Bathroom Renovation Mini-Blog
Check back often for running updates on this page!
Instead of multiple individual posts, I add short blurbs about the progress of the bathroom renovation to this page as they happen. So follow along! (This page contains affiliate links.)
Check out my Bathroom Renovation Album on Facebook (so I don’t overload my server).
Like The Stone Head on Facebook to see updates about when this page is updated.
Check out this cool little video “tour” of the bathroom
(But don’t get distracted and not come back… come to think of it, I’ll put the links at the bottom of every post so you can save it for the end.)
Current Status of the Bathroom:
Completely gutted (okay okay, 98%)
The Bathroom Introduction
When we bought Main Street House, the bathroom pictured was the only bathroom in the house. It was cramped, there was tile everywhere (including on the ceiling) and the window had been more than halfway closed in and tiled over!
The ceiling had been previously lowered to a height of about 7 feet, with the shower head at a height that would only suit a 5’2″ human being. And the medicine cabinet/mirror combination was at a height that only allowed me to see up to my neck!
Like I said above, this is a micro-blog mini series which I constantly update as the bathroom renovation happens so scroll to the bottom to start from the beginning of this renovation, or read below for the most recent update!
8/14/2017 | Progress Happens
I feel like with this bathroom remodel project, we make huge strides and then NOTHING.
On that note, this weekend we made huge progress. We ripped out the old and almost rotten hardwood floors (saving some good pieces for a potential living room project) AND we were able to put down a new sub floor. Since we want to do tile in the bathroom we decided to lay down 3/4″ plywood. The scariest part about ripping up the hardwood floor was that it was continued through the bathroom from the hallway. So Mr. Stone Head had to cut the hardwood STRAIGHT ACROSS where the new threshold between the bathroom and hallway will be. It was nerve-wracking to watch so I can’t imagine what it was like to cut it! But he’s kind of like a miracle carpenter and can do it all so I wasn’t worried.
Screwing down the plywood took forever though because when you lay a new subfloor you want to attach it directly to the joists so it’s nice and sturdy. Unfortunately, some “genius” plumber decided to cut into the joists to make his plumbing fit so we were having a hard time finding exactly where to attach to the joist. (We will be sistering the cut joists once the plumbing is done and out of the way for extra support and to do things the right way – because that’s what we’re all about.)
But basically our Sunday consisted of Mr. Stone Head standing in the basement and checking (aka screaming up to me yes or no) to see if my screws were coming through in the right spots or not. We brought our new puppy (okay he’s not a puppy because he’s a 3.5 year old rescue, but I refer to all dogs as puppies) and he was FASCINATED by the fact that Mr. Stone Head’s voice could come up from the basement through the vents… his head would cock each time he’d scream from the basement, it was so cute. But I digress…
I also found and bought the PERFECT shower base with dimensions of 34″x36″ which is way better than what I thought we’d have to go with! I thought we were going to be stuck with a small 32″x32″ shower! But the base fits perfectly – however, before we can have the plumbing roughed in we need to frame in the walls around the base. The fun part about having to frame in our own surround is that we can add a nook to hold shampoos and soaps! So I’m excited about that. The framing shouldn’t take too long and once my shower diverters come we’re all set to have the plumber come over! He’ll rough in the first floor bathroom, the master bathroom we added in the attic, the plumbing for the kitchen as well as put in a new hot water heater.
If you follow me on Instagram or Facebook you’d know that we’re basically getting the entire house replumbed! And in order to save on plumbing costs, we ripped out ALL THE PLUMBING in the house ourselves (and then scrapped the metal for extra money back – I have a weird thing where I realllllly enjoy scrapping!)
Anyways, the bottom line of this post is that the bathroom remodel seems like it’s happening at light speed all of the sudden but I am totally ready for it to hit a road block for one reason or another. All I can say is that I am sure the Dairy Queen across the street is going to love that we have a bathroom again! But just so ya know, I don’t go and use their facilities without EVER buying anything. I sometimes purchase a seltzer water and every once in a great while, Mr. Stone Head buys an ice cream or fries – so they can’t say we aren’t customers 🙂
Lastly, we’ll have to take out the window in the bathroom and put a smaller window in it’s place. This isn’t a huge deal since we already need to redo the siding anyway – but if we didn’t plan on replacing the exterior shingles with siding, I’m not exactly sure what we would do! So luckily we don’t have to worry about that. So Mr. Stone Head did some prep work and cut out the plaster around the entire window so we don’t need to worry about dust in the future. The window is ready to be popped out and a smaller window will be easy to frame in and install!
