Fix It Philip: Our Greenbriar Home's Cape Cod Ashley Bathroom Remodel

Greenbriar Ashley Model : 1960s Levitt Cape Cod 1 1/2 Story House

Our cape cod styled 2 story post-war home called the Ashley in the Greenbriar subdivision of Fairfax, VA was built in the 1960s, 1967 to be exact. This post-war Levitt & Sons "Levittown" style cape cod has a modest 1500 square foot of usable space. With just 4 bedrooms, 2 full baths, a living room, hybrid galley/interrupted g kitchen, utility Room, and a single car garage it can at times feel a bit cramped for me, the missus, and our growing boys & a girl; 12, 9 & 7. The main floor bathroom when we bought it was pepto bismol pink. I believe the original color in the pamphlet was powder pink, i like to call it grandma style. There are those that love the style of the classic pink bathrooms like the folks over at http://savethepinkbathrooms.com/ but for us, it was just small and out of date. When we originally moved in, the bathroom, just 6' x 7' (60" x 84"), had just enough room for a tub with shower, toilet, a weird full wall mirror with a sink mounted to what looked like a fake counter that extended over the top of the toilet covering up any chance of fixing. High above our heads to light it all up, was a single bar style vanity light with 4 bulbs with an integrated non-grounded non-gfci plug right in the middle of the room, 7 feet into the air. Controlled by a single light switch at the door, and enclosed by a door that would bang even the smallest of kids in the knees when closed after sitting. Our remodeling originally began as various DIY projects to introduce more modern conveniences like a sink vanity to both hide the hideous piping below, and much needed storage. We picked a nice sand/beige wall-paper with shells reminiscent of the beach and a scalloped ceramic vanity sink top and a single handled faucet. Over the years we also added in an outlet with a GFCI so that within arms reach was a place so someone could plug in a hair or iPod dock for some getting ready tunes. During a toilet fixing session I set the pink commode lid against a wall which was inevitably toppled into a thousand pieces when a darling child rushed in to help: add new toilet to the list. ;) Later and more recently we figured with the toilet out we should really replace the small amount of floor space with some warm resilient vinyl laminate flooring. The kind that would handle the moisture from anything from steam in a shower, drips, or bathing children's splashings in the tub or sink, and the occasional clogged and overflowing toilet. It had me sketching and planning on graph paper all sorts of ideas that began to include wild ideas like a double vanity sink, who knew where that all would go since a standard dual vanity is 72" wide, way more than our modest 60" tub length wall. I don't exactly know when the idea struck but adjacent to the bathroom was a lengthy closet that we used for craft supplies, paper storage, and a filing cabinet. We already had turned the other smaller bedroom into an office which was 4 feet away so in addition to some more sensible options for paper and pens there was already the closet in our master bedroom, and not 2 feet away was ANOTHER closet under the stairs for any jackets that we weren't already hanging on hooks in the main entry area; losing a closet doesn't seem so bad now does it? During the course of 2 weeks or so when the wife and kids were away for a Florida vacation, and my I don't have a lot of leave-i-had-to-work evening staycation, i got to tearing apart drywall, framing, flooring, vanities, toilets, and plumbing. The end result is a new main floor master bathroom with a dual vanity, ample room for pantry storage, an updated tub & shower area, and non pink everything. It's still a slight work in progress but the pictures will show the end reusult of a lot of planning, not too much money, and a whole lot of functionality. Enjoy!