I Will Never Love Again*
* aka How to Create an En Suite
For the first time in my entire life, I have an en suite.
En suite is a term over here for a bathroom attached to the bedroom. I’m thinking that’s called a walk-in bathroom in the US, but I wouldn’t know because I never had one (insert sob story here).
When I had the de-lurk post, it was lovely to see so many people say hi. I remember Frances commented that my house was “intimidatingly amazing”, which humbled me. It’s lovely to hear that, thank you, Frances (and I miss Plain Layne, too). But the while the foundations of the house were done by builders, Alastair and I have single-handedly tackled almost the entire interior (and exterior, actually – Alastair built the deck and my Dad and I painted the entire outside of the house). Ask some of the folk who have been here, and I imagine they’ll tell you the house is far from perfect.
Right. So. En suite.
The en suite in our house started off its life as a study. Then came the twins and the ill-advised color scheme.
Then came the extension, and it got bricked up. The window, that is. Not the twins. This is not The Cask of the Amontillado.
Then the study became a real mess, as what was the built-in wardrobes got punched out to become what is now the en suite to the master bedroom.
While looking for photos I reviewed the extension photos. I can’t believe we survived that sometimes.
The front two-thirds of the study-cum-nursery became the family bathroom.
Since we had one working bathroom, the en suite became priority number 412 after all the other nightmares that fell under the umbrella of “The Extension”. We’ve since completed the wet room (aka shower room) downstairs, and so we have two working bathrooms.
The en suite languished as a project that Would Be Done At Some Point. I used the room – just a hollow plaster shell – to dick around with my photos.
We started working on the en suite. Due to the EDS issues, I was sidelined so I simply painted the room. Alastair did the rest.
He pulled up the floor to connect the plumbing.
Then he tiled the floor with these gorgeous tiles and installed the shower tray.
We even laughed over the inadvisable color we first chose.
It was called “Raspberry Diva”. A fun color but a little hard on the senses.
Yesterday it was finished (ok, we didn’t wash the windows and the skirting board needs updating, but let’s not split hairs over this, yes?). We have an en suite. It’s a tiny room painted a lovely blue and I am completely and totally in love and will never love again.
And I confess I adore the funky towel radiator that Alastair created.
We have an en suite conveniently located just off my side of the bed (otherwise known as She With the Tiny Bladder). It’s a bathroom just for us. I adore it in every way, shape and form.
The house is not finished yet. Next up – digging up and fixing the hallway, front door, and utility room. We need to paint and install a runner on the staircase. The master bedroom and nursery need a freshening up. Alastair has plans to build a giant structure in the garden that he’s tentatively calling “The Gold Miner’s Shack”, details to come and yes, sounds a little scary but involves lighting (naturally), a refrigerator, a brick oven and a rotisserie. Bring it on, End of the World.
For the first time in my life, I live in a house with enough bedrooms for people (us, the babies, Melissa, Jeff, and one guest room). We’re turning the study into a family room. And we have three bathrooms, one of them a pale blue that I love to bits.
And we did it all ourselves.
-S.
PS – remember that something cool I referred to in my post? It arrived today via the Royal Mail, who have only been here twice the past two weeks courtesy of the snow.
Do you remember the post I wrote where I referred to the lovely sparkly necklace that Loren Parry wore on University Challenge? I issued a task to help find the necklace. My fantastic friend Lindsay came in very close with a necklace that I ordered (and love). But it wasn’t quite right. Cue a few days ago, when a sudden very lovely yet startling email popped into my inbox.
Today a parcel arrived in the post.
Loren Parry stumbled across my (poorly written) post. She emailed me. The necklace she bought a few years ago and it’s no longer made.
I don’t have info on where to get Loren Parry’s necklace.
I instead have Loren Parry’s necklace as she sent it to me.
If you’re still reading, Loren, thank you very much. I love it. And I’ll be pressuring the twins to go to St. John’s College at Oxford from here on (and good luck on University Challenge semi-finals!)
Your clock!! Love it. Want to share where you got it?
Oh, the bathroom is lovely, too. But the clock looks like so much fun!
I love how daring you are with colors! We bought a beige house, and though we’ve done some cranberry, gold and dark green accents, the walls remain beige.
Looking at all this construction, I had but one thought – how did they not kill eachother? The end result is lovely, but any couple that survives this degree of home repair has a love to span the ages. Congratulations on your survival.
P.s. Please don’t post about how awesome my kidneys are – I like them a lot, but I’m not sure I’d have the fortitude to deny you even a passive request.
I am also in love with the polka-dot clock. I want one. :) The en-suite and the necklace are both gorgeous. Congratulations on having survived such a hellish time and come out even stronger.
I would be at least as excited about the en suite bathroom. I currently have one, and would fight to the death over it.
I love the necklace and the bathroom….I soooo need my own bathroom hopefully sometime soon.
She sent you the very necklace she wore? Wow! That is incredibly nice! What a cool gal!
How wonderfully kind of her!! I’m amazed. And I dig the en-suite! Happy for you!
Oh my, that sink. I want to lick it.
But I was really trying to forget the colours of the nursery dude. PTSD, n’ all. Hahahaha!
Ooh ooh ooh bathroom! En-suite bathroom! You CLASSY!