Do you want to know more about this renovation? Scroll all the way to the bottom of this post to start from the beginning of this micro blog! I update this post frequently so all you readers can follow along with the DIY remodel of this bathroom. And don’t forget to check out all the pictures and videos from our bathroom remodel by clicking on the links below!
Check out all the bathroom renovation pictures here.
Watch the “Day 1 – Demo Day” video on my Facebook page.
Watch the “Bathroom Remodel -|After Demo” video on my Facebook page.
6/26/2017 | The Roller Coaster Ride Continues
Remodeling a home is a never ending roller coaster ride with soooo many ups & downs and twists & turns.
Just over a month ago I announced that we were going to keep the bathroom layout the same way as it originally was when we bought the house. Which meant we were going to live with a cramped and tiny bathroom where, as Mr. Stone Head so eloquently put it “I can shit and shower at the same time.”
In the 6 weeks since the last time I posted to this micro-blog, we’ve had a hell of a time getting a plumber. We asked for an estimate from the plumber who we’ve been using for a few years (even though I wholeheartedly believed they were expensive AF) and he kind of got a little snippy and said that time and material would be our best bet. The last time we agreed to that, we wound up spending almost $900 to hook up two sinks (when we already purchased the faucets!) I truly felt ripped off which is why I decided that we should contact other plumbers.
Well let me ask you… WHY WHY WHY is it so hard to find a good contractor? I don’t understand how someone can run a successful business when they don’t call people back, don’t show up when they say will and rip people off? Okay, end rant.
Our original plumber, after 5 weeks never got back to us with an estimate, so I assume he’s not interested in working with people who want to know the price beforehand.
The second plumber we called, courtesy of a referral from a friend, answered the first time we called, said he’d call us back with a date and time to come out and take a look and never did.
The third guy, courtesy of our awesome neighbors, said he’d love to do the work but said he’s booked out at least 2 to 2-1/2 months, we said we’d keep him in mind for next time because we can’t/don’t want to wait that long.
The fourth plumber made an appointment with us, didn’t show, made an excuse, went on vacation, extended his vacation without notifying us, then came out and all of the sudden can start the work next week.
We haven’t committed to the fourth guy yet but his “on the spot rough estimate” was very reasonable. The only problem now is that we’ve decided to replace ALL THE PLUMBING in the house, replace the hot water heater and change the layout of the bathroom.
Yes you read that right, we’re going with our original plan of extending the bathroom into the second closet in neighboring bedroom! How did we wind up with this conclusion? The plumber made some good points about how old and crusty the copper & iron pipes looked and how he really didn’t like the fact that the home sat vacant for 2 years. I’ll be honest, when we bought the house I did account for a lot of plumbing work because the cast iron looked pretty rough, so I wasn’t too surprised by this.
So now that we’re replacing all the plumbing it makes sense to move the bathroom layout around! I am actually quite happy with the fact that we’ll have all new plumbing. It means we won’t have to worry for a very very long time. And since it will one day be a rental property we’re thinking ahead – it would really suck to have to shut down a tenant’s plumbing for two days to replace a bunch of pipes we knew were going to leak at some point – so we might as well do it all now while we’re under renovation.
Another great point the plumber pointed out is that he’s going to give us a bigger water line – I think he said instead of the 1/2″ it currently is, he’s going to make it 3/4″ so we have more pressure!
But now I have to rush around and find all the material. I need to pick out a tub & shower pan and I even need to figure out what finishes I want to use because the diverters come in the kits, and that’s something the plumber needs in order to rough everything in! So that’s what I’m off to do!
Happy Monday everyone!
Check out all the bathroom renovation pictures here.
Watch the “Day 1 – Demo Day” video on my Facebook page.
