Master Bath
Love this house, didn't love the master bathroom. It needed improvements on many fronts. It actually needs a total gut and remodel, but instead we have been chipping away at each issue.
Lighting. As soon as we moved in, I installed LED bulbs with higher lumens and I added a small lamp on my marble top vanity table, and that was a huge help.
Heat. I got an electric space heater. Without it, this room stayed at 60 degrees, even as the central furnace roared. We fiddled with the heat vents, but the bathroom stubbornly refused to reach the same temperature as the rest of the house.
With this faux urn heater I can boost the temp up to 70 degrees when I shower, but mostly I keep it at 66. The unit rotates and it's very quiet. It hasn't seemed to add much to our electric bill and it's been a godsend.
I can sit at the little table and try mightily to make some magic happen with jewelry and make up. It's a lost battle at my age, but I'm warm now and the bears are less grumpy.
Blinds. Two skinny, super tall windows over the tub and over the toilet are odd. I got honeycomb shades with a wand long enough to operate them, and had those installed last fall. It looks better than what was there. But the shades always stay closed, they aren't really for opening.
Paint. I disliked the flesh pink walls in this room. The tub surround and shower tiles are taupe, the vanity top is rough cream tiles, and the cabinet is orange knotty pine. The floor is reddish Mexican tile. It's far from the sleek marble-white dove-gray tones that are so popular in bath decor right now.
But I don't want the trendy cool whites that look so minimalist and generic. As with our old fashioned kitchen, I'm happy with the warm colors anddated vintage wood and tile. I'm okay with "rustic" in an age of "sleek chic".
I repainted the pink walls neutral, unsure what else to do. It's Benjamin Moore "Cotton Balls" which seemed like the right color for bathroom paint. I like the clean, brighter look.
Hot Water. The master bath is far from the hot water tank, and it took a minute and a half for warm water to get to the sink. 90 seconds doesn't sound like much, but that wasted well over a gallon of water down the drain each time. I measured it. And that was multiple times a day.
But worse was waiting for the start of lukewarm water for that long, just to quickly wash my hands or rinse something off, so I never did it. I washed up in icy water all the time. It felt like we lived in a cold water flat.
So we got a tiny Bosch hot water tank that plugs in under the sink. It's only two gallons, heated and kept at 100 degrees -- really it's just a large glass lined thermos.
It's enough warm water to wash my hands or fill the dental water pik, or moisten a cloth for washing. No more cold water pouring down the drain while I wait. No more bracing myself to plunge my hands under running ice water. I rarely use the whole tank up, but if I do, by the time I've used the immediate two gallons (about two minutes), the main water heater flow has reached the faucet and there's running hot water if I need more.
It still takes a while for the shower to heat up, but I put a 2 gallon bucket in the stall and fill that to use in the garden, while waiting for the shower water to heat. You have to put up with the sight of me lugging a bucket out to the back courtyard every day, my hair wrapped in a towel and sloshing water on the way, but just don't look.
Sinks. This was a repair issue -- both sinks in the master bath vanity had to be replaced. There was a thin crack in the porcelain bowl in one, which we knew when we bought the house and figured we'd live with. The other sink was fine, but a couple months after moving in, the pop up drain mechanism broke in two so the drain could not be closed. The sinks and the faucets / drains all got replaced at the same time.
So here we are, with a brightly painted master bath that has warm water on demand (aahhh), good lighting, enough heat, and brand new porcelain sinks and faucets. It's not trendy looking at all, it's not remodeled to current tastes, but it's comfortable now.
I even embraced the rustic old cabin look in earnest and put up my Wyoming bucking bronco plaque. Really. What else would you want to see stepping out of the shower?
Lighting. As soon as we moved in, I installed LED bulbs with higher lumens and I added a small lamp on my marble top vanity table, and that was a huge help.
Heat. I got an electric space heater. Without it, this room stayed at 60 degrees, even as the central furnace roared. We fiddled with the heat vents, but the bathroom stubbornly refused to reach the same temperature as the rest of the house.
With this faux urn heater I can boost the temp up to 70 degrees when I shower, but mostly I keep it at 66. The unit rotates and it's very quiet. It hasn't seemed to add much to our electric bill and it's been a godsend.
I can sit at the little table and try mightily to make some magic happen with jewelry and make up. It's a lost battle at my age, but I'm warm now and the bears are less grumpy.
Blinds. Two skinny, super tall windows over the tub and over the toilet are odd. I got honeycomb shades with a wand long enough to operate them, and had those installed last fall. It looks better than what was there. But the shades always stay closed, they aren't really for opening.
Paint. I disliked the flesh pink walls in this room. The tub surround and shower tiles are taupe, the vanity top is rough cream tiles, and the cabinet is orange knotty pine. The floor is reddish Mexican tile. It's far from the sleek marble-white dove-gray tones that are so popular in bath decor right now.
But I don't want the trendy cool whites that look so minimalist and generic. As with our old fashioned kitchen, I'm happy with the warm colors and
I repainted the pink walls neutral, unsure what else to do. It's Benjamin Moore "Cotton Balls" which seemed like the right color for bathroom paint. I like the clean, brighter look.
Hot Water. The master bath is far from the hot water tank, and it took a minute and a half for warm water to get to the sink. 90 seconds doesn't sound like much, but that wasted well over a gallon of water down the drain each time. I measured it. And that was multiple times a day.
But worse was waiting for the start of lukewarm water for that long, just to quickly wash my hands or rinse something off, so I never did it. I washed up in icy water all the time. It felt like we lived in a cold water flat.
It's enough warm water to wash my hands or fill the dental water pik, or moisten a cloth for washing. No more cold water pouring down the drain while I wait. No more bracing myself to plunge my hands under running ice water. I rarely use the whole tank up, but if I do, by the time I've used the immediate two gallons (about two minutes), the main water heater flow has reached the faucet and there's running hot water if I need more.
It still takes a while for the shower to heat up, but I put a 2 gallon bucket in the stall and fill that to use in the garden, while waiting for the shower water to heat. You have to put up with the sight of me lugging a bucket out to the back courtyard every day, my hair wrapped in a towel and sloshing water on the way, but just don't look.
Sinks. This was a repair issue -- both sinks in the master bath vanity had to be replaced. There was a thin crack in the porcelain bowl in one, which we knew when we bought the house and figured we'd live with. The other sink was fine, but a couple months after moving in, the pop up drain mechanism broke in two so the drain could not be closed. The sinks and the faucets / drains all got replaced at the same time.
So here we are, with a brightly painted master bath that has warm water on demand (aahhh), good lighting, enough heat, and brand new porcelain sinks and faucets. It's not trendy looking at all, it's not remodeled to current tastes, but it's comfortable now.
I even embraced the rustic old cabin look in earnest and put up my Wyoming bucking bronco plaque. Really. What else would you want to see stepping out of the shower?
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