And the house IS gorgeous. The living-dining-kitchen-room is my idea of heaven. All that light and space and the doors onto the deck and being able to cook and yak with the guests at the same time and best of all, it had booze and Shannon and her family in it.
Pretty necklace. Wait. She SENT YOU the necklace? Wow. That is so very cool and lovely and just wow. Umm. Wow.
Perhaps I should blog about how very much I like David Tennant’s naked body? *cough*
Oh the bathroom looks fantastic! I wannnnnts one. (says she, who currently only has an outside toilet. But at least it flushes.)
How cool is that? You got THE necklace!! Fabulous!!
That’s a beautiful bathroom! We’d love to update our house, but we’d actually have to rip off the one-story addition and the entire second story of our house to update it. (And the floor joists on the main part of the house are seriously sagging.) At that point we might as well just demolish the house and start over – it’d be cheaper.
the en suite looks fabulous!
What do you get to stare at out the window in the bathroom?
I love that bathtub!! and the en-suite looks terrific!
Your house continues to amaze! Lovely!!
And I think it’s beautiful that Loren Parry sent you her necklace…how cool is that?! You deserve it…
Dude. You’re becoming too posh for me with your crazy towel heaters. I don’t know if I’m even good enough anymore. I already feel less loved.
Also, HOW DO YOU LIVE without a vanity? Seriously. Where do you put your shit™? I need counter space. I need to be able to say vanity. It’s a good word to have in your repertoire. Like the den, and the deck.
That’s awesome that she sent you her necklace!
I love your clock too, but I am viscerally against having a clock in the bathroom! Of course, I am habitually early, so I don’t need a clock in the bathroom. Nice job.
In the US, it’s generally called the master suite, when there’s a bathroom included. Otherwise it’s some other kind of suite. We just don’t use the “en.”
So. Fucking. Jealous.
i love the bathroom color…and the bathroom as a whole! :)
“Intimidatingly amazing”. These are the exact words, I think. Or else: Intimidatingly fabulous. It’s a wonderful house. And a beautiful necklace.
So beautiful! And who cleans all those lot of rooms?
So glad you didn’t go with the Pepto-Bismol!
I love those heated towel rails which Mr Spouse introduced me to, though they are pretty common in the UK we’d never had one and I didn’t really know you could get them for actual houses, I thought they were more of a hotel thing, but I loooove ours. Yours is even taller and more wonderful!
Jealous x 100,000,000,000,000
I would love 3 bathrooms. I’d settle for 2… we have one full, and then a shower & sink…. really, who puts in a bath with no Loo? Also, it’s in the middle of the basement. No walls, just literally in the middle of the basement.
What is the backing used in the shower? I love it!
Now I know what an en suite is.
And an attached bathroom within easy access from your side of the bed (trust me, I know this too) is certainly a blessing to us poor souls with limited bladder capacity in the middle of the night.
Oooh, the ensuite is lovely. Very jealous, we have one bathroom for six people and it’s VERY outdated. It is next on the things to do list but I think it will be a wee while.
That bathroom is beyond words! And she sent you THE necklace?? Major cool points for her.
Holy crap, man – that’s incredibly cool of Loren Parry. I had crush on some contestant from Jeopardy awhile back, who I just referred to as Smart Michael Phelps (I’m sure I don’t need to explain why) and he wouldn’t even friend me on the ole Facebook. Elaborate plans to become Mrs. Smart Michael Phelps totally crushed.
I think they do call them en-suites here. Or half-baths, master half-baths, so on, and so on. I, of course, call it having to stumble in the dark through my roommate’s room in the middle of the night to pee.
Bathroom? WANT.
Seriously, ours is badly designed and unfixably grubby. I lurve your shower— it looks like a great idea, though we’d have to change the wall the fixture is on.
In the US, they are sometimes called en suite bathrooms and sometimes master baths, depending on the room they’re attached to.
Ooooh – liking the en suite. I love the long wall tiles! We have one bathroom for just the two of us and even we reckon we need another :-)- you can’t have too many. Like you, I have the bladder of a small rodent, so I’m very jealous of your night-time position in relation to the relief!
The clock is from http://cute-clocks.co.uk/, and I am in love with it.
The sink I also love, and it’s from Ikea (sorry, but I think Ikea is all right. I struggle with people who swear they hate Ikea and will never go in it and yet have they themselves never been in one.)
I have totally done a wee in that fabulous family bathroom in that beautiful, character-full house.
*preens*
Oh… inappropriate sharing, you say?
Love en-suite … I used to have one. Seem to be moving down housing ladder!
Loren rocks … what a star to send her necklace! now, if you ever appear on mastermind (specialist subject the life and works of David Tennant) you MUST wear it.
I also love Ikea, I just cant stand GOING to Ikea. Its a North Circular thing …
M
En suites rule.
Also, I look at your photos and wish I had more time to get my a into g and learn how to use my camera properly. Auto on a d60 does not permit messing about with white balance or colour mode and that makes me whiny.
g
The en suite is beautiful! And to have a bathroom all to yourself … sometimes it’s almost more than one can hope for.
See, sweetie? You are good. You are wonderful. Why else would the. exact. necklace. come your way??? Huh? Love the bathroom, it’s gorgeous. And the second “ghostly” photo of you in the unfinished bath? Very cool.