On renovating a bathroom - and so it begins

Do we ever know where the inspiration to renovate really comes from? Is it boredom? Necessity? Pride? Curiosity? Stupidity? Can it ever be answered? Well, the "calling" came to us. We decided to bite the bullet and tackle the master bathroom. We're now going to share this experience, step by step over the next few months. We'll share all that we encounter  - the good, the bad and the ugly.

Why?

Our reasoning for doing this room, at this time, in this scale is a proverbial mixed bag. There is SOME necessity (no, I am not rationalizing things here.) The 1920's house was built with the bathroom located directly over a large front entry hall. Any water issues, from large to small, are literally front and center - to be seen by everyone, everyday. We've now had this minor seepage for a few years now. Plumbers confirmed it's not from the shower faucets. It's either coming from cracked wall & floor tiles and/or disintegrating window frames & sills. All of them original to the 1920 construction. Um...so where do we start?

And that's not all...

Compounding the issue is that there are no simple ways to fix and patch. Hyeah, I know. The shower subway tiles extend and wrap around the room so any window replacement or wall patch work will be noticeable. Attention! Work was done here! There is no way to match the patina of original 1920's tile with anything manufactured today. (I know, thanks.)

There's also no clean technique to remove either floor or wall tiles and leave the sub-layers intact. (Cue foreshadowing music - you see where the thinking is going.)  If we are going to remove the walls, floor and windows to create a clean slate, then why don't we revise the room layout to better meet our particular needs?  Makes "sense", right?  This means adding a double vanity which, by the way, requires a relocation of the toilet.  Ker-ching$.  Ker-ching$. Not to mention we need frame-less glass shower doors, heated floors, marble instead of tile... The madness only continues from here. (This is where the lines are blurred between necessity and stupidity...)

And now overkill

So, we thought, if we're going to be doing some work in the house anyway, why don't we take the opportunity to address the few issues in the guest bath. Makes sense, right? "We'll be saving money since the workers will already be here..." Yea, dot, dot, dot...

This bath needed some corrective work the day we moved in. The toilet and sink were original and required updating to align with code and water conservation guidelines. The wood floor area around the toilet was deteriorating from years of condensation with the old-style toilet design. Finally, with it's position under a roof eave, the claw foot tub could never accommodate an attached shower system. Guests were forced to to walk down the hall and shower in the master. Awkward.


So, this is really a "small" add-on job, right?  Replace/re-tile floor, swap out sink and toilet and reverse position of tub and install a vintage exposed shower system. Simple. Just a few hundred more?
The saga begins

So we'll pick up in the next post on the bidding process and the first shoe drop. After that we'll get into the demolition. You know writing about this, as it happens, may actually be therapeutic for me. For all that goes bad? It gives me more to write about!

As they say, hang onto your hats, it's going to be a wild ride...

Till the next time