My bathroom renovation: Before and after. Many, many pics.
My bathroom in my 1925 Center-hallway Colonial Revival was horrifically unattractive. At some time period in the 1970s, someone else put cheesey-looking 4" ceramic tile on top of (gasp) the original 1920s white 1" hexagonal tile.
Sometime in the 1970s, someone on hallucinogenic drugs put up wallpaper with black and red psychedelic butterflies. True story. As if that weren't enough (and it was) they put up extra-crappy 4" beige tile as wainscoting, using some low-rent constructive adhesive, and some of these tiles were laid on TOP OF the black and red psychedelic butterflies.
The substrate (where the wall tiles were placed) was a mess, so no two tiles are level with one another.
And then...
In 2005, the people who were going to "flip" the house put some 12" faux stone floor tile atop the 4" ceramic tiles on the flooring. So now our radiator is slowing disappearing into a chronology of cheap floor tiles through the decades.
My goal was to restore the 1920s look. The good news was, as we started tearing into walls, we found a hole for the old medicine chest and even old wiring for the porcelain sconces, so the restoration part went pretty well. We hired a lot of people, including boiler repairmen (to do the radiator repair), plumbers, electricians, plasterers and a carpenter to do the wainscoting. I did the demolition, the painting and the clean-up. ;)
The flooring is sheet vinyl, sold at a linoleum store in Hollywood. I checked the entire country and that was the only place I could find that sold it.
The sheet vinyl really does look like real tile. In fact, it's so realistic that THREE construction guys were fooled by it, thinking it was real tile. We had a professional floor guy do the installation and he did a beautiful job. Before he could install it, he had to apply THREE coats of floor leveler to clean up the mess we found hidden under those two layers of floor tile.
And we had to set the toilet up on a marble slab because the old flange was 1" too high after all those other floors were removed. We had two plumbers give estimates on replacing the flange and both said it would require tearing up the concrete floor in the bath *and* the kitchen ceiling. One of the reasons the radiator repair was so expensive was because an old elbow - buried underneath the radiator - had started leaking. To our surprise, we found six solid inches of concrete beneath the old tile floor. I'd expected three or four. Six was insane. And just tearing open one little hole for that radiator elbow cracked the kitchen ceiling below.
I started this in mid-January. The project took a little time. :)
First, the before photos (awash in Beige):
Radiator is slowly disappearing under many layers of tile.
The floor was a horrible mess. I'd hoped to save the old 1920s hex tile, but it had been torn up and replaced with concrete.
Messy.
Electrical goes in.
New floor and new bathroom:
Radiator returns after being removed, sandblasted and powder coated.
Wainscoting goes in.
Paint job complete!
A shiny new pedestal sink (Kohler's Memoirs) will be installed as soon as I get the special order faucets in.
Comments (26)
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So many Bathroom/Shower questions- Warning, Long! w/pics
Comments (5)Mr. Vincent, THANK YOU----Your link is worth it's weight in gold! It's clear, big pictures, step-by-step and after we went through it a couple times we just Know we can do it! Now, about that Chloraloy---we've called several places and they don't carry it. Is there another name it goes by? I've been asking for Chloraloy Membrane Shower pan Liner. Should I be asking for it by another name? Also, Husby came home in the wee hours of this morning with a bag of SpeedSet (I had not heard of it here) and said because we have to get the tiles set and grouted at least around the toilet area so that we can set the toilet, it was the quickest setting and allows us to grout in 6 hours. Does this sound right to you? thetews, Thank you so much! It's funny, when Husby told me he could steal 23" from the bedroom to add to the bathroom I looked at him like he was nuts! I was thinking " 23 inches? Might as well have said 3 inches for all that little bitty 23" is gonna give me". Boy, little did I know then, when it comes to bathrooms, especially showers, 23" is like 10 feet -- with bathrooms, every inch counts! LOL As it was, for 30 years when we sat on the toilet our knees hit the wall in front of us so for all these years we've sat on the toilet at an angle. I can hardly wait to sit on a toilet straight-on! It's the little things that excite me. LOL I awoke this morning with every bone in my body aching. I ached where I didn't realize I had places! Taking down shower tiles, curb, vanity, toilet, leveling floor, dragging out bins of cement, lathe, old wet drywall ---granted I didn't do it all but the little I did do, boy, I see how pro's earn every penny they make! There are 6 adults using one bathroom right now and will be until our new Toto toilet is in place. Hopefully we don't open any Pandora's boxes along the way so that we can get this bathroom done in as short a time as possible. Wish me luck! And thank you so much for responding----means a lot!...See MoreMy bathroom before & after pics
Comments (48)That's SO nice of you to say, Shelayne! Does feel like an entirely new room to me. Thanks so much for your enthusiastic reply! Lyban, thanks. I'm so glad you feel the vanities work. I got a great sale price on them &...they came from HD! I'm happy with the quality. They're quite sturdy & solid, not flimsy or cheap feeling. I love the soft-close drawers & doors, & yes, the hardware is what I'd have chosen myself! If you like the shower, will send my tile guy over to you! He'll make you one just like it! He's VERY reasonable price-wise & a delight to work with. Thank you EG3d! Upa Lazy River, wowza, thanks! Good to know, Olychick. Please post pics if you do add a door!...See MoreBefore and After - Avocado Bathroom Update
Comments (99)Rjinga, I hope you see this, since it's not moving to the top. I was out of town for the holiday, but I found your posts in my email. Thanks so much for your lovely compliments! The painted top held up well. We sold the house a few months ago, and all the potential buyers thought it was granite! Even many Realtors (who have likely seen plenty of the real thing). I never did redo the poly to smooth out the brush strokes, and never even had to touch it up. My husband and I aren't hard on things, but I did have water, perfume, hairspray, curling irons, etc. on and around the counter with no problems. It wiped clean with a spritz of 409 and a soft cloth. If I ever do it again, I will try the oil poly with a pantyhose applicator, but I definitely recommend this easy technique if you want a faux granite top....See MoreUgliest Bathroom in the World: Basement Bathroom Renovation
Comments (2)are there bedrooms down there as well? if someone will be using the bedroom in the basement, then they will want a decent bathroom to go with it. 6 inches really isn't worth the hassle of taking down or moving a wall. A foot, maybe, 6" ? no. once you put on the wall or tile, you've got maybe 4" total. Maximize the space by choosing a good vanity w/storage, and possibly building a niche into the wall for additional storage. (use the area between the studs as a built in cabinet) using a prefab shower is fine, but pick a decent one as opposed to those flimsy acrylic pieces. you don't say want the resale value is, so i have no way of knowing how much you should invest. You say you bought mid-range, but I don't know what else you need to redo. anything under a 15% profit really isn't worth it. as for fitting it over the existing drains, usually you will need the new drain cover. if the drain needs to come up, there are extensions. I would advise your husband to do some research on how to fit those into an existing bathroom. If he's handy and can build his own slope, mortar bed and waterproof the shower, then he could prob tile it himself. Just depends on how much work you want to do and what the return is on what you choose. by the looks of what you have there currently, you may have some water damage underneath all the mess. Tear out what you can and then determine what you need to do....See More- 16 years agolast modified: 11 years ago
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rosemarytOriginal Author