Hidden Surprises

Some fresh paint. Several new tiles. A few fixtures. All minor repairs. When Genevieve Duncan and Keith Snodgrass first thought about updating their war-era black and white master bath, they just wanted to make some small changes to bring it into the new century.

“The master bathroom was just disorganized — tiny and dark. We wanted to maybe get some new fixtures and light sources,” Duncan says.

The lines of the bathroom and the way it flows now make functional sense and turn this room into a place of retreat and privacy. Making bold changes in design can be daunting, but with a good designer, a dramatically different room will feel like home immediately. CG&S does a great job of balancing the soaring ceiling and modern design with old-world tiling and fixtures.

Photo Credit: Peter Tata

CG&S Remodeling, of Austin, had done some previous work for Duncan and Snodgrass, so they were the first on their list to help the couple update their 1940s stone farmhouse. Built post–World War II, the house had been remodeled and added onto repeatedly, leaving the master bath woefully dark and landlocked. An original window still existed but was covered by a previous addition, so no natural light entered the tiled bathroom at all. The plain, no frills bathroom was also poorly planned, with the toilet located directly across from the door and the small, old-fashioned heater positioned in the wall nearby.

CG&S, a 30-year-old family-owned company, branched into design/build in 1994. They now have three architects on staff, including Stewart Davis, with whom Duncan and Snodgrass eventually ended up working on this project.

“It is a unique building, and we did not want to ruin the spirit of the place, but the bathroom needed some work,” Davis says.

Photo Credit: Peter Tata

After realizing they wanted a separate shower and tub, Duncan and Snodgrass decided, with the help of an interior designer, to see what Davis could do. They figured a little bit of design was needed to maximize space in this 49-square-foot bathroom.

Davis, after looking at the bedroom and surrounding rooms, decided to take a broader, more dramatic view on the bathroom. “I realized that there were doors to an adjoining dining room on the other end of the bedroom. If we borrowed space from the rarely used dining room for a closet, we could add the existing closet space to the bathroom.” The existing closet backed up to the master bath — so it was an easy step to incorporate that space. Plus, Snodgrass and Duncan were happy to part with the old closet when they realized their new one would incorporate built-ins and have better organization.

With the recent explosion of spa-like bathrooms, Davis knew that this would be the perfect solution to turn this outdated, tiny master bathroom into a dramatic and romantic retreat. This project doubled the square footage of the bathroom.

Photo Credit: Peter Tata

“We were lucky,” Davis says. “The homeowners were open to new ideas, were interested and engaged from the beginning, and were not afraid of bold changes” — even if they weren't what they had originally envisioned. This was beneficial in this case particularly, because Davis is a big believer in expanding upward to improve the feel of airiness in what otherwise might be a cramped space.

His initial design drawings, for which the company charges a design fee, shot the ceiling from its original 8-foot height through the attic and created what would become an 18-foot ceiling. The design called for finishing off this new ceiling, adding dramatic paint, lighting, and fixtures, and rearranging the layout.

To maximize the space, Davis created what he likes to call a “showering pod,” an enclosure that houses both the shower and tub. They are still separate like Duncan and Snodgrass wanted, but the shower space doubles as a walkway to the bath. Both can be used at once, and putting a showerhead on each wall added to the spa-like atmosphere.

The homeowners, who were not living in the house at the time, were excited for the work to be done, even at the new, more expensive price tag. They signed the contract and work began.

And then it stopped. As soon as CG&S broke through the ceiling, they discovered a nightmare. All of the studs in the house were termite infested. Completely destroyed. Duncan and Snodgrass were lucky on one hand because their exterior walls were made from 20-inch-thick stone masonry and therefore escaped damage, but all the internal walls were made of wood.

The updated bathroom adds elegance to the bedroom, even when only a glimpse is visible. Beautiful tile and woodwork draw the eye into the bathroom while remaining subtle enough to not overwhelm. After taking space from the walk-in closet for the bathroom project, the entire bedroom could be reorganized with the fireplace and windows as the new focal point.

