The Big DIY Bathroom Renovation- Picture Heavy

[Clairitek]

On January 9th of this year DH and I commenced our bathroom renovation with some good ole sledgehammer fun. Finally, just short of 3 months later we can finally call it a wrap.

The idea of the renovation was to make our tiny old fashioned bathroom larger by absorbing two small coat closet style closets from an adjacent bedroom. The bathroom feels twice the size now! We had to rebuild the closet in the bedroom (which I finished last night) as well. We did EVERYTHING ourselves (or with help from a friend). I am really proud of the fact that we didn't pay for any labor. The cost of the whole thing was between $2000 and $2500. Sorta lost track in there somewhere.

We had lots of funny and oh s**t!!!! moments, including the time DH got electrocuted by the demoltion hammer we rented from Home Depot to take up the bathroom floor. Demoltion hammers resemble a small jack hammer. I'm surprised our house is still standing after that evening. We were unpleasantly surprised to find that our bathroom pipes were EMBEDDED IN THE CEMENT THAT OUR TILE WAS SITTING ON. Who DOES that!?!?! Thankfully he was being careful and didn't rupture our pipes!

We are putting our house on the market TODAY so I really hope all of this effort doesn't go unnoticed and that people who tour our home this weekend appreciate our choices in the bathroom.

In that time we...
- tore down all of the walls of our bathroom except for two walls in the linen closet and the one where the door is.
- removed our old school hot/cold/and mixer handle shower plumbing and replaced it with a more modern single handle mixer
- removed the tile floor of our bathroom
- installed insulation and walls (and subsequently murdered our vacuum... death by drywall dust inhalation)
- tiled our tub surround
- moved our drain vent from its current location to the new wall (the drain vent lets air into your drain so it goes down the pipes easily, it goes up through the roof in our case)
- laid a new subfloor and travertine tile floor
- filled in a hole in the wall where an old closet door was (we left the other one in tact so there is another door to the bathroom in the bedroom
- built a brand new closet in our guest room
- repainted the guest room
- installed our new vanity
- reinstalled our toilet (surprisingly easy... I was terrified of screwing this up)
- removed old fashioned wiring and put in new stuff, along with an update GFCI outlet and added a switch for a ceiling fan (if anyone ever wants to put one in... not required since we have a window)

Approximate cost break-down
- floor tile and shower tile and related supplies (floor tile was $2 a square foot from Craigslist!) $550
- vanity $450
- faucets $140 (one from Home Depot, one from Overstock)
- bathroom hardware, shower curtain and rod, etc $100 (Home Goods is great for this stuff!)
- building materials- drywall, trim, wood, fasteners $400 (total approximation... I was at Home Depot 3-4 times a week during this whole project
- plumbing and electrical supplies $150

Ok so here we go with pictures!

First- The old view from our stairwell. You can see how tiny it was. The wall on the left on either side of the sink is what we removed and rebuilt. Those weird bumps out of the wall are the closets that are now gone.

 

[Clairitek]

From inside the bathroom. The old pedestal sink and our toilet. One of the two closets that is a goner.

 

[Clairitek]

This was our rubble pile after one day of demolition. DH was using one of our keg tubs to bring it all down from the bathroom and it ruptured when he was dragging it across our garage.

I just realized I didn''t include the $350 dumpster rental to remove all of our junk so we can sell our home. I suppose that makes our final tally between $2350 and $2850.

 

[Clairitek]

Check our our "industrial chic" shower surround!!

We lived like this for about 6 weeks. It was QUITE drafty in there because (as you''ll see in the next photo) there was a hole leading straight to our attic above our shower. The warm air just whooshed past us in the shower and into the attic. Makes for a very energy efficient home.

 

[Clairitek]

Hard to make out whats going on but this was taken from where I would stand to shower. That light you see coming through is from the attic windows.

 

[Clairitek]

Shot from the doorway after one closet wall was removed. You can already see how much bigger the bathroom is going to be.

