Bye Bye Bathroom

When we moved into our house, we knew that one day the master bathroom would need some TLC. Honestly, it needed more than TLC, it needed more like an organ transplant. Within a month of moving in, the seal at the bottom of the shower door fell out. I think the previous owners had stuffed it into the door just hoping everything would pass the initial home inspection. No matter how hard we scrubbed, the tile was stained and falling apart. There was no way around it; it had to be gutted and redone. 

First were all the estimates. Several plumbers and even one very pompous kitchen and bathroom designer came by to tell me what they would do and how much they would cost.

First, let me explain the bathroom. It's not some show stopping bathroom. It's very typical, having two separate vanities with a corner tub in the middle, a walk in shower and a water closet (my fancy word for little room for the toilet). The flooring is the same tile that we have downstairs so no need for that to be replaced. The current tile is plain white, 6x6 squares. Nothing fancy, nothing special. Both the tub and shower are decked out in the same plain white, but they are separated by Greg's vanity.

I called several people that I found on Angie's List, with the kitchen and bath showroom designer coming by first. She handed me her tiny laptop with a powerpoint presentation of her portfolio. She envisioned gorgeous travertine tiles, frameless glass, and expensive fixtures. I mentioned that we weren't planning to do the tub, I thought trying to match the tub and shower would be the way to go. Plus, we are probably selling in less than two years, so pouring thousands into a shower just isn't the way for us to go. She told me that the bathroom would look so much better with a beautiful shower and the next owners can deal with the tub. Really? REALLY?? I'm trying to sell my house, not make it more difficult for the next buyers or more difficult for me to sell. She wouldn’t even listen to my suggestions. So rather than having two COMPLETELY different styles in a bathroom, we did not go with her.

We finally found a plumber who also does remodeling work and hired him. He has a great rating on Angie's List so it seems like we found someone who will work well with us.

Mr. Plumber had two men come out to rip out the entire shower. I was petrified of what they might find behind the tile. I thought of black mold creeping throughout our walls, studs being ripped out and finally having to move out while men in white Tyvek suits and masks come to fix our home. Luckily, none of that happened. And best of all, NO BLACK MOLD!

Broken tile on other side was causing wall to get soft in that spot, and get moldy.

Once the shower was ripped out, the new backer board and shower pan were installed. We waited a couple of days to check for leaks. Once it was established that there weren’t any, the tile man came.

Greg and I decided that it was too costly to retile the shower AND the tub. Since we are keeping the 6x6 white tile on the tub, we are going to redo the shower with the same 6x6 white tile. To give the shower a bit of oomph, we got a pretty listello to go throughout the shower and also to apply to the tub. Listello is similar to a border you might put in a bathroom or backsplash in your kitchen. We picked a pretty brown and tan listello so it would match the floor tile. To keep with the brown and tans, we went with a brown travertine piece for the shower step. Previously, it was a gray piece that didn’t match the floors. It’s the same ugly grey travertine that’s used throughout our house for window sills. When it came to the shower floor tile, we went with 2x2 brown and tan tiles. We previously had white tiles on the floor and they stained horribly. The brown tiles will be easier to clean and show less wear.

The shower definitely won’t be featured in Architectural Digest, but it won’t look as plain and builder’s grade as it had before. The listello will give it the extra punch, along with the shower floor. We also are adding in two corner shelves since we didn’t have anywhere to put shampoo bottles and soap previously.

To further save on money, Greg and I bought all the tile ourselves. Since we were going with plain white, there wasn’t a need to buy from one of those expensive tile stores. We went through Lowe’s and used our military discount. The plumber had originally estimated $3/sq. ft., but with us buying everything plus our discount, the tile went to 90 cents/sq. ft. Big savings!

I’m excited for this to be done. While we still have two other bathrooms in the house, the five of us are sharing the upstairs one. Greg is tired of getting in the shower and stepping on the kids’ bath toys, and I’m tired of Hayden using my shampoo, as in squirting it all out to make bubbles. Soon, it will all be done! I just keep telling myself that!