A little remodeling project~

It's been a little over 4 years ago that we built our home and moved up north. At the time, our builder Richmond American Homes, was only offering a $5000.00 design center incentive for things like upgraded cabinetry, carpet, countertops, fixtures etc. There were also additional construction extras that had to be purchased before the home was built like our fireplace, bay window in the dining room, and the 3rd car garage. The construction upgrades were costly so we had to choose between those things that couldn't be done after the home was built, and those things that we could always go back and change later.

After careful consideration, we decided we didn't want to pay for design upgrades(with interest) for the next 30 years, so Mike said we could match the $5,000 incentive for a total of $10,000 to spend at the Richmond Design Center. Now if you've ever built a new home, you know that $10,000 doesn't go very far, so we really had to choose carefully & wisely at the time. We upgraded our cabinets because I couldn't imagine gutting the kitchen at some point, we opted for the paint package because after getting bids from individual painters, the Richmond price was much cheaper, we did a little hardwood(not nearly as much as I would have liked), & with the exception of a few other minor upgrades here & there, that's about all ten grand will get you.

So over the last 4 years we have been slowly and steadily upgrading our home with beautiful custom window treatments, new fixtures here & there, upgraded flooring, extensive landscaping/patio, etc. We decided to take a "pay as you go" approach, and it's not been a quick nor inexpensive process. I have to say, though, that I really love our home and everything we've done so far!!

One of the areas we didn't choose to upgrade when we purchased the home were the bathrooms. I had wanted to at the time, but Mike was insistent that we could do it later at a much more affordable cost. So we waited. And waited. And then finally a couple months or so ago we hired an old neighbor friend of Mike's who has his own business, and we renovated our master bathroom. It was a lot of fun picking out the new Travertine flooring, granite, decorative tiling, new shower inclosure, and fixtures. I have to say it was well worth the wait.


So here was the old, standard, not a bit exciting, master bathroom:





Standard 4x4 porcelain tiles in the shower. Ugly & hard to keep clean!


At one point Mike decided to lay linoleum in front of the shower because the carpet was getting gross, but he never finished the job! Nice! Right!!!!


Lovely!!


I was thrilled to have a large soaking tub, but this was just not very inviting!!


And, yes, we had carpet in our bathroom(except the toilet closet)-how gross is that!!?



And now for the new, updated, gorgeous, I can't wait to take a long hot bath every day, master bathroom:





Our new shower, new doors(specially treated so that they don't get water spots- whoever invented this treatment is a genius!!)


We opted to move the shower out, so that it butts right up to the tub and had a granite bench built in the corner of the shower.


Now that's what I'm talking about!!


I have taken a bath every day since the bathroom was completed. I love it!!


Good-bye carpet, hello Travertine!!


Next up?? More hardwoods!!