Bathroom Remodel Finished ║ Broad Ripple Bungalow

Well folks, the long awaited final bathroom remodel pictures have arrived! Anyone who has taken on a major home improvement project knows that you are always committed to more work than you bargained for. In December we began the total remodel of our one and only bathroom, this post shows where we started. Halfway during the project we were in over our heads but moving forward. Unfortunately we did not get the project done before Christmas, as we would have hoped. After working so intensely on the project we needed a break before finishing the last 10%. The final pieces of custom trim were put into place and the final coats of trim paint were brushed on last week.

We are DIY people and enjoy the challenge of learning new skills (roofing might be next). Our home is a 1926 bungalow in Broad Ripple and we wanted to modernize our bathroom while keeping the character we love about the home. We were happy to be able to keep the original tub, which was in good shape but just needed re-glazing. We also kept the newer pedestal sink, window and door trim, and the top half of the plaster walls. Other than that, it's all new and been a labor of love. I have to give a shout out to our tile contractor, Eric Jensen at Jensen Tile - great work!

I am so happy with the final product, it feels like a different, bigger, better bathroom. For those of your familiar with the typical Broad Ripple bathroom, this is now a gem.

As part of our project we also tiled the kitchen floor and put baseboards up. We decided with a travertine, which has a unique look with no two squares of tile totally the same. It looks great with the granite counter tops. We also tied in natural stone in the bathroom with the mix of marble and subway tiles. I am happy that our house is fully modernized (new electric- thanks to Tim's dad, new plumbing, new kitchen/bath) but yet retains the charm that's so appealing about an older home.

Bathroom Remodel: Part 2

Moving on past demo, we began to rebuild our bathroom. I did lots of measurements and cutting of styrofoam and moisture resistant drywall. Tim and his dad totally rewired the room.

We knew that high quality tiling was out of our league, so we called up Eric at Jensen Tile. While tile prep and setting were happening, Tim and I were running between Home Depots, Menards and Lowes to make sure we had everything we needed. Tim learned how to cut tiles in half (for the marble floor) and I was busy in the basement priming and painting the baseboards, trim and beadboard.

Since we had a tile team at our house we decided to also go ahead and tile our kitchen floor, which had been a project in waiting for about two years. So in our small Broad Ripple house, both the bathroom and kitchen were out of use. During the workday, we got accustomed to going to the Lowes or McDonalds bathroom. At night we stayed at a friends house who so willingly put us up for what totaled 8 nights! As Christmas approached we got the project to a good stopping point, one that involved a working toilet and shower, and headed out of town to spend time with family in a non-construction zone house. Directly following family Christmas gatherings, we left bright and early for the Urbana Conference in St. Louis.

I am super excited to shoot my first wedding of the year tomorrow for Amanda and Adam. They are so in love and so ready to be married!

Bathroom Remodel: Part 1

As I mentioned earlier, Tim and I have been tackling some major home renovations this past month. A few weeks ago our bathroom looked like the before pictures below. It is our only bathroom and we knew that work was looming. It was spacious and pretty functional but water damage had begun to show on the wall by the shower and we had already removed a large section of wet and loose wall tile this summer. Our sweet handwork to get us by so far involved lots of caulk and a bit of duct tape.

You might wonder, why home improvement in December? Sure it's freezing outside, time to enjoy the holidays, but it was also time when I had little Megelaine Images commitments and Tim and his dad's man power were available. Yes we are frugal and yes we tend to be do it your selfers. I knew it was the real deal when the dumpster got delivered to our driveway. This pictures are the first two days of work. Lots of crow-barring and bucket loads of debris hauled to the dumpster. At the time of these photos we were still staying at our house overnight.

As a note, our house was built in 1926. Let me tell you that they built them to last back them, which is great but made demo hard work. It was neat to see how different the construction was from techniques and materials used today. Turns out the bricks for our chimney were made right here in Indianapolis. More to come soon in our adventures of home remodel...