Pepper Design Blog

Curb Appeal: Transforming the Side Yard, Part 2

Last I left you we were on our way to transforming the jungle of a side yard that is the left side of our home (from the street view) into a cozy outdoor dining nook. More progress to share today!

Here’s a glance at the yard just as this project was breaking ground:

And here’s where we left off after the last post:

Next up for Kevin was digging a terribly long trench that stretched from the existing wall in the back all the way to the front of the house. Talk about back breaking work! The trench ended up at about two feet wide and 40 feet long. 

It’s hard to see in that above photo, but just below the pink paper is our neighbor’s existing sidewalk, and the trench drops down into that dark dirt just below. Our neighbors have been awesome during this entire process (they’re wonderful neighbors, seriously the best) and we’ve definitely been invading their space.

And here’s the existing block wall that we’re building off of (though the walls won’t actually touch until the very end and they receive an overlapping final coat of a tan shade of concrete – same color that is there now):

Here’s a close up of the footings which will help hold the rebar (an important part of the internal structure of this wall) in place:

The rebar slips up and over the metal prongs protruding from those concrete blocks.

Finally we brought in a cement truck for a few hours to help fill in that trench with a thick layer of cement. Alternately, Kevin could have mixed the concrete himself and filled the long trench with wheelbarrows full, but we find that Craigslist is a great resource to find a concrete truck that has a couple of extra hours available in between big projects at an inexpensive rate. Kev’s done the whole mixing concrete thing himself (we still have a concrete mixer in the back somewhere) and it’s great for little projects!

To get said concrete into the trench, we also hired a Craigslist subcontractor that handles pumping the cement from the truck directly into the trench (rather than pumping concrete into a wheelbarrow and manually into the trench – which can take many, many round trips!).

Very soon the trench was looking more like this! Kevin and his friend David are carefully leveling and measuring as they go. This newly filled trench will provide the base for the concrete block and it needs to be perfectly flat so that we end up with a nice and straight wall.

Getting there! So very close. Next up is stacking the concrete block and mortaring in place.

Here’s to that stud in the white shirt and khaki shorts that keeps knocking this wall out (or up?) one day at a time.

You can follow the side yard transformation with our breaking ground post here, and more outdoor projects can be found right here.

Building a Bathroom: Finished!

BIG news to share today, the guest bathroom is finished!

There are a few odds and ends that are still on the to-do list, like hanging hooks for damp towels, a large blank wall space that might potentially find itself with artwork or shelving in the future, etc. but for the most part we are calling it Finished! as of April 15, 2012.

Here’s a shot coming into the bathroom from Liv’s room. Because the space used to be three adjoining closets, now the bathroom opens up to both her nursery as well as the hallway for guests.

On any given day, we have silly bath time (Liv Loves bath time!) and then wrap her up in a fluffy towel and carry the little burrito into her room to get dressed.

The lighting in these photos is really reading ‘blue’, but the actual space is much more turquoisey blue.

There are so many details that I love about the room, but most importantly that  every element was picked out, installed and fussed over by us. There’s nothing more satisfying than knowing that as a team you accomplished the entire space together! With lots of patience, creativity and sweat equity.

Here’s a shot of the opposite wall with our recycled glass shower nook and single pane door:

Take a peek into the shower and bathtub. It’s so awesome to have a bathtub in the house now! We installed brushed nickel hardware throughout, from the sink faucet to the  shower and bathtub hardware.

The grey grout brings in a little modern edge, helps to keep the tile grout from getting noticeably old (as white grout tends to do over the years) and matches our silver accents as well. For a full 360 degree view, here’s a glance at the other side of the shower.

A few recent bath additions include a new mat in a soft turquoise color (matches the walls and tile perfectly) with a white damask print. I was so over the moon to come across it on Joss & Main!

Adds the perfect amount of eye-catching pattern. Although I must admit, the bright white of the damask means that I’m throwing it in the wash every week.

Other favorite details include my new art, two pieces that I scoured Etsy for for a long time and finally settled on for their calming color scheme and artistic vibe. I really searched these guys out… talk about indecisiveness! But I love my final prints and I loved working with the artists first hand.

The yellow and grey watercolor featuring organic roses and grey leaves is by Stephanie Ryan:

While the beautiful, overexposed ocean print is by Honey Tree.

