New Bathroom For Christmas

All I want for Christmas is a…bathroom?

It was one of the first things on the list when we bought the old farmhouse. A hundred years ago, families were big right? Lots of children running around the house. And only one tiny bathroom? Well, they certainly knew how to make do with less back then. For my brood? We need two bathrooms.

When they added the attached garage to the house in 2006, they left this perfect space for a bathroom addition. This space sits just outside the laundry room (on the other side of the pink insulation) and our weird hall space (behind the wall on the left). On the other side of the wall to the right is the great outdoors. You can see the old siding still left on the walls.

Kind of a cool thing about this space is the fact that there are two large cisterns underneath the ground here. We pulled back the concrete covers to take a peek and found them to be in great condition. I wish I would have taken pics before they were covered. It’s likely these were used once to capture water from the downspout during storms, but they’re bone dry now. Most people will fill these old cisterns so they don’t capsize. Our would make a cool wine cellar or hidden passage, but we decided to simply close them back up and build over them.

New plumbing has been put in. Plenty of space for a 36″ shower/tub, toilet, 36″ linen closet and 48″ vanity. We’re also bringing the laundry room wall back three feet to expand that tiny space a little.

This window will go away and the tub will sit here.

And this is where the laundry room will come out. Take a look at that cool shiplap we uncovered to the left! This was behind all that old chippy white siding. I had the contractor save what he took out so I could use it later.

The new fan is vented and the linen closet is framed.

This will be the door to the house. On the other side of this space is the weird hall I mentioned before. It’s a space that annexes the dining and living room, and is large enough to be its own room. We’re still trying to figure out what to do with it.

This is another good look at the beautiful century old shiplap I told you about. We considered leaving it exposed but in the end decided to drywall over it.

During the bathroom install we also had the heat pump/AC replaced. The old one was twenty-one years old and on its last legs. We had it moved from the side of the house to back here so we can put a wrap around porch on the house next spring.

It seems kind of strange to put in a new AC with snow on the ground, but we’ll appreciate it next summer for sure.

Good things are happening to this old farmhouse. We’re slowly making it our own, one room at a time.