bathroom redesign 02
It is the end of the second weekend of bathroom shenanananigans (see part one here) and I am pleased at my progress, appalled at the time/mess/expense of this project, in awe at how very filthy I am, and a little curious as to when, exactly, it all will end.
Did I mention there’s a toilet in my shower?
Things I’ve learned so far:
- Painting is exhausting, dirty, and time consuming. Prep work, the endless prep work, is the one thing that has brought me to tears (so far). More on that in a bit.
- Until it’s over, I will be in a constant, continual loop from my home to the home improvement store then back again.
- Bathroom cabinets can cost up to $4,500!
Enough of that. How about some before pictures?
Small, carpeted, not nice. Prison-like shower stall behind the door at left.
Water wasting toilet, cheapo storage and accessories, disgusting carpet.
Prison shower.
Sad, filthy, horrible.
As Apartment Therapy puts it “There are very few home décor choices to which we are absolutely one hundred percent opposed in every case, but wall-to-wall carpet in the bathroom is one of them.” PS, the white rug is hiding a huge hair dye stain.
Huge, dumb, old drawers and counter. And disgusting carpet.
The drawers got the treatment first.
Better! But there is going to be hours of touch up.
Like this. Painter’s tape sometimes does not work, sometimes it likes to rip off your paint.
Wall paint prep begins after wall scrubdown (with TSP). Frustrating part of the process, this is where the overwhelmedness started.
Stupid screw stuck in wall and no way to get it out with the tools at hand. Deeply annoyed at the sloppiness of previous work and installation.
Gross and crumbly. I kept discovering more and more cut corners, slapdash work, bad choices. The room is like a high-turnover rental unit.
I took out the medicine chest (ew) but am putting it back, since, as I discovered, recessed medicine cabinets with any style at all are kill-me expensive.
Trying to get the baseboards off pushed me over the edge. Tearily making a phone call to my handy friends, they reassured me and promised to come over the next day and lend a hand.
Calmer, I proceeded to do the only 100% fun thing of this ordeal. I ripped out the carpet!
Old, OLD linoleum underneath.
Level subflooring under the lino. Score!
The next day, my dear handy friends came over, ripped out the rest of the baseboards, pulled up the tackboard and lino, and removed the toilet. And then put it in my shower.
They were amazing. This would have been a very rocky and/or expensive phase if not for these fantastic friends.
We made an plan to have one of the handy friends to come over on Wednesday and show me how to get started with the tiling.
Tiling already! Indeed, the room is totally painted, with my very own paws. I’d take another picture, but seriously, these paws are sorer than they ever have been. So SO much spackling and sanding and prying and twisting and rolling and brushing. For those of you to whom a project like this is a no-brainer weekend trifle, I salute you with my gnarled hand. And then I ask you to come over and help me already.
Master Timeline (new and improved)
Remove hardwareand buy replacement hardware (knobs, TP holder, hook,curtain rod, towel rod, switchplate, shelves)Paint drawers and cabinets, walls- Replace hardware (
knobs, TP holder, hook, curtain rod, towel rod, switchplate, shelves) Rip up carpeting, assess what kind of prep floor needs for tiling (handy friends will help)Remove toilet (handy friends will help)- Purchase last round of expensive crap for the floor (adhesive, threshold, seal, grout)
- Tile floor (handy friends will lend tools and set me started)
- Touch up drawers, seal
- Grout tile
- Install baseboards
- Install new toilet (again with the handy friends)
- Seal tile
- Buy material, make curtains
- Artwork and decor
- Figure out an affordable way to make shower stall look better (replace glass only?)
- Have shower stall power cleaned (hire expert — they use acid!)
Previous bathroom post:
My Grandad taught me to tile when my parents had their bathroom redone (I was a student and I worked part time in a builders merchant I’m surprised my parents didn’t do more of the house while they had the discount lol). Anyhoo so if I lived closer (or within travelling distance) I’d come and help in exchange for pizza and diet cola (and maybe a patch of carpet or sofa to sleep on – I guess that would depend on how far away I lived in this idea) lol.
Wow, what a great skill to have! If you came and helped you’d have all the pizza/diet soda you’d want, a REAL bed, and a tour guide in Southern California (when you have some time off from your tiling job!) 🙂
Wow. I totally admire you for undertaking this gargantuan, no-turning-back task. It shouldn’t be so hard to make a small room look nice, but bathrooms just taunt with their multiple materials and layers and years of accumulated grime of various varieties. I look at my probably-70-year-old shower door and pray that the mysterious gunk on the bottom continues to hold the corroded frame together.
Hey, when you coming over?