Master Bedroom Makeover that Turned into a Bathroom Makeover

Two weeks ago, I decided that I tired of looking at our fugly master bedroom and vowed to do something about it. This room, has been the most challenging to decorate in our house so far and it doesn't even have plumbing or electrical issues! Well, maybe it sort of, indirectly does.

This is a tale of project creep.

Our master bedroom was a disaster. We ripped up nasty carpet and replaced it with laminate flooring, oh back in July and never put any of the baseboard moulding back.

We put laminate flooring in the entire bottom floor of the house. Since this was the very last room, it was full of toys, exercise equipment and general nastiness. Unfortunately, last month, we has a major toilet leak that pretty much ruined all the new flooring in our bedroom. Oh well, time for plan B-carpet. Hubby and I were done with laminate and less than impressed with how it's held up, anyway. Yes, I am fickle.

You can see that the room is paneled and has cheap-y built-in bookshelves. In another life, this room was used as a family room, a toy room and an exercise room, but we wanted to sleep on the same floor as the kids, so this room became our master bedroom. That and we couldn't fit our furniture in the other 12' X 13' rooms in the house. Oh, the joys of an older homes-no master bedroom!

Typical of me, I never did take a picture of the master bedroom set up as a bedroom. In case you weren't aware, I suck as a blogger (as if my lack of posts wasn't already a big clue).

Finally, I decided to make our bedroom something that didn't embarrass me. One of the many problems with our bedroom is that it has a exterior door to our back yard. People are always walking into our house through that door. I don't know why our friends and family can't use our front door! At least the UPS guy does!

I painted the walls (using paint I already had), and caulked/painted all the trim white. For the record, caulking is hard! It looks so easy, but causes so much flipping mess! Hubby finally finished installing the moulding (all 7 pieces). I even made curtains (using stitch witchery) because long panels didn't fit with the chair rail height shelf found on 2 of the 4 walls (I hate that shelf!). We even had a new door and windows in stalled. The room was looking good, or at least, much better then what it had looked. The final step was to install carpet. And that's where I ran into problems and project creep.
1. Before we can get new carpet, we have to fix the plumbing and flooring issues in the master bedroom closet. FYI-this closet houses our washer and dryer.
2. Before we can fix the flooring/plumbing in the master closet, we have to remove/replace some walls.
3. And while we are removing/replacing walls, we might as well remove/cover-up the window that looks out from our master closet directly into one of our bathrooms. Yeah, privacy is a problem. I mean, it was great that I could fold laundry and watch my kids bath at the same time, but that time is fast ending and we all would really like some privacy when using that bathroom.
4. Before we cover that interior window, we need to install an exhaust fan into the bathroom because there is no other ventilation in that room.

Gah! That's where I am now. I'm working on the bathroom, so I can work on the master closet/laundry room, so I can finish up my bedroom makeover.
The plantation shutters in the pic is the window that looks out into my laundry room. While it looks like it provides some privacy, it doesn't really. There is one slat missing and it cannot be replaced (not by someone of my skill level anyway). The location of the missing slat is in the perfect position for viewing any and everything which is why I can watch my kids while doing laundry. Additionally, sounds are not muffled at all (if you know what I mean!).


Oh, see that hole? Yeah, I had to patch that 2 years ago. I know that as soon as we cut a hole in the ceiling to install an exhaust fan, the patch will crack and have to be repaired. I like repairing drywall almost as much as I love to caulk. I'm about as skilled too.

I should mention that these bathroom pictures are more than 2 years old. We have since had tile and bead board installed. So, it's much, much nicer, but not great. Hopefully, it's about to look great!

New step #1. Work on bathroom

So, let the games begin. I'll be showing my progress (I promise this time) on each of my steps (no, really).