Bathroom Renovation Continues

I can’t believe I haven’t posted since January… ah, busy, busy, busy…

The bathroom renovation continues.  It’s had its share of trials and tribulations so far.  Click on the photo below to see a larger series of shots of the bathroom before and during.

BathroomConstruction

On the upper left is the state of the bathroom as of today.  Walls, ceiling, and floor stripped bare and new framing put in for a coat closet (doorway outward to the hall in the right front) and a large shower stall across the whole window-side end, including a bench.  New sub-floor for the tile.  New low-profile toilet.  New electrical.  Plumbers arrive tomorrow.  We’ve also chosen the vanity, some light fixtures, and a new mirror.  Now to find a drywall/tile contractor.

Upper right is just after we moved in – dark, narrow, cheesy, with a huge cheap jet tub taking up most of the room and a tiny boat-galley sink in an ugly vanity.

Center left is my favorite time of the demolition, right at the beginning, taking out that horrible tub. 

Middle right shows the walls and ceiling stripped bare.  First, there was tile.  Then a layer of drywall/green-board.  Then plaster and lathe.  Finally the studs.  For a 8’ 6” x 5’ 5” inch room, we took enough material out to finish a whole house.  We found evidence that there used to be subway tile in here.  Our new tile scheme will be using it too.

Lower left shows the new glass-block window we had put in to replace the warped double-hung.  It makes the sunshine sparkle in the afternoon and evening and prevents peeping Toms from getting too excited about people in the shower.

Lower right shows the 4 inches of concrete I discovered under the old sub-floor.  I had to postpone the plumbers for a week to get that taken out before putting the new sub-floor down.

Lessons learned:

  1. No matter how small the room, rent a dumpster.  We’ve done a dozen or more trips to the dump, filled up 40 contractor bags of junk, hauled stacks of old wood, etc in the CR-V. 
  2. Tiling a shower scares me.  Thought I might try it, read about, decided against it.  Guess I’ll have to trust a contractor.
  3. Dust goes everywhere in the house, even when you try to prevent it.
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