Sorry, it was hard to not get a glare on that guy. I really love both, but Kevin is a little uncertain on that bright pop of turquoise in the ocean print. We’ll see how it sits with us for a few weeks and may end up changing the picture to something else (and I’ll have to find another awesome spot to showcase the photo).

When it comes to framing, I find that ordering custom frames and mats online is always much more cost effective – plus you get the exact sizes that you need rather than what’s on the floor at Aaron’s Brothers or Michaels (though I use those sources plenty, too). I highly recommend this eBay seller for really great, inexpensive mats and professional frames.

Nicole of NikJDesigns was wonderful to work with! I brought her the idea of creating an Anthropologie-esq fabric bucket with handles for the bathroom (inspired by this guy) to act as extra towel storage, and this is what she created for me:

It’s a soft, malleable bag that holds three rolled towels perfectly. It can actually be flipped inside out or you can roll the top down several inches to reveal the creamy white fabric inside.

We used silver accents for the faucet hardware but brought in bits of gold and oil rubbed bronze in the form of a few decorative pieces, like this DIY gold mercury vase:

Really helps to warm the cool space up.

The new hardware on the door (which Kevin just finished stripping, sanding and painting this weekend) matches our kitchen door hardware and we’ll try to eventually bring in the oil rubbed bronze throughout the house.

I changed out the factory knobs on the vanity for these Anthro options and I really love what they add.

They’re a beautiful bone color that works perfectly with all of the white in the space, the bold black stripe matches some of the darker hardware. Hoping to eventually add either these towel hooks in linen or a set of brushed silver.

Another favorite is the natural light the new tube skylight brings in. Having natural light in this space makes all the difference.

Big, huge kudos to Lowe’s who helped us make it happen. This was a renovation that would have been much further down the budgeting line for us, but the awesome team over at Lowe’s asked if they could help sponsor a project and we couldn’t find a more fitting room to tackle! As you know if you’ve followed the space from gutted closets to finished bath, we used Lowe’s for nearly all of the product throughout, from the WaterSense toilet to the radiant heating in the floors to the plumbing in those walls. Kohler ended up sponsoring an air jet tub that is out of this world! I have no idea how we ended up as the lucky blog recipient of their team’s generosity, but I am enormously grateful that we were chosen.

It’s hard to believe it all started with three hall closets!! Here’s the gutted version of the closets:

And a peek at the three closets and old hallway from the bedrooms before demo began:

That wall is actually now this wall:

More on the painter’s tape design and chalkboard transformation here.

For a better visual on how those three closets and hallway became a new bathroom, here’s the floor plan before we started (the closets are in the very center in white):

And how it all came together after:

Here’s a list of our resources:

*Shower glass tile: Elida Ceramica recycled glass tile in Moonlight
*White subway tile: American Olean subway tile
*Vanity: Java Broadway by Estate with a Kohler white sink
*Vanity faucet: Moen Caldwell in brushed nickel
*Vanity knobs: Black and white striped bone knobs by Anthropologie
*Vanity light: Portfolio
*Vanity mirror: thrift store find
*Toilet: Kohler WaterSense toilet
*Air jet bathtub: Kohler
*Tub and shower faucet: Moen Caldwell in brushed nickel
*Skylight: VELUX tubular skylight
*Radiant heating: Watts SunTouch Underfloor Warming Mat
*Floor tiles: Metro Leather porcelain tile by Arizona Tile
*Frameless glass door: Bob’s Glass (a San Diego mom & pop shop)
*Chevron print bath bag: NikJDesigns
*Framing for bath art: Tabby7
*Ocean print: Honey Tree
*Roses watercolor: Stephanie Ryan
*Parisian bath mat: Joss & Main (though it was a daily deal find)
*Wall paint: Sea Salt Blue by Valspar

So, so very thrilled with the end result, and so happy to have our new bathroom-built-from-scratch finished!

Follow the entire renovation adventure: installing the glass panel shower door,  a vintage mirror, installation time, vanity wars, subway tile installation, floor tiles and toe warmers, a quick catch-up on our work on the bathroom in 2011, tiling with recycled glass, choosing and installing a bathtub, demo time!, a peak at the layout, initial inspiration, partnering with Lowe’s

We partnered with Lowe’s on our bathroom remodel and had the opportunity to try out some of their product at no cost and some product at a discount. The ideas and stories shared in this post are entirely our own, promise.

