Renovating the Half Bath

I posted another "before" picture of the half-bath a few days ago, showing the original toilet and nasty old flooring. Those were bad, but the cultured marble vanity, crappy base, pitted and leaking faucet, really complete the picture of an outdated bathroom. There was also an old-style medicine cabinet/mirror and 60's era light not pictured here. Overall, the only thing worth saving in this room was the oak trim around the door and window.




The vanity was easier to tear apart than I could have hoped for. The top wasn't glued down at all - only gravity held it in place. While tearing it apart (and I'll admit that I wasn't careful at all about how I did it) I broke the P-trap where it goes into the wall. This was actually a good thing, as I found that the drain line was about 75% blocked. After tearing it apart, I found out a little about the history of this bathroom. The first color on the walls was that light blue you can see little bits of in the following picture. You can see a lot more of it where the base molding was in the following pics as well. It's a pretty nasty color, in my opinion. After blue came an avocado green and then a layer of off-white. Next was that beautiful wallpaper. After the wallpaper was on the walls, the original pedestal or wall-mounted sink was replaced with the vanity I got the pleasure of destroying. Eventually the wallpaper not covered by the vanity base was removed and more off-white was applied. 20 years later, I get to ridicule it on the internet. Yay for me.




I had to break into the wall to replace part of the drain line. At this point, the wall is ready for drywall to cover my destruction and the hole left by the old medicine cabinet. I've also sanded the walls where the vanity was to try and even out the ridges left by the layers of old paint. New shut-offs were added to the supply lines for the faucet, as there previously were none.




The old linoleum was covered with a 1/4" layer of cement board, held in place with thinset cement and about 100 screws. On top of that was laid travertine tiles in two sizes for some interest in this small room. In this picture, I've got the tiles installed and have just finished pushing grout into the joints. 20 minutes later and the floor would be finished.




A couple of days later and the trim is back in place, the walls are painted, and the new toilet and sink are installed. I went with a somewhat classic style and tried to keep everything with the same look. There are still a few details to take care of, such as cutting the extra material from the toilet bolts, but it's essentially ready for action. We're extremely happy with how the flooring turned out, and plan on using the same tile in the kitchen, full bath, and entry of the house. For the full bath we'll probably use a heat-mat under the tile to take the chill out of it on cold winter mornings.

I'm in it past my neck.. (Part 2)

From the outside, you can't tell just how funky this place has been over the years. In my son's bedroom I found traces of old paint which were saved by window treatment brackets. That peach color isn't my favorite, but by compared to the blue it was covered with...! Yes, all four walls were painted that color blue. How bad did it look?




Imagine living in this closet! That's the same blue. This color is NOT in our long-term plan for the house. I wonder if the people who picked colors for this place were imbeciles or if they were all just color blind.




In my daughter's room I found traces of another blue used in the past. The master bedroom and the half-bath were painted this lighter shade of blue at some time. Not much of an improvement over the darker shade, and still nothing I'd ever want on my walls.




The front closet holds another classic color for us - piss yellow. Again, not a color we plan on keeping! I haven't found evidence (yet) as to what the rest of the living room this closet is in was painted yet, but I can't believe that they would have used this color for the main room. Then again, I can't believe the blue paint used in the other rooms, so anything is possible.




In the half-bath, ugly is more than paint deep. The toilet is the original 190 gallon tank version - flush a turd in the morning and by lunch the tank is filled and ready. The vanity was added about 20 years ago, and the linoleum is original (I think). Other than that, the room is perfect. This will be the first room we tackle, as it's not a necessary room for us and it'll give me a good idea as to what other items I'll need to do the full bath. As I buy supplies for this room, I'll just buy the extra pieces needed for the full bathroom which should save me plenty of trips to the store later on.