Bathroom Remodel: Mission Complete

It's been a long three weeks, but we did it. Our bathroom remodel is complete! A huge thank you to my handsome and handy husband, my parents, my brother, Jamie the Plumber, Brett the Electrician and everyone at The Tile Shop for all of their help getting this complete before Thanksgiving. Take a look at the final result:

Bathroom - Complete!

Another view

  

View from the tub

We have so much to be thankful for this year - our family, friends and our health. We are so excited to spend time with both of our families this weekend and relax in our new whirlpool tub! Hope everyone has a safe and happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving from The Schorrs

XOXO,

Sara, Brian & Tequila

Bathroom Remodel: Shower Shelf, Water and Lighting

Two days until Thanksgiving and we are definitely cutting it down to the wire on this project. We had a couple delays with the tile shipment and having to replace the entire door frame, but things are finally moving along. There have been a lot of late nights, multiple trips to the hardware store and sore backs this past week so we haven't had a chance to update on our progress.

Friday we got the call that our tile had been shipped directly to the store a day later than scheduled, but it was in KC so we got to pick it up and start working on the shower shelf. We had originally intended to use the floor tiles as shelves for the unit but the look wasn't right so we scrapped it and went with a little more sparkle. We started by setting the back with a glass and marble mosaic tile:

Setting the mosaic

Completed back wall

We let the mosaic dry overnight (hardest part after a long delay) so that it would set and we could work on adding the shelves. We picked out polished San Dona tile for the shelves because they were white with a little shine and character to them. They blend in really well with the mosaic and the subway tile. 

Adding the shelves

Once the shelves set we added marble trim pieces to give it a nice finish. Then we completed the subway tile around the shelf and added the grout. Here is the finished piece:

Marble trim

Not bad for the first time! The best part of the week was when the plumber came out to install the fixtures and turn the water on so the bathroom is functional. I can't wait until the finishing work is done so I can try out the new shower head. 

Grout complete

 Brian also got the crown molding up so we are working on caulking and finishing it tonight.

Another view

Last night we decided to tackle the lighting, but first we needed to set the mirror. We've been looking for a new mirror for awhile but we couldn't find one that we liked that fit the space, but luckily we had the perfect one already under our roof. We scored a mirror from ZGallerie a couple years ago for only $50 (normally $400) that we've had in our dining room. It was the perfect size and look for the new bathroom so we decided to move it (and bonus - I get to look for a new fun things for the dining room).

We bought pendant lights online so we didn't know how much light they put off, but before we could hang them we needed to set the mirror. That was a lot easier than getting the lights wired, but once we got them up they were perfect.

Adding the lights and the mirror

There is a lot more light than there was before and the room is starting to look complete. 

 

Without the flash

We should be able to put more finishing touches in tonight so that the bathroom is ready for use by tomorrow. We'll have finished pictures soon and some before and after pics to share after the holidays too. It's crazy to see how far we've come in such a short time. Just a few more late nights left but we are so looking forward to Brian's family coming in town for Thanksgiving and to show off our latest update.

Hope everyone is having a great holiday week so far!

XOXO,

Sara, Brian & Tequila

Baby Schorr Update: We are 17 weeks now and have some tests tomorrow to check on the progress. Baby Schorr is about the size of a large onion and has been moving around enough so that I can feel the movement...really active!

Bathroom Remodel - One Step Closer

We are getting closer! In just a few short days we have done a lot of finishing work. We have the floor completely grouted and ready to go:

Newly grouted floors

 We have most of the shower tiles up and ready to grout.

A lot of subway tile

We had a little delay when we realized what we wanted to do with the back shower shelf wasn't going to work the way we envisioned. We took another trip to The Tile Shop on Metcalf (seriously, the BEST place ever) and spent time with John, the store manager and finally decided on the materials to use. Unfortunately we had to special order some pieces so we have another day before installing everything. I can't say enough about how helpful John and the rest of the team were. If you are even thinking about tiling for the first time, go there and ask for help, they'll walk you through the whole process.

Tequila loves the new floor

Since the floor has been setting for the last few days we finally moved in the new vanity. It is super heavy, the marble top is attached so it adds even more weight. Sara's brother came over to help haul it in and after some adjustments and a lot of heavy lifting...it's in!

