Bathroom Remodel Pt. 1

You know sometimes, when you've got a nasty job you need to do but really don't want to, it's better to just jump in one day and get started. Well, Lu and I have this bathroom that is badly in need of upgrading. It looked like this.

Aqua-ish 4 inch tiles. A vanity 7 times bigger than is needed (seriously, when you sit on the can your knees hit the thing). Linoleum that was outdated in the 50's and is coming up at the edges. Something had to be done.

Yes, yes he's cute and improves any room he's in just by dint of his preciousness but we needed something just a bit more concrete.

Enter The Destructor. Three of the four walls in this bathroom are masonry. They were part of the original construction and were once outside walls. All but one are now interior walls. The tile job was interesting. This was done before the invention of concrete backer board. What they did was to nail metal mesh to the wall and apply a layer of concrete. It's very much like a stucco scratch coat. They then tiled as they went. It comes off only with difficulty. With most of it I had to painfully chip away the tile to expose the concrete behind.

Once I got enough chipped away I could get in behind the backer and start prying it off. In a shower of ceramic chips and concrete dust I might add.

Once enough was peeled away chunks could be removed. See the nice linoleum behind the concrete backer? Ugh.

I measured the backer/tile combo at just a hair under one inch. Consider the following.

The bathroom is 5' x 8'9" to the actual walls (not the tile). That's 60 inches x 105 inches. That gives us 6300 sq. inches or 43.75 sq. ft.

Take off 2 inches from both measurements for 58 x 103 inches. That's 5974 sq. inches or 41.48 sq. ft.

Just by removing the tile and backer I added 2 1/4 sq. feet to the floor plan. I love math.

Ok, tile and backer are down. Note the pockmarks in the walls. That's where they nailed up the metal mesh. It's ok around the tub, because we'll be tiling there, but the rest of the walls need to be repaired, scraped, sanded and prepped for texture and paint.

Most of the floor is out as well. I did have some help there.

 It's Small Black Dog to the rescue! I'm helping Daddy.

We tiled yesterday. Today it's grout and floor/wall surface prep. After prep we do texture, paint and then floor. We've picked out a nice, small vanity and some new lighting. Of course the light switch is behind the door and will have to be moved. Sheesh!

So how was your weekend? More pics as we progress.

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