It’s been a while since we’ve talked about any real projects around these parts, huh?
Let’s fix that.
Yeeeeah. That is happening.
Remember a couple of years ago when our master bathroom shower collapsed on me and I thought I just ate too many cookies? It happened again. Not to me this time – it happened to Corey. It’s possible he had too many cookies too, but I think it was probably a quality issue.
You see, our shower is built with drywall. Just plain ol’ drywall. Which is not exactly up to code, but apparently was when our house was built. But drywall isn’t exactly waterproof. And guess what showers have a LOT of?
When the shower caved in on us again, we honestly thought about just patching it up. That would be easy. Cheap. Fast.
But.
We already had plans to re-do this entire bathroom down the line. Down the line was supposed to mean a few years from now, but what was the point in putting (another) band-aid on the shower when we had every intention of just ripping it out in a few years? And really, what would be the point in just patching that one area when the rest of it was still drywall? And, um, let’s not even mention the mold that had inevitably gathered after nearly 30 years of showers.
I didn’t really take any photos of the process of ripping everything out, because it was messy and gross and hectic, and we squeezed it all in during Jackson’s naps, so we were in a bit of a hurry. But now? It’s looking like this:
We ripped the entire shower down to the studs (and will have to get rid of the insulation because of mold). The demo isn’t completely finished yet – in fact, there’s still quite a bit left, but this is a start. So what’s next on the demo list?
- We need to finish demoing the shower – there is still some trash/tile in the bottom of it, and we need to pull out the insulation/clean the mold. Our goal is to tackle this by next week, since we’ll have houseguests and would really like our bathroom to be at least accessible (we haven’t been using it at all due to the mold, but would like to be able to access the toilet/vanity while we have extra people in the house).
- The tub. It’s been used approximately four times in the two and a half years we have lived here, and we would much prefer a larger shower. There’s a bathtub in the other bathroom down the hall, so we aren’t worried about getting rid of this one – it’ll be much more functional for us.
- The tile. We figure if we’re gonna do this we might as well go all in. We don’t love this tile and have had plans to replace it for a long time, so while we’re in here ripping stuff up, we’ll be pulling this up as well.
- The walls. These walls have a strange, patchy texture that is different from the rest of the house. The only rooms with this texture are the kitchen and all three bathrooms. So random. We plan on sanding these walls down and re-texturing when we paint.
So, basically, everything is going. Except for the vanity – we’ll be keeping that and giving it a major overhaul.
This won’t be a quick renovation by any means. We have every intention of paying cash for this makeover, which means we’ll be doing it in bits and pieces as we save. As we look into it, most of it isn’t quite as expensive as we originally anticipated, though, so I have high hopes of getting it done sometime before Jackson starts school. Realistic expectations, right?
We don’t have anything set in stone yet, but I threw together a quick mood board to give you an idea of the general direction we are headed – light and airy, a little rustic, some mixed metals, and just generally things that make us happy.
(Click for sources)
Mmmmm, makes me happy. We’ll see where we actually end up as we get further into the project, but this captures the feel we are going for pretty well. Once we finish up demo we’ll get started on the shower first – I am SO excited to see it all come together…and a little terrified about how we’ll get it all done with a baby in the house! Be patient with us, ’cause this will be a slow project, but it will be worth the wait!
Have you ever had a shower cave in on you? Ever tackle a giant project with a newborn in the house?
