof at the same time.

Then I had done new appliances and counter-tops in the kitchen and a quickie master shower remodel soon after moving in nearly 10 years ago, as it had the original 3x3 square shower stall.

But now we're embarking on a major remodel... more details soon!

Time for a Dwell magazine master bath!

As the title implies, we look at Dwell a lot, and I dream about a house with some of those beautiful design features present in those magazine homes. So now that we've decided to modernize our master bathroom, I'm dreaming of Dwell in my bathroom.

It's been a ball shopping around for and choosing plumbing fixtures and tile and sinks and so forth. I can't wait to show you what we've found. The bathroom design sketches are being drawn by our contractor now. So stay tuned, there's lots of fun design news to come. I hope to post stuff up here regularly. We'll see. See you soon.