The first stretch of this bathroom renovation has been loud, messy and surprising (remember when we found a secret room?)! It hasn’t been the prettiest of things to see so far, but every step to this point has been SO important! Here is a recap of what has been going on!
DEMO
Obviously, they started with demo which went craaaazy fast. 2 guys came in and knocked the whole thing out in a day and a half! We had a really cute pile of trash on our driveway for a day, but they had it all cleared out and cleaned up before we knew it!
Shower Framing
After demo was complete, we moved onto framing for the new shower. We knew we wanted a larger shower with a glass surround, so we didn’t have to feel like we were showering in a locker room anymore… If you read my first blog post for this renovation, you’ll remember how awkward the original setup was.
While we have the space for it, we didn’t want to do double shower heads (because we will likely not be here forever and that extra cost just didn’t make sense), so we wanted to figure out the right size that wouldn’t feel too small for the space, but also wouldn’t leave a ton of room in the shower where you wouldn’t even get hit by the water.
Ultimately, we decided to do about 6’x4′ in the shower and added a bench with a hidden niche for our shampoo, conditioner, etc. I think this size is going to work out perfectly! We will have drywall around the bench portion with glass on top as well as a glass panel and glass door on the side.
It was during this step that we discovered the SECRET ROOM. I’m still reeling from that discovery…….
Plumbing
Plumbing came next, where they had to move some things around to accommodate the new fixtures. We had to move the shower head and valve to the far wall and added a place for the diverter and hand shower. Since our new tub will be freestanding and has a center drain, we had to move the plumbing for the drain and add plumbing for freestanding tub filler. On the vanity side of the room, we had to shift the plumbing for the sinks a bit since our new vanity configuration is just a bit different than the old one.
Electrical
The electrical in this bathroom was really old, and the setup was just not great so I was really excited about this part. For the last 3 years, we have only had ONE electrical outlet and it has been a huge pain in the butt. We had to use an extension cord with a power strip so that Nick could have an outlet for his toothbrush and hair dryer (which I’m sure has been super safe…).
Aside from adding the new outlet on Nick’s side, we changed the vanity lights from 2 above the mirrors to 3 sconces. Other than preferring the way that sconces look in a bathroom, I also think doing the lighting this way is better for lighting your face when putting on makeup! I think we are going with these beauts!
The other things we did at this step was got rid of the old, ugly track light we had in here, and moved to 4 can lights. I was thinking of adding a chandelier over the tub, but decided against it. We did have the electrician do a few things in there that would make it super easy to switch to a chandelier if we change out mind in the future!
Lastly, we updated the old vent fan to a quieter, more powerful one. I had no idea just how loud our old fan was until I heard this new one! Mind blown!
Drywall
The next step was drywall, which felt like a big one! The closed up all the holes in the walls from the electrical and plumbing as well as the hole into the secret room (don’t worry, we can still access it through our closet), and did a few rounds of joint compound and sanding. They also moved the floor vent at this step. The old placement was going to be right outside the shower door, so we moved it to a more ideal location (you can see in the image above).
It’s looking like a room again, and I am getting SO EXCITED!
But Janny, what comes next?
I am SO glad you asked! Today they started TILE! This feels like the most exciting step so far because now is the time when it starts getting pretty! I think its going to be about 5 days of tiling with grout, but I am so ready to see it all come together!
Stick around, because next comes the GOOD PART!