Watch the “Bathroom Remodel -|After Demo” video on my Facebook page.
5/7/2017 | Do Ya’ Believe It?!?
Do you believe it’s been almost three months since the last time I posted about the bathroom?
Do you also believe that NOT ONE THING has been done in that bathroom yet (besides the demo)? I’m sure if you know me and Mr. Stone Head, you aren’t surprised by that statement. It takes us FOREVER (and ever and ever and ever) to get to our own projects.
We also just had to shell out a hugggggeeeeee chunk of change for taxes… which, as a side note, is kind of a new concept to me. Up until July of 2014 (when I proudly quit corporate) I was actually excited about tax season because I got a refund… but fast forward to the last few years and we always owe – oh the woes of self employment! But I wouldn’t change what I’m doing for the world! Multiple income streams, working from home and freedom from living for a paycheck is the future of the workforce.
Anyway…. back to the bathroom.
Even though we haven’t physically done a Goddamn thing to the bathroom yet we’ve made some more decisions, which is sometimes the hardest part of a remodel! The first decision is that we don’t want to shell out more money than we have to on this fixer upper – especially since our end game is to rent the place out in just a few short years.
So with that being said we’ve changed the game plan in the bathroom yet again. In order to save thousands on plumbing, we’ve decided to… ready for this….
keep the layout of the bathroom.
If you read the older posts below you’ll see that we had planned on doing a shower instead of a tub, moving the toilet to where the tub used to be and getting a much bigger vanity in there. BUT, plumbing has been one of the biggest expenses so far on every project we’ve ever done and frankly, I’m tired of paying the outrageous plumber’s rates. So until I have time to go to school for plumbing (okay, never) we’re slashing our plumbing budget and keeping it simple.
So what now then?
So now we’re keeping the layout the exact same as it was. Even though Mr. Stone Head says “I’ll be able to shit and shower at the same time it was so tight in there!” he agrees that it’s probably best to start reeling back our remodeling costs. And since this isn’t our forever home we have to remember that some of these decisions need to be thought of a business decisions.
Since we’re not doing a shower now, this plan also eliminates the need to move and re-frame a smaller bathroom window – there’s money saved right there!
The next step is to get our plumber over there to give us an estimate and then get another plumber over there to compare his estimate to. And then probably a third plumber to compare those two estimates against because I’m starting to get the feeling we’re being charged a little more than average since we’re a repeat customer.
So the next steps after we figure out what plumber we’ll be using is to rough in for the master bathroom. Unfortunately, this is a cost we’ll incur before we can start on the downstairs bathroom since all the plumbing will be connected and run through the walls of the first floor bathroom. Once that’s done, we can get going on the tiny bathroom remodel.
Oh wait… that’s a lie. We still need to do the roof… which can’t be done until the master bathroom is roughed in – or at least until the vent pipe is popped up through the roof!
But it’ll get done, eventually. Until then, I’m hoping my buckets upstairs are enough to keep the water from getting downstairs and ruining all the spackle work I’ve already done in the future office and living room (because I’m impatient.)
Check out all the bathroom renovation pictures here.
Watch the “Day 1 – Demo Day” video on my Facebook page.
Watch the “Bathroom Remodel -|After Demo” video on my Facebook page.
2/9/2017 : A Guessing Game on Plumbing Costs
So as you might already know if you follow along with our second fixer upper renovation updates, that we’re adding a bathroom to the attic space to make it a large master suite. We decided to put it directly above the downstairs bathroom to make it easier for plumbing to be routed to the master suite (also much cheaper this way to!)
However, we’re not made of money and we’re getting a little tight with our remodeling budget mostly thanks to plumbing costs for the apartment remodel. So the problem now is we basically need to pay for the rough in plumbing for two bathrooms because there’s no way to finish one bathroom without at least roughing in the plumbing for the other. Ya know?
So until we get the apartment above the garage rented (which shouldn’t be long!) I have to just keep pinning other people’s bathroom remodels instead of actually physically working on my own.