 

[Clairitek]

Our cat Charlie climbed UNDERNEATH the tub after we took some walls down. All sorts of nasty old insulation had fallen down there and he was COVERED (long haired cat too). This was his angry face after an impromptu kitchen sink bath.

 

[Clairitek]

View from the door we filled in. The toilet is between this wall and the tub.

 

[Clairitek]

We found a time capsule in the wall when we tore it down. All sorts of random stuff was in it, including this 1908 Phillies World Series Champion bumper sticker. We meant to put everything back in the wall and add some of our own stuff but we forgot in the rush to get things completed. I think I want to make a shadow box or something with the items to commemorate our first (and last for at least a few years) home renovation.

 

[Tuckins1]

Claritek- I''m sure you are still in the middle of posting, but I just wanted to say good for you!! We also undertook a huge renovation project (the entire house was gutted) so I can definitely appreciate the hard work and frustration that goes into it! Enjoy the finished product!!

 

[Lauren8211]

MOAR PICS!

pleeease?

 

[Clairitek]

Date: 4/8/2010 10:53:32 AM
Author: Tuckins1
Claritek- I''m sure you are still in the middle of posting, but I just wanted to say good for you!! We also undertook a huge renovation project (the entire house was gutted) so I can definitely appreciate the hard work and frustration that goes into it! Enjoy the finished product!!

We never imagined how tough this would be but we learned SO much from it! I feel much more confident in my ability to manage and maintain a home affordably.

Another time capsule item from the 1968 election. Ironic because DH and I are both pretty liberal and so is our neighborhood.

 

[Clairitek]

Date: 4/8/2010 11:13:27 AM
Author: elledizzy5
MOAR PICS!

pleeease?

Ask and ye shall receive.

A little out of order, but here is the view from the toilet before the renovation. It was tight in there!

 

[Clairitek]

The old faucet I cut out and replaced. I''m ready for my plumber''s crack now!

 

[Clairitek]

Finally on to the finished product.

Detail shot of shower tile. That strips is about 8" high and is 2/3 of the way up the shower wall (which is 65" of tile and the balance to the ceiling in drywall).

ETA: You know you're a try PSer when you refer to those beaded trim tiles as the "milgrain tiles."

 

[Clairitek]

The new view from the stairwell. The color on the wall is Behr's Urban Mist.

ETA: There is a drawer in that space on the vanity that wasn't installed for the picture.

 

[Clairitek]

View from standing in the tub.

 

[Clairitek]

In an effort to buy things for this house that we can take to the next house I got this cute little side table thing at Christmas Tree Shop. I also wanted to try something prettier for TP storage. I got that glass vase at Home Goods (stole the idea from Young House Love -home renovation and design blog-).

 

[April20]

Your bathroom looks amazing. You guys did an excellent job! You are braver than I would be doing all the work yourself. And how can people not notice everything you''ve done! I''d be tempted to put your before, progress and after shots on the shelves in the bathroom so people can see what was done when they look at your house.

 

[Clairitek]

View from the remaining closet door, now its a bathroom door. This was from inside of the guest room.

 

[Clairitek]

Last one for now! Another shot from the guest room door. I love those bamboo blinds!

 

[radiantquest]

Vast improvement. It looks so fresh. That is cool about the time capsule. Makes me want to make one although I have no idea what someone 50 years from now would find interesting.

Side note- My grandmothers house is very old and when we had to knock out a wall we saw that some of the insulation was newspaper. Crazy.
My uncles house is over 150 years old and with most houses that old they used plaster for walls instead of drywall. One day he was hanging something and of course the wall fell apart like they tend to when they are plaster and he kept picking and picking and found that the entire room was rock. He finished taking all the plaster down and it looks so cool. The window sills are big slabs of slate.

 

[Clairitek]

Date: 4/8/2010 11:33:58 AM
Author: April20
Your bathroom looks amazing. You guys did an excellent job! You are braver than I would be doing all the work yourself. And how can people not notice everything you''ve done! I''d be tempted to put your before, progress and after shots on the shelves in the bathroom so people can see what was done when they look at your house.

