top five mistakes in mid-century modern bathroom remodel

You have read about my five favorite bathroom remodel features, now for the five top mistakes. If I had to do our remodel of two bathrooms and build of a third bathroom in our mid-century modern home all over again, what would I change? And, what may I correct eventually.

5. did not match white paint to tile in first two bathrooms.

Rookie mistake. I was so careful about everything except selecting the white paint. I should have matched the white paint to the white tile. But it didn't occur to me that white doesn't necessarily mean white. Had I gone onto the Benjamin Moore site and typed white, all would have been revealed to me.

Benjamin Moore endless shades of white.

top five favorite features mid-century bathroom remodel

I have restrained my natural impulses (nit picking the issues) and will provide my top five favorite features of our mid-century bathroom remodel. Next post will be top five least favorite items from the bathroom remodel.

#5 the tile.

Miles and miles of beautiful clean linear tile. I love the plank tiles and I love the white tiles. I love all the tile and very little drywall. The tile was a bit of an expense for sure. But we picked three different kinds of fairly standard Dahl tile, and didn't do all the tricky things that our plans initially called for with the tile. The results are simple and very modern. The white square tile and the mosaic floor tiles are both nods to mid-century.

Master feature tile wall

3 mid-century bathrooms remodeled

Veni, vidi, vici. I came, I saw, I conquered. Attributed to Julius Ceasar, 47 BC. It is done. Final sign off from City of Newport Beach inspector happened last Friday. The punch list is complete. I wrote the last check to the contractor. The porta-potty has been removed. For Mother's Day this past Sunday, I had a bath in my new tub. And Albert and I slept in the master bedroom for the first time in four and a half months. Whoot whoot.

Tub in the Guest Bathroom

weep screed and inspection

During construction, you just never know what will come up and what you will learn. Weep screed. This is a metal piece that is installed at the base of an exterior stucco wall, as opposed to having the stucco go right down to the dirt. And, we learned last week, the City of Newport Beach requires 4" of dirt be removed below the weep screed, next to the house, in order to pass final inspection. Bringing our 1950's foundation up to code during this project has been something of a challenge (read here for foundation footings issue).

This is before, you can see concrete mixed into the dirt and
gravel shoveled back against the fence.

the punch list mid-century style

We are getting down to the nitty gritty. It is punch list time. I realized the contractor was scheduling the last of the sub appointments for this week and next, and we had to speak now or forever hold our peace. I made Albert walk through the addition on Sunday and help me make notes of all the little things. He actually got way more into it than I did, typing on his iPad enthusiastically. I finally discovered why Apple added cameras to iPads. Evernote plus iPad camera equals an amazing punch list. I found myself saying, "I can live with it" kind of a lot. You get to this point. Plus Albert is really picky, if you ask me.

Amazing Punch List

lights, towel bars and wood floor repairs in mid-century modern remodel

My pictures are going to be of slightly lesser quality. I explain why here. However, they won't totally suck as I am using an iPhone 4S. Check out this picture comparison of the iPhone 4S and other phones/cameras. Amazing.

The first two bathrooms are essentially complete. We had some additional lighting finished, and also got the towel bars and toilet paper holders installed.

Master totally lit up, see the light above the vanity? And the light in the shower?

shower doors and paint in mid-century modern bathroom remodel

Doors are so important to the shower experience and I am happy to report we have beautiful, stunning, extra clear glass, half-inch thick shower doors. Of course they are frameless with a plain chrome handle. They swing both in and out. We also got the bathrooms painted in Benjamin Moore Super White. No kidding. I thought it would be blinding but I kind of dig it.

Alex's bathroom; see the shower door and the blinding white paint?

toilets, faucets and showers in a mid-century modern

This was plumber week. Good news is we have working toilets, faucets and showers. I'll get to the bad news towards the end. Alex's bathroom first.

Alex's Bathroom!

Kohler Santa Rosa toilet, which is considered a compact size. We like that it is sleek and modern.

mid-century modern bathroom counters

Typical, back-in-the-day, mid-century modern bathroom counter tops were some sort of cool pastel shade  like pink or turquoise. Learn more about pink retro bathrooms at savethepinkbathrooms.

avoid remodel rework; check your bathroom parts

When remodeling any space, parts pile up. Plumbing parts, doors, sinks, toilets, hardware and the like. I haven’t really been paying much attention to them, except when they get installed.

Parts stacked all over the master bedroom.

