The Making of a Homestead Luxury Bathroom

Homesteading is pretty intense; add homeschooling, starting a business and let's not forgot renovations! Which brings me to the subject of this blog post. 

Framing, sheet rocking and creating space

New windows

Adding shelves for storage

When we bought this 1890 farmhouse, we knew it was in need of a total, overall redo. Everything needed to be done and I mean everything.
Last summer we started renovations on the main family room. All of the work came to a halt, when my hubby had to travel across the country for work. He would be gone for the 3 months. While he was gone our current bathroom shower pipes froze and burst. It left myself and the children to travel to the community center to shower. I know this may sound like a huge deal, but we dealt with it. We are the new pioneers, I mean at least I had a place to shower, and it wasn't a watering hole or stream.

 It wasn't pretty, but at least I had a shower. 

Glass tile above the shower being installed.

My husband returned from his work trip only to jump right into a total bathroom replacement. There was one thing though . . . our plan was for the new bathroom to be on the other side of the house. We had to do do this because the old bathroom was located the slab part of the house. We were to move the current bathroom to where there was a basement, so we did not run into any more problems. And of course with an old home . . . once you start tearing things up you find all sorts of bad things. 

We planned on stealing 1/2 of the kitchen (which at some point will no longer be the kitchen at all) to make this 8' x 9' small bath to contain all the luxuries I wanted. 

Our plan was not an easy one.
Here is what I required in my tiny bathroom space:
1. Stand up shower stall. 
2. A private changing area
3. plenty of storage
4. A soaking tub. 

laying out tile

grouting

Yeah that is a lot of requirements for a small space. But what I have learned from previous home remodels is that put in what you really want. Our other hard task was to do this with out getting into debt. We drew up our plans, started the work and were patient. It took sometime longer than I wanted and some days it was not fun showering in a unfinished bath. And we seemed to run into problems constantly. The outside walls had lots of rot and no insulation, the floor had to be built up and leveled before it could be tiled.  

Focusing on some of the small
details adds character to your space.
Here is an antique cabinet I restored.

Pipes for a towel rack.

Adding pretty things make it an oasis.

I learned to have fun along the way. Have fun creating a great space. I would go shopping for colors, tile, antiques. I would go on pinterest and pin ideas. I had to search hard for an affordable soaking tub that would actually fit our space and our budget. I had to be patient and I can't say that I always was . . .but in the end we survived and our whole family is so happy with the results.

Barn style door built by my husband. 

It is small but deep. It certainly does the job.