Bathroom Renovation Part 1

This dated and dark bathroom is being given a new life! The goal was to give it a fresh look while keeping a 1950's feel to stay with the period of the house.  Lucky for us that meant subway tile, lots of white and a clean design.

This project has felt never ending due to only having weekends to work on it but it's nearing completion.... thank the Lord! Our backs and knees are shot, as well as the budget. 

Part ONE:

The above photos show the weird tub... square! Why?  To the right of the tub was a wall with a closet on the other side of it.   The photos below show how we knocked out that closet, framed in the wall in the next room, allowing us to use that closet space as part of the new bath. This left us room to put in a soaking tub and small stand up shower, but after lots of drawing and reading, we decided to forget the tub (there is another upstairs) and put in a larger shower.  Best decision ever!

DEMOLITION!!  This was where we realized the job was bigger than we had expected. We had planned on knocking out shower tile and busting out the plaster walls.  That is not what happened however! Lurking behind that shower tile was 2 inches of cement and a metal mesh, all put over another layer of tile!! Turns out this was the way it went around the ENTIRE bathroom.  Apparently this was a floor to ceiling, wall to wall pink tiled bath and someone cemented over the entire thing rather than tear it out. Demo was very slow and VERY HEAVY! Small sections of tile/cement/plaster had to be taken out at a time.  After progress was made on the shower & tub we tore out the built in laundry chute to open up more space.  Once the walls were down it was on to tearing out the floor.  Another issue altogether.

The focal point of the whole renovation... the shower.  Our friend Scott was on hand to help with demo and all the crazy plumbing moves. He also poured the concrete base for the shower. This was one key step Chris and I didn't want to tackle without experience.  After framing and concrete, we decided to add a bench.  Now with the cement board and niches' installed it was my turn to take over the shower. 

For the shower and bathroom floor we chose a pinwheel design in Carrara marble.  The shower walls in a 16x4 subway tile and the top 12" done in an arabesque shape tile.  I felt the mixture of hard and soft lines would be really interesting.  Luckily once up I like it even better!  These are all grouted in a white gout.

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The skin has finally grown back on my finger tips from tiling and grouting, and as of today I have finished floor and shower grout.
                                WE LOVE IT!! 


The new drywall is up, vanity is in, and sinks working.  This weekend we hope to tackle the ceiling.... a little surprise what we are doing there ;).   Lots to show you in the next installment!

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