The Sweetest Ensuite

We have finally finished our 3rd Floor Master Bedroom Ensuite Bathroom.  Pinch me.

I can't believe I finally have my own bathroom.  I grew up in a house of 6 people and 1 bathroom.  Needless to say getting ready in the morning was chaos....4 teenage girls in 1 room getting ready?  I may just use that as an excuse for my bad 80's hair.

When we first started talking about adding an extra bathroom we figured we would put one in the basement.  We thought it would be easier to tie into the existing stack etc.  This is always a major concern since the biggest part of this reno was to tie into plumbing in a 100 year old house....not fun....or inexpensive!

We realized that we never used our 3rd floor family room...and our son who had his bedroom up there, across the hall from the family room, didn't like it.  Since his old bedroom was on top of our existing 2nd floor bathroom this seemed like the most logical space to add a bathroom.  We decided we would take over the family room as our bedroom (since we all spend more time in the basement family room now) and the 2 existing closets would merge into 1 larger closet....and our son's old bedroom would become our new bathroom.

Once that was decided, it was like Jenga with switching things around....our sectional couch had to be taken apart to get out of the 3rd floor (we had it built in place up there) and moved to the basement...it literally fit within millimeters in the space and is now enjoyed by all.   The basement couch moved up to my old office which became our guest room....our furniture moved up to the family room...and our son's down to our old room. 

Here's the only pic I have of what used to be my son's bedroom....sadly I didn't take very good before or during pictures....silly mistake but I got too caught up in the idea of the project.

It was basically an almost square room with 1 window, door in center and low knee walls with sloping ceiling.

I had spent weeks...okay months....thinking of this project.  Like most things I do, I try to be super prepared to ensure smooth sailing.  I drew up the plan.....

Keep in mind this thing has been passed around to contractors and taped up to the window for the past 3 months.  I tried to make use of every square inch up there.

I had picked our fixtures and look of the space in my mind years ago....I've always wanted a clean, spa like feel for an ensuite bathroom.

Construction began and went pretty smoothly....a few hiccups but nothing major.  And our contractor was really fantastic about helping us fix things when it went wrong.  I think this is a true reflection of how good or bad customer service can be.  It's only when things go wrong that you can judge how great the service is.  And when something didn't work out, Adam fixed it and made it right without question.

The worst part was that when it was all finally finished, we started using the bathroom...only to look up once a few days later to see water marks and wet drywall in our kitchen walls....sigh.  So the walls got opened up again....in our 2nd floor bathroom, kitchen and other son's room.  Turns out our stack was leaking....so we fixed that.  Also turns out that when they disconnected the old plumbing years ago from when our son's room was a kitchen they just cut the pipe and left it!!  so it was venting gases all this time!!  And when we went to put water down the pipe from the 3rd floor water just ran right out of this cut pipe and into our walls!!  Not easily forseen but Adam came back and fixed it all anyway.....so now it is finally finished and we absolutely love it!

Here's how it is looking now.

 A double Vanity was on my dream wish list....

 We loved the open clean idea of just a glass wall with no door and used a very low profile shower pan.....love this....highly recommend it!

We had to move the wall in to get the height required for the vanity wall, so we took advantage of that unused space behind and made a large linen closet.

 Behind the wall with the towel hooks on it is the closet extension...we used leftover space in the bathroom to make the closet behind larger.

 A salvaged door lintel from the old bedroom....and some great vintage jars I picked up.

I don't know what Amyl. Tritici is but I love this jar!!  The gold trim adds some warmth to the cool bathroom scheme.

The closet is still being finished with trim work but it's functional now...after 3 months with clothes all over this is a welcome relief!  We salvaged the doors from the 2 old closets and put them together to make one large opening and we bought the interior fittings from Ikea....I am so impressed with their product.  Easy to adapt, I had to cut the sides and backs down to accomodate the sloping ceilings, but it was inexpensive and easy to customize.  Now we have a place for everything...I've told my husband that once that shoe rack is filled that's it...something will have to go....his shoes, not mine!

All that is left is to paint the hallway/stairway leading up to the 3rd floor and then to put finishing touches on our bedroom.....I feel pretty lucky to have this space!!  If you are thinking of a reno in your own home, look at how you use your existing space and see if you can't repurpose it.  It's much less expensive than an addition and often you already have the space you need, you just need to rework it.