New vanity

Fits perfectly (Tequila is monitoring the progress from the hallway)

We'll keep the plastic on until we finish the ceiling and some of the other finishing work but it's in and we love it! Here's a quick look at the view from the hallway:

It's getting closer

Brian is working on grouting the shower right now so we'll be even closer when the new tile arrives. We'll update you once we have more to share.

XOXO,

Sara, Brian & Tequila

The Notorious T-I-L-E: Our First Adventure in Tiling

This week has been really long and tiring. With all of the cement and green board done we were ready to start tiling. We've never attempted tile before so we knew it was going to take awhile to get through but luckily we did a lot of research and got a lot of expert advice from the guys at The Tile Shop in Overland Park. If you are thinking about tile and don't know where to start, go there and ask...they have a great staff and will walk you through the entire process. Since we are doing marble floor, we needed to get a wet saw and Brian is already a pro at using it.

Brian got the tiling started with the floors. It isn't a big area, but there were a lot of cuts to make. By the time I got home from a long day, Brian had already gotten it all in, take a look:

Floor tiles are in!

Another view

Since the snow never really came, we decided to take a trip to the dump to get rid of the debris from the bathroom...including the monster tub. Brian got to take out all his aggression with the sledgehammer and was able to break the tub up into more manageable pieces.

Tequila making sure Dad is ok

My boys...so happy to be getting rid of this thing

 We had to take 2 loads...there was a lot of stuff.

The rest of the bathroom

Since Dad came over so we could borrow the truck, we conned him into helping us with the lighting and patching the last 2 pieces of drywall so that our ceiling is finally done. Our lights should be in next week and we'll be able to get those up right away.

Ready for the new lighting

After sanding and mudding the drywall, we started to work on the shower tile. We are keeping it pretty simple with white subway tile. The floor tile went down really well so we were feeling a little more comfortable starting the shower tile. We quickly learned with tile...bigger is better (or a whole lot faster).

Brian getting everything started

The big wall is almost finished

Today we decided to paint and tile. Brian got the primer up while I started with the tile on the shower wall. It's not that easy to tile comfortably in a tub while you're a couple months pregnant, but I made it work,..plus Brian is a much neater painter than I am :)

Adding the primer

Two sides down, one to go

Getting the tile started on the final side

We had an idea of what we wanted to do with the shelves on the back side but it didn't look exactly how we had envisioned so we are going to hold off on that until tomorrow. But good news, we have two coats of paint on the wall and the color looks perfect with the flooring!

Benjamin Moore - Solitude

We'll be grouting and doing a lot of finishing work this week so we'll have more posts to share soon. Hope everyone stayed warm and had a wonderful weekend!

XOXO,

Sara, Brian & Tequila

Baby Schorr Update: We're at 16 weeks now and Baby Schorr is about the size of an avocado. Things are going well, just a little exhausted but we're not sure if it's the pregnancy or the late remodeling nights.

Tequila is really hoping we get done soon so we can get back to bath time

Bathroom Remodel: Tearing it Out and Piecing it Back In

We've had a really busy week of demolition in the bathroom this week so that we were ready for the plumber to come and install the tub. There were a few late nights but Brian was able to get everything out with special thanks to my parents and brother Mat for the extra muscle. Take a look:

Getting the last of the green out

Took out both medicine cabinets

View from the tub, ripping it down to the studs

Sledge hammers don't work with a cast iron tub

Almost all out, ceiling is next

Getting the tub out was quite a task. We thought it was a porcelain tub that would be broken up fairly easy with a couple swings of the sledge hammer...wrong! It was cast iron and all the sledge hammer did was break of some off the porcelain surround. The boys had to cut the pipe from the garage in order to detach the tub and had to use a lot of muscle to get up and maneuvered through the door. Thank goodness we have a furniture dolly!

My handsome boys taking a quick break

The tub is officially out

We picked up our new tub and were beyond thrilled that it only weighed 80 lbs...so much easier to get it in than getting the old one out. Saturday we were all set for the plumber to come and install the tub. Of course, nothing can be easy so they had to remove the entire draining system and completely redo everything. The 2-3 hour project quickly turned into an 8-9 hour day.

Tequila waiting patiently for his new tub

But alas, the tub is in and we are so excited. It is so much deeper and it's a Jacuzzi tub which will make the next couple of months a lot more relaxing once it's up and running. Plus we heightened the shower head so people over 5'7" won't hit their head while they're showering (the people before us must have been really short).

