2.0 // Renovation Services

[This was posted a while back on our Instagram channel, but I've not done a full-post here on the blog.]

After successful completion of their first bathroom John and Vanessa contacted me about doing their second bathroom — the "guest" bath. As previous, Vanessa — with a background in retail/design — had a good number of the design elements and ideas sorted, including the idea for hex tile. When approaching the build, we still had a few extra things to sort out, including the reinforcement of a later-addition pocket door which joined a tiled wall — a terrible combination as there could be little/no structural reinforcement to the tile.

After a few design iterations and lots of structural steel later, we had reinforced the door-wall, created a nook for bath products, created a custom walnut vanity and medicine cabinet and worked the hex tile in an undulating pattern up the wall. It turned out well.

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Vanessa’s Second BathroomRead More »

We've been on a roll lately with bathroom renovations… and I've one more still to photograph. This one is in Marin for a couple who requested a door a while back. It's been a fun project, but fitting everything in (including life with a 3-year-old) has been tough, especially when coupled with a commute across a busy 2-lane bridge.

However, having great* clients makes it worthwhile and the end result is also great… featuring a few neat touches that I'll detail with the full post after I complete the custom vanity (and bring my camera on-site). Until then, here are some preliminary pictures.

* What makes a great client? This is worthy of a blog post itself, but a combination of patience, understanding, trust-in-the-process, and positivity… it also helps that you're willing to take a chance on a few things along the way which I can detail here.

But first, the before photos, starting with the photo from the real estate listing and ending with the one after Nicola ripped out the vanity after she got sick of looking at it.

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Nicola and Wilson’s bath previewRead More »

This project marks the transition from Redneckmodern to Norcalmod … it's been a long time coming, but in short: Redneckmodern was always meant to be about our renovation, not yours…

However, as things grew, my efforts became yours. Then Norcalmod came along to house the custom furniture that I began to build. Earlier this year, I decided to separate the two a bit: Redneckmodern = me / Norcalmod = you… and Vanessa and John's bathroom remodel is the first project wrapped since that transition… I'll still be making furniture, but now taking on a good bit more under the Norcalmod nameplate.

Welcome to the newly expanded Norcalmod.

[The "before" shot. John handled the demolition. Busting out a 60-year-old cast shower pan was no easy task.]

[The "after" shot.]

Now, on to the project: What started off as a more modest renovation grew into something a bit more complex as we peeled back the layers of past renovations and discovered both issues and opportunities: some bad electrical, some opportunities for additional built-in storage, and a few other extras that followed the "while we're already there" idea. Vanessa and John made all of the right decisions along the way, balancing long-term quality with practicality. Of course, this pushed timelines, budgets, and patience… but everyone persevered, and the project turned out quite well.

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Vanessa and John’s Walnut Accented BathroomRead More »