Bathroom: The Before

The most complex and difficult project thus far was the bathroom remodel. Nick and I agreed that we'd pay someone for this project, but even still, there were a lot of things we knew we could do ourselves to save a buck. To set the stage, it's important to appreciate how disgusting the bathroom was. It was so gross that we actually never used it. It was most often a repository for tools and dust. The bathroom was bright orange and someone had installed Travertine tile in the shower. What you cannot see is the mildew on the ceiling of the shower cove and the exposed-element heat lamp/fan. Perhaps with a modest amount of effort we could have made this bathroom temporarily usable, but since the bathroom remodel was going to be "the first thing we do", there seemed no point. So, for several years while we worked on everything else (note the irony), we used the marginally better basement bathroom where we rigged up the small claw footed tub with a shower riser and curtain.

Upstairs bathroom - before.	Basement bathroom - interim setup.

A lot of people thought the original floor was neat, and for a quick minute Nick even considered reviving the original toilet. We flip flopped on whether to keep the arch, part of the house's original charm, but once I saw a photo of a very similar bathroom with the arch removed, its fate was sealed. You'll note that it's a VERY small bathroom. A tall person could practically wash his feet in the tub while sitting on the toilet. Removing the arch would open up the room and make it seem bigger.

Scary selfie - demolition girl!

With those details confirmed, I donned my demolition garb and we got to work!