New tub is in

Today we worked on putting the walls back together so we could start taping and adding mud. We used green board for most of the room and cement board around the tub. We'll have the rest up for the ceiling and the back end of the tub after we meet with the electrician tomorrow. But the room is starting to look a lot better/

Love new dry wall...and getting rid of recessed lighting

Another view

Almost done around the tub

We'll be finishing the drywall and installing the floor and (hopefully) the shower tiles this week so that the plumber can come back and install the toilet and vanity. Good thing all this work will be done inside since it's supposed to be getting awfully chilly next week. Hope you are all staying warm and we will keep you posted on our progress.

Baby Schorr Update: We're at 15 weeks today and the baby is the size of an orange. All of our tests came back last week and everything is looking good. Just trying to get over a cold so we can help out more with the remodel.

XOXO,

Sara, Brian & Tequila

We've Got Some BIG News

It's been awhile since our last blog post but this fall has flown by. We had a wonderful trip to Seattle spending time with The Petersons and have had so much fun cheering on the Royals this October! It's been fun watching KC (and most of the country) come together to support our team. We wish Game  7 would have ended differently, but we are still proud of our team!

We do have some BIG news to share and are excited to share it with you...We will be adding a little Chief-Royal-Jayhawk-Hilltopper to our family in May!

Tequila is going to be a big brother!

Tequila's not too excited to have to share all his toys but he's going to be the best guard dog ever. So far everything has gone well, we're now into the second trimester and last week we got our first peek:

Baby Schorr Thing

It's been a little bit of a whirlwind but we are really excited! Naturally we'll be working on a nursery in the next few months but we decided to tackle another project on our list first.

Anyone that has ever been in our house has gotten a chance to see how amazingly awful our bathroom is. It is a wonderful mix of 70's colors and 80's flash that has been a bit of an eyesore since day 1. Don't believe me, check it out:

First view

There's a whole lot of green, brown and gold in there...it was a wonder to find a shower curtain that pulled it all together. 

The view from the tub...lots of green and brown

 But that's not the best part...to top it off, we have a whole wall of mirrors straight out of something you'd see in Scarface...and not just mirrors, gold etched mirrors, that make it really feel like a party.

A whole lot of mirrors

Who doesn't like to stare at themselves?

 And they even found green and gold linoleum to tie it all together:

Even when it's clean, it looks dirty

 Even the vanity got into the party...

Keeping with the green and gold theme

Don't get us wrong, we love green and gold, especially when rooting for the Bison of NDSU...but not this green with this gold and not in the bathroom.

We have been wanting to redo the bathroom since we moved in, but there was always another project that came first. I've been stock piling ideas for years and am so excited to finally get a chance to see it come to life. Everything is going to go...tub, vanity, mirrors, flooring, tile, glittered popcorn ceiling...we are taking it down to the studs and starting from scratch. We already have our new vanity, new flooring, new toilet, new paint and will be picking up our new tub this week.

It will be a big overhaul and we're on a tight deadline (we're hosting Thanksgiving) so if you see Brian around, give him a sympathetic pat on the back (or a beer) because he will be doing most of the heavy lifting. But we've already started by taking down the mirrors!

They used a lot of glue

Mirrors are supposed to make rooms bigger, but somehow after getting them all down the room looks and feels a lot bigger to us already. Here's another look:

A view from the door

We've got a ways to go but we will have demo done in the next few days and will have our new tub installed by the weekend. We'll show more pics as soon as we can.

Also, we wanted to share a few of our favorite pictures from our trip to Seattle...

First full day in Edmonds

Extreme closeup with our new camera

View of Edmonds in the background  

We found a sea lion

Beautiful view at Deception Pass

Emilie, Brian & I at Deception Pass

Deception Pass

Mitch & Brian at the Public Market

Reppin' the Royals - we were pretty popular with the crowd

Have to have a King of the World pose

Picking the troll's nose

Holding Lenin's hand 

Our view in Edmonds

On the beach in Edmonds

My hubby's cute...celebrating Year 3!

Hope everyone had a wonderful weekend and thanks for letting us share our BIG news with you!

XOXO,

Brian, Sara & Tequila (Big Brother)