Beach House Progress Update: Trim, Doors, Tile, and More

After nine months of steady, slow progress on our beach house, things suddenly feel like they’re moving at warp speed. This update is a little bit of everything — a joyful smorgasbord of progress, if you will. The foyer in these photos is the “good kind” of messy: livable, improving, and full of promise.

Compared to the disaster we walked into at the start of the renovation, this is night and day. Under the surface you can’t see in the photos: a repaired foundation that isn’t going to collapse, a new dry roof, fresh siding, updated plumbing and electrical, a working HVAC system ready to be fired up, and clean drywall with no mold or cracks. Those little things add up.

Note: If you’re reading in a feed reader you might need to click through to the post to see the full video.

One surprisingly transformative update has been the addition of trim and doors. Our contractor was installing them while we were tiling, so the job isn’t fully finished in these photos, but already the house feels much more polished and complete.

We salvaged as much original trim as possible during demolition, but a lot of it was too rotten to reuse. To make the most impact with what remained, we prioritized the foyer, the downstairs doorways, and the stained glass windows leading up the stairs with original trim. The rest of the house received a simpler, chunky trim treatment that feels period-appropriate and cohesive with other restored homes in town.

Some readers asked why the trim wasn’t primed and painted before being hung. The contractor preferred to install first and then paint because reclaimed pieces can vary — they didn’t want to prime a bunch of possible pieces only to reject many and then have to repaint. Hanging first lets them caulk and paint only the pieces that actually end up on the walls.

Leaving some reclaimed trim unpainted turned out to be helpful: we noticed subtle muted tones on a few pieces — a soft gray on the front stair trim and a pale blue-gray around one doorway — that made us pause before committing to painting everything bright white. We’re experimenting with color-matching those tones and using them thoughtfully in certain spots to preserve character.

We kept all the original doors and rehung them where possible. Reusing them actually cost more labor because our contractor had to build new jambs for each reclaimed door, but the character they add is absolutely worth it. Our favorite is a chippy blue door that separates the mudroom from the kitchen/dining area. It will mostly remain open; we plan to clean and clear-coat it to preserve the worn, aged look without worrying about flaking old paint.

Here’s the same doorway in a “before” photo from when we first bought the house — and yes, our HVAC guy was in that photo back in the fall when he came to give a quote.

Upstairs we rehung the original wood doors that belonged there. In the front bedroom we uncovered a cool brick chimney behind the walls and left a section exposed in the living room below it. There’s still a hole to repair, but the exposed brick adds real character.

We have mixed feelings about the upstairs doors: they’re darker and more scratched than we remembered — not in a charmingly weathered way, but more like heavy wear. Since they mostly sit in a windowless hallway, we’re concerned they might make the space feel gloomier than intended. Ideally we’d sand and clear-seal them to bring their tone closer to the heart pine floors, but that’s a huge project. Another option is painting them a soft gray that ties into the stairway trim. We’ll let the house come together more before deciding.

We haven’t been idle either. As we mentioned on Instagram, Facebook, and our podcast, we’ve made several trips to lay tile ourselves. Over two long days we spent about 19 hours installing tile across four floors — three bathrooms and a mudroom — and on a return trip we installed all three shower pans. We still have three shower walls to tile and then we’ll grout everything, but tackling the tiling ourselves is shaving a sizable chunk off the budget.

The mudroom floor (still ungrouted and very dusty here) flows into the downstairs full bath. For floors we chose an affordable, durable 12 x 24 porcelain tile with a slate look, and for the shower pans we used basketweave tile. The shower walls will get an extra-long white subway-style tile to keep things classic and clean.

Our tile choices lean classic so they feel right for an older house, but we’re still having fun with accents — for example, blue star/flower tiles in the master bathroom which are a playful twist on a traditional pattern.

The upstairs hall bath has the same layout as the downstairs bath but gets less light, so we chose a lighter warm-gray 12 x 24 porcelain tile that reads almost like concrete. Once grouted with a similar tone, the lines will blend more softly. The shower pan is white hex tile, and the accent wall will be the patterned blue tile we’re excited to install next.

We didn’t take many progress photos during the frantic tile install, but we used a contractor-recommended uncoupling system instead of cement board and tried a leveling system called LASH for large-format tiles. LASH clips and wedges help eliminate lippage (uneven tile edges) by leveling adjacent tiles during installation — it’s simple to use and worth the small investment in the special pliers that make wedge tightening easier.

After the tiles set (we waited at least 24 hours), the plastic clips are kicked off and break cleanly below the tile surface. It was much easier than we expected.

The most time-consuming tiling project was the upstairs master bathroom. We used classic black-and-white hex sheets but replaced the black flower motifs with blue tiles to add personality. We prepped and deconstructed the sheets at a “prep table” — actually a clawfoot tub with a piece of drywall over it — pulling off the black tiles and separating the blue tiles for a smoother installation.

We dry-fit the layout first to confirm spacing and discovered we preferred a staggered offset pattern for the blue tiles instead of a perfect grid. The work took longer than expected and we tiled until sunset, using battery work lights and phone flashlights to finish each day.

On our most recent trip we continued the floor pattern into the shower pan so the design reads consistently across the room, especially since one shower wall will be glass. Lining the pattern up took patience, but it came together and will look even better once everything is grouted.

We hope to return soon to start the shower walls — the master will use the same long white subway-style tile as downstairs — but timelines in renovations are never guaranteed.

Sherry also did some preliminary cleaning on the original clawfoot tub. With just water and a sponge many surface stains, mineral deposits, and dust came off, and a rust stain began to lift to reveal white cast iron underneath. We’re hopeful the tub can be reused without reglazing the basin; if the interior can be restored, painting or priming the exterior will be simple.

The HVAC crew also installed the outdoor A/C units, so we’re just days away from being able to cool the house — a welcome relief after tiling on a 90-degree day.

Another major milestone: running water. The town installed our water meter last week and the plumber is connecting us now. Years ago our water meter had been installed several houses away on a different street, which left a leaky line running under neighbors’ yards. After digging and metal-detecting, the town found and repaired a very old line in front of our house so we now have a meter where we should.

All in all, it’s the good kind of mess — progress happening in many places at once.

If you want to catch up on earlier beach house updates, here are the previous posts (titles only):

• Drywall is up, and it’s glorious!
• Finding a vintage pink stove
• Stuff Sherry bought (way too early)
• The outside’s almost done & the inside’s getting good
• That time our beach house photobombed HGTV
• Walls up, walls down, and a new floor plan
• How we picked the exterior color
• Gathering beach house style inspiration
• Beach house “before” video & floor planning
• Holy seashells, we bought a beach house!

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