Photo Credit: Peter Tata

“It is the worst moment in a project,” says Davis: telling customers their simple, two-month job just fell apart and multiplied in cost is never an easy task. Duncan, Snodgrass, and their young daughter had moved into a small house down the street and were planning on moving back as soon as the bathroom remodel was finished. This would dramatically change their plans.

When they heard the news and the extent of the damage, “my stomach dropped, and I realized there was much more work to be done than I had planned,” Duncan says.

But again, Davis says, he lucked out. “Most of the time, people can only afford to do minor repairs, the bare minimum.” That was not the case here. Duncan and Snodgrass were able to approve a full replacement of all the wood in the house, and CG&S buckled down and started anew.

But there were more surprises to come. During construction, the company realized the entire roof structure was inadequate when a crew member stepped on a beam and his foot went right through it, with drywall crashing down into the guest room below. The entire roof would have to be strengthened. The beams had been made from 2x4s, which were not really strong enough to support the roof and had been weakened by the termite infestation.

“I never had planned on being out of the house for a year, but it was a blessing in disguise that we discovered this problem before it spiraled out of hand or someone got hurt,” says Duncan, who was on site when the beam collapsed.

The original contract had a 25% “plus clause,” which stated any additional work that “cropped up” during the project would be completed at a cost of 25% above their traditional markup. This is exactly the type of surprise these clauses protect against.

“You never know what you are going to find lurking behind the walls of a house” Davis says. This 25% plus helped CG&S cover costs and job volume for a project that was scheduled to last two months and ended up lasting a year.

While working on the roof, CG&S added two skylights, so light now pours down upon the bathroom. For ventilation, there is a skylight on opposite walls of the bathroom, one that opens into a vaulted great room, and one that opens to the outside. Davis used remote controls on these skylights, and they can be opened or closed by the touch of a button located on the wall right by the door. For additional luxuriousness, CG&S added a wonderful, yet economical, element to the floor. Radiant heating wires running under the tile now take the place of the ineffectual wall heater.

“This is a great and cheap alternative to running pipes under the floor, especially when you are working with a small room,” Davis says.

The control panel by the door also controls this heating element, with the ability for different temperature in the “wet” and “dry” parts of the room. Even the lighting can be adjusted in different parts of the room by the touch of a button at the entrance to the bathroom. CG&S borrowed attic space to store and conceal these controls.

All the internal carpentry work was taken care of within the company, and the homeowners were able to stop by often to see the progress of the house. “Jim (the project manager) was there almost every day and everyone in the company was approachable and took time, often, to answer my questions,” Duncan says.

The construction issues were not the only factors that led to increased cost in this bathroom. Duncan and Snodgrass chose high-end materials suited to their new luxury escape. CG&S designed all the tile layouts based on the homeowners' choices.

Photo Credit: Peter Tata

To highlight and accentuate the dramatic new soaring ceiling, CG&S recommended interior designer Alexandria Singleton, who steered the couple to the striking deep purple color. The mingling of traditional artisan tiling with the dramatic ceiling, modern lighting, and deep colors creates a feeling of depth and richness this bathroom was so desperately lacking.

“The entire rest of the house was done in basic eggshell white, and we were excited to inject some life into it,” Duncan says.

The old window well became a beautiful built-in cabinet, taking up no additional floor space in the bath because of the deep masonry walls.

After what had become a year-long project that happened to include a bathroom remodel, Duncan, Snodgrass, and their daughter moved into their new home.

Photo Credit: Peter Tata

The “showering pod” is a feature that CG&S has used on previous projects, and they find it to generally be a great success. “Not only does it visually open typically closed areas and create an exotic feeling in the bathroom, but it is a great way to conserve precious floor space,” Davis says. Proper ventilation and tiling is essential to maintain humidity levels and prevent paint from peeling.

“The homeowners love it because it turns bathing into an experience and contains the water in one area of the bath,” says Davis. To achieve this affect without compromising quality and cleanliness, all the flat surfaces within the “pod” have a waterproof membrane and a very slight slant to them for drainage. Of course, the floor must be drained properly to ensure that the outside “dry” area remains, well, dry.