Bathroom Remodel: New Walls & Tub

We were hoping to find reasonable walls under the wallboard which we could paint, but were disappointed to find holes and missing plaster. After thinking of all the options we went with plain old drywall. I hate drywall, but it's cheap. If I had the money to spend I would put up wainscoting or glass tile. Alas, we are on a very strict budget here.

New tub! Isn't it pretty:) This was a sad looking thing when Jesse brought it home, but I worked it over and added a new coat of paint to the outside and feet. The enamel is a little rough, but looks good enough for me and who wants pristine with five kids? It has a stamped date of 1910 making it a full 100 years old and still just as useful now as it was then. Where are the faucet and knobs you say? Well, I bought the wrong ones on e-bay, so we are going to have to get creative, hopefully by the end of the story I will have a faucet. For now we are just using the supply lines;)

Did I mention I hate drywall? This is probably day 6 of staring at the unfinished walls, I just hate mudding and sanding.

Bathroom Remodel: New Floor

After removing all of the old floor down to the joists, we put down a new sub floor using recycled pallets then plywood went over that. The plywood was odd shaped stuff we had picked up cheap at an auction years ago, so the cost for the floor was minimal.
Emily painted the plywood and we sealed all cracks with silicone to help prevent future water damage. Here you can also see the access hole for the plumbing. Homes in North Dakota often don't have outside access due to the extreme temperatures in winter. It's just not feasible with the three foot thick foundation walls. The original opening was sealed off before we moved in, making it necessary for us to rip up a section of the floor our first week here to fix a leak. That will not happen again!

New peel-n-stick tiles. Not fancy, not what I really want, but cheap and easy. We are hoping for nicer flooring in the future, but the budget just won't allow it at this time. This doesn't look too bad in the meantime and the best feature is the smooth, surface. No more cracks, bumps, holes, gaps, and ugly rugs. You can clearly see the trap door, but I'm hoping to add a trim to help minimize the appearance.

Wordless Wednesday: Portrait Fail

Bathroom Remodeling: Demolition

This is the only before pic I have of the bathroom, it was so icky and in need of help I think I was afraid to make a record of what it looked like before. Suffice it to say, there were a lot of changes made to this room over the years, none of it for the better. I knew when I looked at the house the first time that we would have to rip out the bathroom almost first thing. We actually lived with it a lot longer than I thought we would, finally tackling the problem this summer.

Behind the ugly wallboard, pretty huh? All of the walls were uneven, some were drywall, others were cheap wallboard, and still others were the original walls from when this room was built. I should say rooms, plural. Originally there was a laundry and bathroom here, someone took out the wall separating the two and closed off the other door.

All of the floor had to come up, all four water-damaged, rotten layers. We had a rug covering the biggest share of the room since the floors were a mish-mash of materials that created an un-even surface. Some spots were rotted bad enough to be real hazards.

Lucky for me I have a cheap labor pool;)

This is the floor under the washer and dryer, actually the best part of the floor, but still very rotted and it's surprising the washer didn't fall through at some point.

Another problem we had with this room was the fact that it had no bathtub and the toilet was squeezed into an uncomfortable corner. Trying to bathe toddlers in the kitchen sink was getting more difficult as they grew, yet they were not quite ready for the shower. A tub was a must have and would be replacing the stand-alone shower.

Just getting down to the bare bones takes time and a lot of hard work.