How much does it cost to remodel a bathroom? I don’t have a solid answer on that because most of the projects I’ve worked on, at least some of the plumbing was already existing. But I’m going to take a guess (and you should too in the comments!) as to what the total cost of this project will be. And in a few months we’ll see how close I am (and you too!)
I haven’t done so yet for this bathroom remodel project but usually I make an excel spreadsheet that tracks my projected costs verse the actual remodel costs of every project (yup, I’m an excel nerd.) These things really help for estimating other remodel costs more quickly because I have concrete numbers to work with as resources.
So when I get that excel spreadsheet together maybe I’ll figure out a way to share that as well.
But for now, I’m guessing that these two bathroom remodels are going to cost around $8,000. What do you think?
Check out all the bathroom renovation pictures here.
Watch the “Day 1 – Demo Day” video on my Facebook page.
Watch the “Bathroom Remodel -|After Demo” video on my Facebook page.
2/3/2017 : I Have Big Dreams For This tiny Bathroom
So absolutely nothing has happened on the bathroom renovation since the last time I updated you (or in the last 6 months for that matter!)
But since I was sick on the couch for the past two days, I’ve had a lot of time to dream about the future bathroom (and ahem, watch Netflix documentaries.) As long as the plumbing isn’t too much money, we’re sticking with the plan we came up with back in August as to how to rearrange the bathroom.
You might be wondering how we’re going to rearrange such a small bathroom. Well, I mentioned above that a previous owner had made the bathroom smaller in order to accommodate a second closet in the bedroom…
So the plan for the bathroom is to keep the vanity where it is/was (only it will be a 36″ vanity instead of a teeny tiny 18″), put a standing shower where the closet used to be and move the toilet into the back right corner (where the tub faucets used to be.)
I’m hoping we can get started on this bathroom (and the house for that matter!) soon but like I talk about in my master suite renovation updates posts, our hands are tied until we get our roof done! There’s no point in starting renovations when it could all get ruined from a few bad rain or snow storms.
Check out all the bathroom renovation pictures here.
Watch the “Day 1 – Demo Day” video on my Facebook page.
Watch the “Bathroom Remodel -|After Demo” video on my Facebook page.
1/18/2017 : The Renovation Already Began
We started demo on the bathroom in July of 2016 when we had tons of room leftover in a $300 dumpster we ordered for tearing down the deck out back and gutting the apartment. We wanted to get our money’s worth so we decided to fill the leftover space with demo debris from the house.
The bathroom was one of the first places we started major demo because we were so curious about what was above the incredibly low, tiled ceiling. After we took down drop ceiling in the the rest of the house, we found that the ceilings were almost 10 inches higher yet (meaning we actually have 9′ ceilings throughout!) so I was hoping the bathroom was the same way. We just didn’t understand why it was soooo low… there has to be a reason right?
Nope! There is no reason at all for the bathroom ceiling height to only be 7′ because it also has 9′ tall ceilings!
Obviously we did more than just tear out the ceiling. But more on the rest later!
Here’s where we’re at as of today with the bathroom renovation.
As promised, here are the links to more pictures and videos about the bathroom on my Facebook page.
Check out all the bathroom renovation pictures here.
Watch the “Day 1 – Demo Day” video on my Facebook page.
Watch the “Bathroom Remodel -|After Demo” video on my Facebook page.
The Original Plans
We have big plans for this tiny bathroom.
The only bathroom in our fixer upper is incredibly cramped and to make it worse the ceilings were tiled at 7 foot, making it feel even smaller. So a bathroom renovation was a necessity.
After some deliberation and detective work, we figured out that a previous owner had reconfigured the bathroom so the bedroom next door could have two closets.
So the basic plan is to get the bathroom back to it’s original size. We’ll take out the additional closet and add that square footage back to the bathroom by doing a stand up shower in place of the extra closet.
And of course there’s all the usual work to be done, tiling, painting, vanity, toilet. As well as some not so usual things… notice in the picture how the window is covered up? Well we’ll fix that – the full length of the window will be opened up by tearing out that shower wall in no time!
Check out all the bathroom renovation pictures here.
Watch the “Day 1 – Demo Day” video on my Facebook page.
Watch the “Bathroom Remodel -|After Demo” video on my Facebook page.
