Moving on to the master bathroom

I've decided to start on the master bathroom. As I mentioned in the comments section of my last post, the antique toilet in the main bathroom is having some problems. The wooden tank has split in the front, pulling some nails out. This has caused it to start leaking. I'm going to have to tear the tank apart and rebuild it, this will take some time so we're going to need another bathroom. The bathrooms are also the worst part of the upstairs left to do.


Last night I started rebuilding the ceiling. As mentioned before I wanted to raise it up a foot. The addition that holds the bathrooms has a shed roof. This doesnt leave much room for the upstairs ceilings. They were pretty low and I didnt care for them at all.

Here's a shot of the original framing for the ceiling:

Here's a shot after I removed it:

Here is the new framing:

For some reason in the picture the boards dont look straight but they are. As you can see the majority of the ceiling will be flat with a part of the left side sloping down. this gave us an extra foot of headroom and really does a lot for the room. It makes it look like a much larger room. I'm going to have to use foam sheet insulation for the sloped part of the ceiling since standard insulation wont fit. R30 will go above the flat part.

Today I'll install the electrical (light switch and fixture, GFCI outlet on the left wall, and a double gang box with 2 GFCI's to the right of where the vanity will go), and start on repairing the walls. If I have time (yeah right!) I'll start installing the wood ceiling.

Where to now??

Now that the upstairs hall is complete as my last post shows it's time to decide which disaster area I'm going to tackle next. there are 4 rooms left to work on upstairs, the 2 guest bedrooms, and the 2 bathrooms. Here is each room with what needs to be done with each:

Guest Bedroom 1

This has been my work and storage room for a while now. This room needs moderate work. There is a LOT of grease on the upper walls (the guest bathroom adjoining the room was a kitchen during the houses apartment life). there is heavy stipling on the ceiling that will have to be sanded off. There are some cracks and chipped paint on the walls that will have to be patched. The mantle needs to be replaced with one of our spares as it's nothing more than a few 2x4's and thin plywood (no idea what happened to the original). then of course I have to sand, primer, and paint.

Guest Bedroom 2

This room is in a lot better shape. The ceiling was replaced with drywall at one point, it's in good shape except for the poor mud job done to it. I'm going to skim just the joints. The walls are in relatively good shape, not much chipped paint or cracks in here. The only other thing to do in here besides the ceiling is a light sanding of the walls then primer & paint.

Guest Bathroom

The guest bathroom needs a lot of work, starting with the floors. the floors are sloped so I'm going to have to take them up. From prior experience in the other 2 bathrooms the floor boards wont survive this, they are just too brittle. So a new floor needs to go down. I need to tear out the plaster on the bottom half of the walls and install beadboard. The rest of the walls have to be patched. I need to install a GFCI outlet near where the vanity will be and rewire the lighting. The ceiling is in rough shape. I really want to take it out anyways because I want to raise it up a foot. If I do this I'll have to decide what I'm going to replace it with, T&G wood or greenboard, not sure yet. Then of course I have to sand, primer, and paint.

Master Bathroom

The master bathroom needs moderate work. I've actually already removed the plaster from the bottom half of the walls and installed the plywood base for the beadboard but I didn't have a picture of the room from after that. So, in here I need to re-frame the ceiling since I'm raising it up a foot in here just like in the guest bathroom. I've already removed the beadboard from the ceiling because some genius decided to stiple it at one point. I'm going to try to clean it up and reinstall it. If it doesn't clean up I still have a lot of regular 4' T&G wood left over that I can use for the ceiling. In here I also need to install a GFCI outlet near where the vanity will be and rewire the lighting. I need to patch the walls, hang the beadboard on the walls, then sand, primer, and paint.

In both bathrooms I still have to sand and paint both tubs and install all the plumbing fixtures. Plus I still have to build the vanity for the master bathroom. All that will be done after the floors are refinished though. So those are my options, still not sure where I'll start. I guess I'll find out when I go upstairs and just see where I end up.

Upstairs hall painted... finally!

Well once again it's taken me longer than expected to finish a project. I really am happy with the results though. Remember that dramatic change I was talking about?



There is still a lot left to do, the painters tape is still on the walls because I need to put one more coat up to finish the paint. I have to strip and refinish the stair railings and doors, and the floors need to be refinished.

The upstairs hallway was one of the grungiest rooms of the house so I'm glad to get it behind me. Now I only have the 2 guest bedrooms and the 2 bathrooms to finish up so the floor guys can do their stuff.

Here's a few more pictures of the hall: