Home Improvement Project - Upstairs Bathroom Remodel
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The upstairs bathroom at the ranch has always been a sore spot with me. When we bought the house, the upstairs bathroom was a very cramped 6' x 9' with a tub only, toilet, and corner sink. The room was pushed up into the eaves of the roof to the point where the ceiling was only about 6' 4" tall. The walls and ceiling where covered by art-deco aqua marine colored tin tiles. The tiles were beginning to rust and pop off. The tub leaked, the toilet leaked, and the sink faucet dripped continuously. When the bathroom was built, very little of it was done correctly. The plumbing was undersized, the drains ran uphill, the wiring was scabbed onto the end of one of our kitchen circuits, and the floor and wall framing was pieced together from scraps from an old barn. Over the years, I've done some plumbing repairs and replaced the old leaky toilet and most of the rotten subfloor. But, we rarely use this room, so my plan was to ignore it as long as possible. In 2005, Shari and I decided that we wanted to move our master bedroom from downstairs to upstairs. This meant that something had to be done about the upstairs bathroom. The one saving grace of the upstairs bathroom is its potential to grow. Behind the bathroom, through a tiny 20" door, there was a storage room measuring 7' x 9'. So, if the two rooms were combined, the resulting bathroom would be a spacious 13' x 9'.

The project began with a full-scale gutting of the room. The wall between the two rooms was the first to go. Then, with the help of some friends, the tub was broken up and all of the fixtures where removed. We next took on the monumental task of removing all of the wall and ceiling tiles, plaster, backer board, sheathing, and insulation. After about three weeks of off and on demolition, I finally moved onto reconstruction. Here's how the project went:
Update April 2010
The bathroom is finally open for business! Up till now, I've made it a point not to talk about time, because I was beginning to think that I'd never get the bathroom up and running. It's still not quite finished, but at least it's usable. I spent a lot of nights and weekends up there this winter and the hard work paid off. We moved into the new bathroom in mid April, just over FIVE years after I began working on this space. I still need to build some cabinets, but with some temporary shelving in place, we're finally able to use the new bathroom. And, we couldn't be happier with the way it turned out. The walk-in shower feels HUGE and our son enjoys taking his toy boats for a ride in the claw foot tub.

Looking back on the pictures of the old bathroom and the demolition phase makes my skin crawl. But, seeing how the new bathroom has turned out makes it all worth it. I'm prouder of this room than just about any other project that I've taken on. In the time since we first started demolition, our son was born; I gutted and remodeled our old travel trailer; sold that travel trailer; bought a larger travel trailer; remodeled half of the new travel trailer; installed a new engine in our Jeep Grand Wagoneer (twice); built a tree house for our son, gutted and remodeled the bathroom, living room, and dining room in my parents old house; and about a thousand other projects. As you can tell, it's been a busy five years. Now that the new bathroom is functional, I'm reminded of how shabby our downstairs bathroom (remodeled in 1999) is starting to look. It never ends...

Update Febraury 2011
The new wall cabinets are in! Since last April, all of the normal bathroom paraphernalia has been sitting on temporary plywood shelves that I installed in the holes built for the built-in wall cabinets. When the weather turned cold in late November, I put away the outdoor projects for the year and turned my attention building those wall cabinets. It was slow going because I only have an hour or two to work each evening and I spend most of that time trying to convince my son that the woodworking tools are not toys. Anyway, be New Years, I had the cabinet boxes built, painted, and installed. At the same time, I had custom glass shelves made. By the middle of January, I had the doors built, painted, and installed. I think we chose a style that is appropriate to the room and the house. It's a balancing act between the comforts of a custom bathroom and the plain styling of an old farm house. I like to think of it as fancy Shaker-style. We're very pleased with the way the wall cabinets turned out. The bathroom is one step closer to complete. Now, I just need to build some custom doors for the storage room entryways and some free-standing cabinets to match the wall cabinets.

Before:

Old Storage Room
Before

Old Bathroom
Before

Old Bathroom
before

Demolition & Re-Framing:

Old Storage Room
Wall Framing

New Storage Room
Flooring

Bridge From Hall to
Old Storage Room

Bridge From Hall to
Old Storage Room

Old Bathroom
Floor Framing

Old Floor Framing
Removed

New Floor Framing

Reconstruction:

New Tile
Taped for Caulk

New Tile
Taped for Caulk

New Tile
Taped for Caulk

Tile Work Finished
From Doorway

Tile Work Finished
Sink Area

Tile Work Finished
Inside Shower

Tile Work Finished
Shower Area

Tile Work Finished
Tub Area

Trim Finished

Trim Finished

Trim Finished

Trim Finished
Tub Area

Finished Baseboard
Near Sink Area

Finished Baseboard
Near Shower Area

Finished:

Finished Bathroom
Claw Foot Tub

Finished Bathroom
Pedestal Sink

Finished Bathroom
Elevated Toilet

Finished Bathroom
Walk-in Shower

Finished Bathroom
Walk-in Shower

Finished Bathroom
Looking East

Finished Bathroom
Looking West

Finished Bathroom
Looking West

Wall Cabinets Installed

Wall Cabinets Installed

Wall Cabinets Installed