Winter is upon us. The bees are tucked away, the air bites with cold and snow covers the ground. I can’t think of a better place to work than inside, much lower risk of frostbite.
Where to start? By renovating a bathroom which was sorely in need of attention.
Where to start? By renovating a bathroom which was sorely in need of attention.
Who puts carpet in a bathroom?
Put your best foot forward, we start at the end. No, I didn’t tear that out, this is the product of Kristin’s vision and my blood sweat and tears… well, mostly blood.
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The original bathroom had carpet on the floors which lead the girls to affectionately dub it ‘carpet bathroom.’ I haven’t a clue why someone would put carpet on the floor of a bathroom but it clearly had to go. For another unknown reason, the previous renovation saw the walls adorned with tile. The lack of a shower head greatly limited the functionality of this bathroom as well.
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What’s the easiest way to remove tile from a wall you ask? Why, remove the wall, of course! Yes, this creates quite a bit of trash but removing the mastic from the wall and repairing the damage would take much longer and cost significantly more than a sheet of drywall so, off with the wall! Fortunately, the wallpaper didn’t stick to the walls so well and that was easy to remove. After removing the carpet and toilet, I found water damage to the subfloor. Nearly all that remained was the ceiling.
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Now that the fun part is over, time to make things look good again. I built a new wall to contain the shower, covered the room with mold resistant dry wall, replaced the old rotting subfloor with two layers of subfloor and covered everything with cement board. A bit of new plumbing was needed as well in order to convert the old tub spout into a shower/tub combo with a mixer valve in place of separate knobs. I also relocated the vanity plumbing since the floor was out anyways. We’ve also added an exhaust fan and a light above the shower the increase functionality. Kristin selected a beautiful basket weave pattern tile for the floor composed of marble and Ming Green dots to give the bathroom that turn of the century feel. The floor is complemented with a large format tile for the shower surround which borrows some of the green from the stone and grey from the marble. Completing the look, I’ve recreated the baseboard trim to match the rest of the house. Both the door and window had been painted several times over the years but I wanted to keep as much of the original materials as possible. Painstakingly, I stripped to reveal the beautiful wood underneath. |
The completed bathroom is not the showcase room in the house. We’ve tried to bring back the feel of the early 1900s in this bathroom with the wood trim and push button light switches. As we expand our renovations to include other rooms, we will continue these updates throughout the house. I’m happy to announce this bathroom is now known as ‘jade bathroom.’
Sandy Creek Manor 