Hall Bath Phase 1 - Demo

my early intention was to keep and restore the "original" grey square tile found under the brown tile. unfortunately #1 there was quite a few missing and broken tile. unfortunately #2 after hours and hours of scraping the tile adhesive off the tile i come to the conclusion that this tile is not original to the house. i came to this conclusion because i watch both sherlock homes on bbc and elementary on cbs so am basically a detective. there was cement backer board under the tile - they didn't use cement backer in the 1960's, also the tile is 3x3, not the standard 4.25x4.25 in mid century homes. but the kicker is that when we took up the tub there was a brand name visible on the backer board, i looked that up and the brand started producing backer board in 1987. which makes sense. it looks like something that would be installed in 1987 but DANGIT. also dangit because this tile is all up in the master bathroom which i am always so smug about it being original. but at least now i won't feel guilty about gutting it.

the good news is that it's not worth keeping since 1987+ tile who cares and we'd rather have a different style anyway. tile: 1 jackie: infinity

anyway, the tile in the shower goes, the tile on the floor goes, the cement backer goes. toilet, sink, tub, gone. all of this is pretty easy because ryan's muscles. (the exact location is toilet - in my office, sink - in the hallway, old tub - in the garage)

we found small amounts of mold, which is scary/not scary because of google, but we sprayed it with bleach and then i'm not really sure after that. i guess cover it up and ignore it.

for phase 2 i hope to show you an installed tub (the 300 lb one that has been sitting in my front yard for a week) and installed cement board on the floor and tub walls. i am giving myself to the end of march to make this happen. some people can do this in a week but we can't all eat free time for breakfast.

toilet hole and tongue and groove subfloor:

Hall Bath Before

I feel a little selfish for renovating this bathroom because for starters, it is the best bathroom in the house. and it's all in working order. but we've lived here for 2 years now and have yet to tackle a Big project (kitchen, 3 bathrooms, basement, deck/exterior) and i'm ready to make it happen.

i'm ready to love my house, not just the idea of it. and this bathroom is a good place to start because it is the main bathroom, guests use it, we both shower in here, and where i spent most nights giving arden a bath. so you can say i've spent a lot of time staring down the things that i hate about it.

1. the style. this tile doesn't belong in a mid century home. not that i'm not going to switch it out for baby pink tile, but this ain't no ski lodge in tuscany (not a place).

2. the tile installation. i'm going to install the tile myself but i swear i will do it 50x over so it doesn't look like that. is it that hard to cut a tile correctly? probably it is. also a ton of the floor tile is cracked. no thanks.

3. i want to upgrade a lot of little things. deeper/nicer/more modern tub, have a hand shower so hopefully i can wash arden's hair without meltdown screaming sessions, a shower curtain that doesn't fall on your head, molding and trim that matches the rest of the house, etc.

toilet is staying, sink is staying. vanity is going to be dancing for its life.