Building a Bathroom: Installing a New Shower Door

If you’re wondering what the heck is going on with our guest bathroom remodel, that makes two of us. We are officially one year into this project, but I think we’re coming around the bend with the finish line in sight!

We finished the new kitchen in about four months so it was a surprise to both Kevin and me that this bathroom (which is so much smaller) is taking so much longer. I guess patience is a huge part of the home renovating pie. You really never can guarantee what you’ll come across as you go, be it budget, construction obstacles, time delays unrelated to the renovation entirely (but inevitably affect it anyways), and you know how it goes… Many apologies for the drawn out story.

Happily we marked one more big install off of our list this week! Yes, after waiting far too long for this shower door to be delivered (long story short, the glass company was patiently waiting on us while we were patiently waiting on them… and finally we all communicated) she’s looking so brilliant.

And here’s a shot of her swinging a full 45 degrees open:

It’s a frameless glass panel! And it was the best option/investment that we could make for this new bathroom. We contemplated a shower rod and curtain but we would cover up that beautiful recycled blue/green glass tile (the tile can’t decide what color it is… it changes all the time depending on its mood. Maybe that’s why it was called Moonstone?? ).

A framed glass sliding door was option two. But when it came down to the price we just couldn’t mess with how open and airy and beautiful a solo glass panel looked (and compared with a full sliding glass door, it wasn’t too much more). Since Lowes’ Awesome team was helping us with components of the bathroom such as the bathtub, fixtures, skylight, radiant heating, vanity, tile and toilet, we had a little extra from our saved up stash (that we used on construction materials, plumbing, electrical and so on) to splurge on a wow stopper just like this guy.

PS we had the best experience working with Lowe’s and they are my go-to. I cannot express how thrilled we were to make this entire bathroom happen with their help. Lowe’s, you guys rock.

Our secret for saving a little extra here was to have a glass company cut the shatterproof glass panel for us (rather than a store that specialized in bathrooms) and then to have Kevin install it himself. We did take the glass company up on their offer to measure (just in case the walls of our older bungalow were tilted just enough to notice a slant in a straight piece glass panel) at an extra cost.

You can have the door panel cut as a perfect rectangle, but the radius on the upper corner is a feature I’ve seen before and one I loved. Here’s the drawing I ended up sending over to the glass company:

But we ended up choosing to extend the door out to 34″ and to a height of 64″ to make sure the shower spray wouldn’t sneak up and around the single panel while someone was showering .

Installation ended up being pretty basic – and easily saved us over $200. After measuring out the hinge holes in the tile wall, Kevin used a glass and tile bit drill through the tile, into the wall and into a stud (we had planned on some sort of shower door so we made sure to have a stud in this location when we were framing out the room). Up went the glass and the hinge which was then screwed into the predrilled holes. Note: unless you’re super comfortable with all of the above, consider hiring a professional to do this if you find yourself installing glass anytime soon.

These hinges are heavy duty, the two alone are supporting the weight of the glass. They’re also pretty:

The edge of the glass panel that meets the tub is lined with a long rubber squeegee for a tight seal.

Still awaiting new art, towel hooks and that door back there is in need of a new coat of paint and a door handle (it used to be a closet door so there wasn’t a handle on the inside, these days you’ll find a little rotating disc  to open and close the door to Liv’s room).

If the photos are coming through a little fuzzy on your end, Kevin took them with his iPhone and beamed them on over earlier this week. Liv and I are up in the bay area of California on a work trip while the hubby stays home for school and home projects.

And there’s the handsome man behind it all:

(I couldn’t leave out the best pic he texted.)

Here’s a round-up of more inspiration for frameless glass panel shower doors from DecorPad:

They’re pretty cool looking, right?

More building a bathroom posts: a vintage mirror, installation time, vanity wars, subway tile installation,  floor tiles and toe warmers, a quick catch-up on our work on the bathroom in 2011, tiling with recycled glass, choosing and installing a bathtub, demo time!, a peak at the layout, initial inspiration, partnering with Lowe’s

We partnered with Lowe’s on our bathroom remodel and had the opportunity to try out some of their product at no cost and some product at a discount. The ideas and stories shared in this post are entirely our own, promise.