Full bath to half bath redo

When we bought the house it had 4 full baths. Great, right?  Not so much for me.  I'm probably one of very few people that thought it was overkill for this house.  I just thought, with no bedrooms on the first floor, why have a full bath (with a claw foot tub, nonetheless).  Sooo,  I remade it into a half bath. I kept the other three baths as full baths, but completely remodeled them - I'll save those for another post.  

Here it was the day we purchased it:

The wallpaper is actually a Currier and Ives-type print from a book.  Each one individual. Glued on.  With liquid-nails.  Seriously.  We had to take all four walls down completely and re-drywall.  No joke.  That should've been our first sign with this house.  Anyway, after pictures coming soon:)

Built-in bookcaes in the living room....

Oh, do I have ideas!  The budget to create them?  No, not so much...  Can't keep a girl from dreaming!  Let's start with a photo of what I'm dealing with.  This is the room you see on your right when you walk in my front door.  I wish I'd gotten a better picture of the columns on each side of the entrance.  They are really beautiful!

The left side of the room looking into the dining room (which I'll discuss another time...) and features gorgeous pocket doors, only one of which works (again, best saved for another post....)

The right side of the room facing the front.

I see built-in bookcases flanking the fireplace.  That's my dream.  Everyone else seems to think I should keep the window seats.  Apparently they are completely unaware (thankfully) of the amount of stuff pretty things I have that need to be displayed!  Since it's not in the budget right now anyway, I'll save that battle for later (but it's still fun to look!).

I love the arches at the top!

 Oohh! I like the beamed ceiling! 

Focus Kate, focus....

Where to put the laundry room?

I have SO many ideas for the old house we are buying (2 weeks until closing....)!  The biggest challenge?  Well, money of course, but that's boring!  I'd prefer to live in my unlimited-budget-fantasy-until-the-ranch-home-sells-and-reality-hits-world.  No, the real question is:  Where to put the laundry room?  The previous owners had it in what is going to be my children's bathroom on the second floor.  THAT will never work, not with my kids.... Soooo.....where to put it?  Maybe on the main floor in or by the bathroom?  Hmm.....

Maybe in the basement?

Umm, no probably not.  Too damp and far away from the bedrooms.  Not to mention, my kids will use the "I'd love to help with the laundry; however, it's waaay too creepy down there Mom!"  Or the fall back and ever popular "No, waaaay!"  Have to give that more thought..... on to the fun stuff - the decorating ideas!

 Love the idea of having a sink in the laundry room.

 Great crafting/wrapping/folding area!

We're closing in the back porch for a mud room.  Wonder if we could make it a laundry room too?

I really like this for a basement laundry room....not sure ours would work this well....

I LOVE wallpaper!  I'm going to have to use it somewhere...

Finally, a chandelier and a big change...

So, after 8 months, I have finally found my chandelier.  Better yet, it was affordable!  Cheap, actually, for an antique chandelier.  In a nutshell?  $125 from Ebay, arrived broken, received full refund through the Post Office, took it to my lamp-repair guru, he repaired it beautifully (found out it was actually a 6-arm, not the 5-arm it was advertised - yeah for me!), paid him $145, and brought my chandelier home.  And it only took 6 months... Of course, after all that, it's still sitting in a box in the basement waiting to be hung:(  Why? Because we're moving!  Yes, after just 10 months in this house, we're moving.  Yes, we are bordering on insanity.   Yes, after 6 years of trying to make two new construction ranch homes look country-French-cottagey, my husband has given up indulged me and bought a fabulous (well, I think so and that's all that really matters, right?) 113 year old house.  Okay, it's actually a foreclosure in a complete state of disrepair - on the outside anyway, in a small town 25 miles from where we live now with a yard no bigger than a dorm room postage stamp, but hey I got my old house!  Still haven't sold the ranch house.  Hoping a divorce is not to follow.....