New Bathroom Progressing, New bed and bath existing structure: renovation

Version 1-existing bathroom circa 1966,
this is what it looked like when we purchased the house

Version 2-New improved bathroom re-done in 2009 or so
demolished 2014

As usual creating this room is taking longer and costing more than anticipated. Nothing is new under the sun, I tell you! My sister's insight on home improvement is "it's the might as wells that get you". If you are changing the tub because of a scratch or a crack, you might as well replace the faucet and the shower enclosure. If you are repainting the walls and refinishing the floors, you might as well replace that yucky window or the room will still look pretty shoddy. As she says..."it's the might as wells will get you!" Isn't that the truth!

We are well into the "might as wells" on this project. If you look at the photos above you can see two of the incarnations of this bathroom space.  On the left is the bathroom as it looked when we purchased the house. Depressing right? On the right is the "improved" bathroom we put in to replace the one on the left. Improvement was had by painting the whole place, replacing the flooring, the toilet and the vanity with clean and inexpensive fixtures like the pedestal sink. The powder room in this area will be improved to include a vanity with drawers. Currently the powder room does not have a tub or shower.  We have decided to install one to make a full bath on the first floor....another "might as well".. more expense.

Originally we intended only to paint the room, cover the ugly floor and paint all the peeling mismatched windows. Mr has decided to do it right, and make the windows all the same size, and increase their size to the size originally installed in the house. This will bring in more light and optimize the water views.  After demolition of the current windows, we discovered that they were installed sometime between 1960-70 by the folks we bought the house from, the windows are poor quality, and would not clean up well. The 1960s windows are also smaller than the original windows. Sooo.... this "might as well" is going to be new windows. Then there is the floor. We still haven't decided what to do with the floor. We know we would like hardwood.  We are not sure if it would be affordable.  We do know that the flooring in the rest of the house will not match...not happy about that problem...so decisions will have to be made.

Another pending decision will be what to do with the ceiling. I am pushing for removing the sheet rock to create exposed ceiling joists, then top them with a whitewash paint stain. Doing that will make the ceiling five inches higher in most spaces. Presently it is just reaching seven feet due to its civil war era dirt farmer farmhouse construction, any height increase would be most positive. What do you think..we could use some opinions. Share your opinion in the comments box to guide our decisions.  More discussion about this will surely follow in future postings.

exposed ceiling in bathroom.