Some More Detail on the house in the woods. (This is the second time I have done this – the first one got lost in cyberspace.) This is the Master Bathroom. The toilet used to be where this shower is and the shower was a little 3' X 3' hole in the wall (where the toilet is now). The shower and tub surround are cultured marble. We did not change the bathtub so the marble is “Bone” to match the tub.
Here is a picture from a little further out - it shows the Pine Wainscot that starts at the bathtub and goes around the toilet and ends with a magazine rack which is on the back side of the wall that extends out from the right. Both that wall and the one on the left were shortened and a door that separated the bathroom into two rooms was dispensed with. We made a laundry chute here that drops the laundry from upstairs into a basket in a closet in the bathroom below. I finished the laundry chute with spiral wound 1X4 board and bead siding. This picture was taken before the walls were painted – they are painted (an olive green sanded paint) in the picture above and below. We finally finished it off with light fixtures above the two vanities and stereo speakers in the walls.
This is another view of the bathroom using the mirror above the large vanity to reflect the shower enclosure. This cabinet was existing but the other one is new and had to be custom built for width and height and to fit around the plumbing. The light bulb hanging on a wire in front of the mirror has been replaced.
Another problem (opportunity) was the railing that
extends across where we removed the wall above the
stairway to the bedrooms on the lower level. We used
five 36 inch canoe paddles for the spindles and I was
able to locate some nicely curved Mahogany railing
from an old Cris Craft power boat for the two rails.
We have a couple of oars to use for the hand rail down
the stairs when I get a roundtoit (and figure out how
to make the short one shorter and the long one longer).
This is a sketch I made of the Vanity Table for the half bath (that is the door to the right of the little railing - above). We wanted to do something different and had seen a picture in a magazine that we liked a lot. Anyway this is how it got started. I found some Mahogany (pattern grade) and one of the pieces was 3" X 6" and that would make the legs. It took a while to get it all together – I am pretty slow at these sort of things (takes a lot of time to think it through).
I finally got all the pieces and parts made and one day I put it together – I use my table saw for a flat surface when ever I can and that is where you see it. After I took the clamps off, I hauled it into the family room at my house to do the varnishing. It was there for a month or so. After I got it where I could get some good measurements, I ordered a top for it. The top is a Coran rip off that is made here. I wanted something really dark to compliment the red of the Mahogany and contrast the really cheap porcelain sink. My idea was to get the feel of an old fashioned wash stand with a porcelain bowl and a pitcher of water. It is not really that primitive but it did turn out sort of nice. I had a heck of a time getting a picture of it in the tiny bathroom (with out getting myself in the picture). The next step is to get a mirror to go with it – probably something in a Mahogany frame. We have two light fixtures to go on either side of the mirror when we get it up (actually the lights need to come first because we need to do a hole in the wall behind the mirror to pull some more wiring – these things are not all planned – they just evolve.
Summer and Fall 2003 and Winter 2004.
