Our Construction Project - Bathroom Edition

Jeff and I have been thinking of re-doing one of our two bathrooms for a while now. This is "my bathroom" and I primarily use it while Jeff uses the one off the master bedroom. Don't ask me why we work this way...we just do. Of course "my bathroom" will probably become Lily's bathroom when she gets older but for now she will have to share it with me. It is also the one that all of our guests use when they come visit.

We had done some work on it a few years ago...namely stripping wallpaper, painting the walls, painting the vanity and medicine cabinet. It was a little superficial re-do. This time around, we decided to do a gut job. I think we have been watching too many shows on HGTV.

I forgot to take a picture before I started ripping out the storage shelves but you can get a basic idea of the "before"...

It's not a very big bathroom but it was a big enough job. Jeff tore out the vanity, shoveled up the peel n stick tile, removed the toilet and medicine cabinet. After the gutting was done, all that remained was the tub, the walls and a hole where the toilet should connect to the floor.

Jeff started with cutting and laying down the cement backerboard for the tile (he said it was a crummy job), then the actual tile cutting and laying began. We had to rent a tile saw from the home improvement store and this became my job. I am so glad I took 2 years of wood shop in school. I did the measuring and cutting of the tile and Jeff used the thinset stuff to lay it, making sure it was reasonably level and spaced appropriately. After we finished that, we let it sit for a while before grouting. I grouted, Jeff sponged. Just the gutting and floor laying took us 3 days. Really. Then the attempts at the toilet re-install began....

I will skip all the details and just say that we had to wait a week for a plumber to come and re-install the toilet flange and give us back our "facilities". In the meantime, we painted the walls a lighter, neutral color, cut and re-cut baseboards and installed them, put in the vanity with new sink and faucet and medicine cabinet.
Finally, we have a completed bathroom. It is so hard to take a good "after" picture of a room that is like 6 ft x 4 ft.

See the gorgeous floor?!?! I think it just looks prettier to me because it was such a collaborative effort between Jeff and I.

It's not perfect by any means. There are some areas that we had to fill with grout cause some of my cuts were off. There is still some places we dinged the paint when we were finishing the installation of baseboards and things. There are some accessories to be added. But all in all, I think we will call it a success.