What does a home owner do when they find a water leak in the foundation of a bathroom that hasn't been updated since 1973? You renovate!
This is after the renovation was complete:
Read on for the back-story along with more before & after pictures...
The story started shortly after we bought our first house. We noticed a constant hissing sound coming from the utility room. I called a company & they traced the leak to a pipe under the foundation going from the water heater to the sink in the bathroom. For some reason, in the 1970s, they built houses so the water pipes were buried under the foundation. We hired another company to repair the leak. After several months, more leaks appeared elsewhere under the foundation, but that's a story for another day.
Here are some pictures from before we tore apart the bathroom:
I feel claustrophobic just looking at this picture:
The previous owners really liked brass. All of the outlet & switch covers were brass.
Here's the real gem of this project. Vinyl flooring that has seen much better days. This was under the sink.
I ripped out the shower doors (they were mounted on top of a tub!), ripped up the old terracotta tile & the vinyl:
I had to level the floor again before the guys that patched the leak didn't do a very good job. Truth be told, I should have leveled it with a leveling compound, but I did it with an angle grinder. It was a very dusty, dirty job.
I positioned the floor tiles in a diamond orientation because there's a well-know optical illusion that by positioning them like this, it makes the space look both wider & longer than it actually is. It's especially obvious when compared to a pattern where the grout lines run perpendicular to the walls. The new tile looked amazing compared to the old ones:
Then came the shower. Tearing down the old tile was interesting. The old tile was installed over regular old drywall. I'm not sure if concrete board (aka backerboard/hardyboard) existed in the 1970s, but they didn't use it in this house. There were several drywall pieces that were just complete mush. I think the tile was only being held on the wall because of the other pieces of tile that were on solid pieces of wall. The new tile is a huge improvement over the standard 2x2" contractor white squares:
It took me several months to get all the way around the toilet because of a baby. Luckily, she preferred showers.
Accent pieces are usually pretty expensive. Those thin pieces that look like pencils cost $15 EACH. But they really do give definition and spruce up the appearance:
I could have replaced the tile handles because they were really hard to use, but I didn't.
Installing free-floating shelves in a shower isn't particularly hard, but it does require some spare hands. First, you mount the first one with construction adhesive & tape in up using very long pieces of tape up the wall.
After the top shelf fully dries (usually 48-72 hours), you can mount the lower one by using construction adhesive & taping it to the upper shelf. There may be a better way to do this, but this is how we did it:
Hey, look! They float!
New shower head installed, accent & bullnose pieces installed! I highly recommend you use a tile & grout sealer. It keeps mold & mildew from ruining your hard work. I've done it for two different bathrooms. You just pour the sealer in a bucket, put on your gloves & use a sponge to apply it. Piece of cake. Definitely worth the extra 30 minutes.
Nice clean grout & caulk lines, plus some anti-slip fishies that'll make any kid smile (and maybe a few adults too):
I spent a lot of time making sure the threshold looked good because it's something that a lot of people inadvertently look at when stepping into a room.
And finally, new paint, new sink, new light, new mirror, new bathroom!