The Half Bath, useless but it's there.

A half bath, is in the eyes of some people, mostly real estate agents, a necessary thing. To me, it's 18 square feet of wasted space that could hold my utilities, or be a decent closet, or even be a laundry "roomette". There's me and my cat.... and two and a half baths. For years, I lived with only one. My uncle did put a bathroom downstairs in his house, but he sneered at the whole half-a-bath idea, so his has a shower and tub. Mine sits under the stairs, so it's got a sloping ceiling right over the toilet.

When I bought the place, the previous owners had given the half-a-bathroom a sort of a redo. It was painted flesh-tone (only way one can describe that color), vinyl tiles stuck to sub floor, and a toilet that was making the town of Cary rich by flushing every hour on the hour....a sort of water closet clock. The vanity cabinet was a red oak front nailed to some bracing with a laminate counter top that was water-semi-dissolved. Not pressed wood as much as pressed wood splinters. The light was this bronzy flower thing with two light bulbs on arms. It didn't sit on a box, but was that 1980's NC standard of bashing a hole in the wall and shoving a wire through.

So, six months after the closing, away the half-a-bathroom went. The toilet was already turned off, and in the gutted space sat tools and wall board and bits and pieces of house. Fast forward nine months as I realize that the two remaining baths need much work before I sell this place and realize my dream house in the woods (which is going to remain a dream house in a busted real estate market).

By this time, the GFI was all done, the water shut-off had been repaired and moved to under the sink, and all my bathroom lights had been replaced with a simple 4-light frosted glass bar. I was planning to do both upstairs bathrooms at once, leaving just the tub and the shower in place. This meant that the half bath had to fill some functions besides being a useless real estate enhancement. My kitchen renovation was under way at the time, so it also had to function as a place to make coffee. This must be one of the few half baths in the area with a full vanity, medicine cabinet, full towel rack, and a bar sink faucet.

Pictures.......

Not a bad vanity but it was no bargain. It did go well with the theme of the room which I call "1920's Insane Asylum" A change from my usual gray and white decor schema. Yellow and terracotta. The alternate name is the Venetian Room. The baseboard is a one by four topped with an base cap molding. The shoe mold is pine, clear urethane to bring out the gold tone.

The floor is vinyl tile, found on sale at Lowe's. I love the brick repeat of the pattern and how it matches the counter. After putting down the underlayment plywood and leveling it, I measured the exact center of the room and put the first tile there. I wish it was a sheet floor, but it's a half bath. No walruses sloshing water around here. I want to get more but it's discontinued. Oh well.
The sink is an oval drop-in Kohler. The sink is offset to the left since I'm right handed and to make room for the coffee pot. I wanted a rectangular one that was vaguely 1920s in style but when I got home, found this in the box. So, Machs Nix, dropped it in. The counter is a cut-down kitchen counter, surrounded by a tile backsplash. I wanted a pre-cast terracotta color but they only come in 37 and a half inches, and the room is 36 inches wide. Cutting those down does not work well. K across the street gave me his attempt. I'll quietly toss it when he's not looking. The bar sink faucet swivels and I washed quite a few dishes there when my kitchen was a gutted mess.


The door was trimmed out in what would normally be used as baseboard with a base cap molding around the outer edge. Picture framed doors are usually found in Greek Revivals, and I plan to do more of this upstairs.

So there it is, semi-useless but it's done. Be happy, you real estate types. I did this just for you.