The House That Love Built Part Two

Our Renovated Bedrooms and Baths

Hello and welcome back to Part Two of my series about how we have done a 16 year renovation to our home! In part one, I gave a little history of how we came to be in this house and the extensive renovations it has needed. I also shared our living room and kitchen with you in Part One. Today's post will show a couple of our bedrooms and a couple of our bathrooms. The pic you see above is our master bedroom. You know I love blue and so does the Mr. so we have chosen to keep our bedroom more of a blue space rather than emphasizing the lodge look. We did continue the lodge look with the ceiling fan which features wooden paddles and an elk and pine tree motif along the sides. We also did a similar theme with the bedside lamps.

The shades are quite similar to the shades on the kitchen lights. While I like these shades, they are a little annoying as the leather strips tend to want to come loose along the edges. 

We use rugs throughout the house over our wood floors and we opted for a blue and tan one in the bedroom which coordinates well with the window toppers and the bed quilt. We typically get our rugs from places like Home Depot and/or Lowes. Keeping them fairly inexpensive means they can be replaced if need be, especially if you have pets. Two certain little cats like to sharpen their claws on the rugs from time to time! Amazingly, these rugs hold up to this extremely well. 

We bought this armoire several years ago as an unfinished piece and the Mr. finished it. It matches the other bedroom furniture. The mirror next to it is my "skinny mirror." I call it that because the angle it sits at makes me look more slender. Everyone needs a skinny mirror!

We have two chest of drawers that originally belonged to my husband's grandfather and they were among the first pieces we owned after we got married. My husband refinished them as they were in rough condition. 

You may recognize the heart shaped pillows I sewed awhile back. And, there will always be a pile of books next to my side of the bed! Actually, there are books in every room in our house. 

When we moved in there was very old and ugly beige carpet throughout the house which we removed to let the wood floors shine. We were removing floor staples for weeks on end because they were everywhere holding down the carpet! The bedroom walls were a sort of orange-pink color and the master bath had a baby blue sink and blue and white tiles above a blue tub. Part of the tiles were missing and there were NO electrical outlets in either of the bathrooms. That made for a fun time trying to dry your hair!

This is the master bath now. We went with green Silestone counter tops and maple cabinetry. This room was another "gut back to the studs" by my husband. He built the little nooks you see next to the sink area. I really like that unique touch to the master bath! He installed the cabinets himself and tiled the floor. His favorite job in this room, though, was getting to bust out the old blue tub. He and a friend went to town with sledgehammers and had a ball! They, of course, researched how to do it safely. 

Rather than a tub, we added a walk-in shower which is wonderful to have, especially as we age. The swirls of tan and creme in the shower match the walls and cabinetry well. The master bedroom and bath are not incredibly feminine rooms since they are shared areas for the Mr. and me. We both enjoy the wood features and the Silestone countertop in the master bath and the calm oasis of blue in the bedroom. Of course this oasis was not calm years ago on the night the bat came down the living room fireplace and proceeded to fly in circles above our bed while I hunkered under the covers. The Mr. came to the rescue and caught the bat in a towel and tossed it out the bedroom window! Luckily, years later, this is just a humorous memory now and we joke about the night "Bart the Bat" got into the house!

Now, let's take a peek into a second bedroom and one of my favorite rooms in the house!

This room is a "Debbie room" and it houses a lot of things that I love. It is my craft room, my reading library and my music room. I house some of my clothing and accessories here and I have recently moved my mother's old Singer treadle sewing machine into this room. I love to be in this room as it is cozy and comfortable. The green couch is a sofa bed in case we have overnight guests, so this room also serves as a guest room if needed. But 99% of the time, it is "my space" to enjoy! A favorite feature in this room are the white wall bookshelves the Mr. built for me! Cassie and Garden also like looking out the window, so we have a cushion set up at window height for them. That may be replaced by a cat window seat in the future. 

When we moved into the house we actually used this room as our bedroom while working on other parts of the house. The walls were a drab brown and the wind would whistle through the old windows sending an icy chill into the room. Now the room is light and bright and I love seeing the sun shine through the windows!

The Mr. teases me and says I am "Debbiefying" the space as I add things I love to the walls in the room. Some of these items are my own creations! 

Another room that I have added some of my own Debbie touches too has been our second bath/guest bath. I loved adding lots of blue and white beachy themed items to this room. The serenity sign above the cabinet is a favorite touch. 

Love the seashell rug on top of the tile my husband installed.

It was so much fun working on adding just the right touches to this cabinet shelf.

When we moved in, this bathroom was sort of a drab brown with striped brown wallpaper. UGLY!!!!  No outlets and an oversize sink cabinet that you had to walk around carefully to keep from bumping into it. The Mr. gutted the room back to the studs and started over. My only regret in this room is I chose to go, at the time, with ready made cabinets from either Lowes or Home Depot (can't remember which) rather than the higher quality cabinets we have in our other bathrooms. But, I was in a hurry to have a room finished and I would have had to wait for the other cabinets! A girl can only take so much waiting on construction and I dearly wanted to have this bathroom completed and looking decent! 

I absolutely love the tile the Mr. installed in the tub/shower area and the accent tile along the top is beautiful. We did keep the original tub in this bathroom. You may have noticed that we went with shower curtains in our bathrooms rather than shower doors. We debated this quite a bit. We had shower doors in our previous two houses and, honestly, I think it's easier to deal with shower curtains than doors. I can easily wash shower curtains in the washer and replace them economically when needed. Shower doors can be a pain to keep clean. Others may disagree, and that's OK, but we're sticking with shower curtains for now.

As I close out this second post in the series of our house renovation I'll share a few personal thoughts. As an introvert who blogs, I am always debating on my posts as to whether or not I am oversharing. Whether I am styling an outfit, writing a devotion or, like now, opening portions of my home to my readers, I must admit to feeling a bit vulnerable. My home is my "safe place" and I want to take care in sharing and opening it up for criticism. I realize that my decor may not be your cup of tea, but it is ours. And, as I said in the first post, we live in a home and not a museum, so my rooms may not fit your idea of picture perfect blog decor. I'm not apologizing by the way, just explaining that I believe that all types of homes are worthy of being shared and enjoyed. 

Speaking of enjoyment, I hope you will take a moment to share what you are enjoying so far in this series. And I would love for you to share favorite parts of your homes! Is there a room or space or picture or object in your home that you especially love? Let me know about it, OK?!  And, I hope that you will join me for Part Three of this series, in which I will share come current renovation that is happening and I will also share how I contribute to the renovation projects as well as the "fun" story of our move-in day sixteen years ago. Hope to see you then!

Until Next Time,
Debbie