Thanks! I love it took. Every time I take a shower I marvel at our work.

I am tempted to print out a few photos and am going to ask my realtor about it when I see her later on today.

I''ll take a picture of the closet we built and post it later on as well. That thing was a challenge to frame out (its an odd shape due to the location of floor and ceiling joists.

 

[CurlySue]

WOW!!! What a difference! You guys did an awesome job. Totally impressed that you did yourselves!

 

[Clairitek]

Date: 4/8/2010 11:37:03 AM
Author: radiantquest
Vast improvement. It looks so fresh. That is cool about the time capsule. Makes me want to make one although I have no idea what someone 50 years from now would find interesting.

Side note- My grandmothers house is very old and when we had to knock out a wall we saw that some of the insulation was newspaper. Crazy.
My uncles house is over 150 years old and with most houses that old they used plaster for walls instead of drywall. One day he was hanging something and of course the wall fell apart like they tend to when they are plaster and he kept picking and picking and found that the entire room was rock. He finished taking all the plaster down and it looks so cool. The window sills are big slabs of slate.

What was interesting about the time capsule is the stuff that people chose to hide! Also in there was a weird cut out of some doll type thing, a Christmas party invitation, a 1946 penny, about 40 metal straight razor blades for face shaving, and a church leaflet with scripture on it. The time span went from early 1940s to 1980 (the sticker). I checked the RE tax records and 3 different families lived there during those years. How did the last family find this cubbie and put stuff in there?? If we had been able to add to it I was going to put in one of the thank you cards from our wedding (with a note about how we got engaged in the dining room on Thanksgiving 200, something relating to the Phillies 2008 WS championship win, and somethign relating to Obama''s election.

Thanks for the compliment! I''m really proud of the bathroom and I looooooove the wall color. So much so that I painted our linen closet with it too. No more ugly speckled wall tile!

We were also surprised at some of the building materials that were used. They used cigar boxes as shims!! It was just after WWII so I''m sure they were using whatever they could get their hands on. Matching up the new drywall with the old plaster was a challenge and you can see the seams in certain light, but for a free job it wasn''t bad. I deliberately put those white shelved over one of the joints to disguise it. The ceiling was the toughest (as there was a jagged 6" wide hole from the old wall) but after a TON of patching and sanding, it looks decent.

 

[OUpearlgirl]

It''s beautiful!! I know the past few months were very stressful, but the end result is fantastic! Can I hire you to fix my ugly, yellow tiled bathroom??

 

[janinegirly]

Great job--what are the floors!

I love the time capsule..that''s fascinating stuff. Especially the older items stretching from the 40''s on....

 

[zoebartlett]

What a great job you guys did! I love the time capsule too.

 

[Clairitek]

Date: 4/8/2010 11:39:15 AM
Author: CurlySue
WOW!!! What a difference! You guys did an awesome job. Totally impressed that you did yourselves!

Thanks! I''m sort of flabbergasted. It totally took our lives over for a few months and I''m relieved its over and we can resume our normal weekend activities. If we were going to stay in this house longer the kitchen would be the next thing to go!

 

[Clairitek]

Date: 4/8/2010 11:47:37 AM
Author: janinegirly
Great job--what are the floors!

I love the time capsule..that''s fascinating stuff. Especially the older items stretching from the 40''s on....

Thanks! The floors are a honed and fillled chiaro ivory travertine tile. I LOVE natural stone flooring but I didn''t want to pay $7-$10 a square foot for it and from what I found, the cheaper travertine just wasn''t that great. I looked around in Craigslist and found someone selling 18" x 18" square tiles for $2 a square foot. I borrowed a wet saw from a friend and cut them down to 9" x 9" squares for our room since the bigger size would overwhelm it. It was a PITA to set it on the diagonal like that but grout is very forgiving and hides many tile laying flaws! The thresholds are marble and were purchased from Home Depot.