80/20 rule and remodeling -- all about louver closet doors

The closets in a 1955 house suck. Period. A big bonus in this project was the addition of a closet in the master bedroom, plus new louver doors on all the closets in the house (grand total of five when we are done). Please keep in mind this house has a flat roof, with no attic, and because we are in Southern California, no basement. Needless to say, storage is at a premium. The “before” closet doors were 1950’s sliders that came off the tracks, like, every day. And in the guest bedroom the previous owner had removed the closet doors and installed bookshelves, taking the total closets in the house down to three. At one point, we installed swing out doors, in a cheap ugly MDF material (blech). The house is extremely damp, and any closet doors that are air tight are dangerous. Clothes quickly become attacked by mold and mildew which is why louver doors are the perfect solution (air circulation) in the damp Pacific ocean climate.

Weird MDF closet doors in guest bedroom

physics laws, stucco and mid-century modern remodeling

Alex called me at work last week. I always pick up for him, just in case it is important.
“Mom, how much did that bowl on the table cost?”

“Why?” I asked suspiciously.

“Just tell me how much it cost,” insisted Alex.

Sharp as a tack, I immediately catch on. “Were you playing around with the Lazy Susan?”

Sitting on it, I have a candle from CandlEssence in a mid-century modern Bauer bowl. 

He confessed, "I forgot about centrifugal force." 

broken windows theory and remodeling: wrapping a mid-century

Here is the Valentine's card I am giving Albert tomorrow. 

electrical upgrade to mid-century modern house

Last week we got a new electrical panel. We went from a 100 amp service to a 200 amp service which allows more circuit breakers, and means we can have more lights and more stuff running at the same time. We have had trouble with Christmas lights, blow dryers and the ever present space heaters. I like this video on YouTube from “Randy” which explains when to upgrade your panel. He is a little dry, but what do you expect from an electrician?

New electrical panel next to 60 year-old crappy panel on left

recovering from a remodeling window mistake

I got this text a couple of nights ago from Albert while I was out walking with my energetic walking friend. “I need you to check out the window, two were swapped I think. MBR with left open?” Disturbing. I examined the windows when I got home. The proportions were weird, but were they wrong? The architect and I had extensive bathroom window discussions (e.g. vinyl vs. aluminum and manufacturer, Milgard). I didn’t really remember a lot of bedroom window discussions aside from the manufacturer (Pella). I valiantly attempted to read our fourteen pages of plans. After about 45 minutes, I deduced, the bedroom windows in our mid-century modern remodel were most likely, in fact, switched.

MBR Window

framing a mid-century modern remodel

Good news or bad news first? Let’s start with the good news. We had lots of work done last week and saw many trades march in and out of the addition. The framers showed up at the crack of dawn one morning, crawling all over the property. Shockingly, by the end of the day, much of what you see here was completed. Framing makes things seem much farther along than they really are. You still need electrical, plumbing, wallboard, a roof, tile, sinks, blah-blah-blah but for the first time, you get the real idea of what all your money is buying you. The new bathrooms look VAST in my opinion. Let me remind you of the humble beginnings. Again, 167 very important square feet are being added.

Left side from Alex's room

foundation in a mid-century modern remodel

You’d be surprised at the things you get used to during a remodel. I don’t even blink when I go out to my car everyday and there is a porta-potty sitting next to it. And, I barely care that the architect’s and the contractor’s advertising is planted in our front yard. They didn’t ask if they could put their signs there, and I didn’t ask them if I could write a blog about their work. Touché.

Porta-potty blends in with the basketball hoop nicely

heating a mid-century modern home

It is the end of week two, and we have heat! Anyone who owns a mid-century modern home knows the infrastructure, at this stage in the game, is shot. The house doesn't heat up properly, the electricity is under-powered, and the water pipes are too small. The solution for the poured in the foundation heating ducts which had rotted out during the last twenty years was so much simpler than we had been led to believe. A cut in the ceiling here, a poke through the wall there, and we have forced air heating up and down the length of an 18 foot hallway with one foot of dropped ceiling (just enough for a duct as it turns out). It is our ONLY dropped ceiling in the whole house, almost as if it had been made for just this purpose (perhaps it had?).

Ceiling hall which holds the heater and all the ducting, see the new"front" room vent on the left.

footings in mid-century modern homes

On day two of the much anticipated mid-century modern bathroom remodel, I got a call from the contractor. “Your house has no footings.” Because I am a marketing person who works in I.T., I have already been trained that pretending to understand gets me into trouble within 30 seconds of the start of the conversation. So I immediately asked, “What’s a footing?”

post purge - clearing the way for the remodel

The purge is in full swing. I am sure the neighbors suspect our Christmas was far too merry judging by the height of the trash piled up on the curb. Luckily in Newport Beach, you are not required to use recycling bins, or pre-sort your trash. They take everything and sort it for you, supposedly, somewhere. And also, luckily, we gave our trash guy his usual $25 Target gift card. Honestly, it is not enough. There is nothing that man won't haul away from the curb.