It started out innocently enough. On our first day in our new house, just days after closing and a couple months before we would begin moving in, I was pulling up the toilet so I could fix it, and there, under two layers of terrible linoleum, was the original, gorgeous, mosaic, porcelain tile floor. Mercy and I talked about it, and decided to rip up the old floor and "maybe remodel, or something." So began...

The Saga Of The Six Million Dollar Bathroom

Well, obviously the price is a gross exaggeration, but there were definitely times when it felt like things were getting crazy expensive. But I'm getting ahead of myself. What follows is an account of our bathroom remodel in our 1927 Arts and Crafts-style bungalow. I'll start with the money shot, the before and after (all images on this page can be clicked on to see a larger version in a new window):

BeforeAfter

Part 1: The Beginning (August)

We knew the bathroom would need a little work from the get-go. In addition to a new flush kit, the toilet needed to be re-seated, and the faucet handle in the bathroom was loose. Here's how things looked when we took photos during our home inspection during late summer.

The aforementioned broken toilet. Note the awful, rose-colored flooring. Overall view of things. The brown sponge texture and dark floor made the room seem smaller than it was. And don't get me started on the shower curtain. And this is the floor that started it all. This picture was taken after it had been cleaned, but even covered with old adhesive it was obviously a treasure.

Part 2: Initial Decisions (September)

I blogged ad nauseum about our early process, so I'll just summarize here: knowing we were going to remodel, we spent some time going to tile shops and talking to sales people, and browsing some books for ideas, notably Bungalow Bathrooms, which is what finally inspired us to go with subway tile. After that initial decision was made, it was just brainstorming on details after that.

Part 3: Enter THA GROUTMASTAH (October)

Via the redoubtable Angie's List, Mercy located a good contractor who was very understanding and patient as we went through estimates and re-estimates and re-re-estimates based on tile cost, fixture cost, and just plain changing our minds. THA GROUTMASTAH is my own retarded gansgta-speak interpretation of Groutmasters, which is one of a few remodeling companies that our contractor is affiliated with, this one — perhaps obviously — specializing in bathrooms. After all the decisions were made, the tile and fixtures were all ordered, and we were on our way.

Part 4: Unpleasant Surprise(s) (November)

This was the worst part. I spent a day taking out all the old tile, after which TG came in and immediately noticed that all the wood under the window was badly rotted and would need to be replaced, along with the window itself. Meanwhile, Restoration Hardware sent us the wrong tub and shower set, and then the shipping of the correct part took much longer than we'd hoped. We rushed to get a window for TG and continually pestered RH for details on our fixture set, but only because we were suffering under the illusion that we would be able to have things done by Thanksgiving, when we had company coming, including our respective parents. It wasn't until we were talking to TG a scant week before Turkey Day that the truth was revealed; no way was this getting done before the Eating Holiday. Apparently our tile order had been delayed and wouldn't arrive until the weekend after Thanksgiving. Suddenly, we weren't in such a rush. Also, this is when the term "Six Million Dollar Bathroom" crept into my daily speech, as it was beginning to feel like this project was never going to end, or at least not until we got nickel- and dimed-to-death.

This was the most exciting thing thus far: the plumber installed our mixing valve and moved the shower head. It was simultaneously cool and creepy to see so much of the guts of our house.

Part 5: Actual Progress, and Completion (December)

This is when things finally really got moving. There was still a stutter step when one of TG's minions did a whole wall completely wrong, forcing a re-do, but for the most part, now that we had all our materials and Thanksgiving was out of the way, things moved along at a nice clip.

We tore the old vent out of the wall because it was ugly, loud, and woefully ineffecient. I mean, it was just a hole with a fan. Note how the new window lets in a ton more light than the old one did. At one point it occurred to me that as eager as I was to be able to use the bathroom, I was at least as excited about maybe being able to use our den, which was pretty much totally given over to supplies and whatnot. OMG Tile! It also felt good to see the last of the backer board go up.
More tile is up! This was around the first week of December. New vent is in. Lots more tile is up!
Really liking how the blue stripe is turning out, which is good 'cos it was the main reason our shipment was delayed for so long. Oops. After getting most of the west wall done, Mercy noticed the tile pattern was off, and told TG about it. He fired the minion responsible (I guess the dude had been nothin' but trouble anyway) and did the rest himself, after first pulling down all the screwed-up stuff. Love the way the chair rail molding piece is looking. It's also way cool to see the tile over the plumbing.
Ah, much better. You can see how well the new paint, the tile, and the floor are going to work together. Our poor tub took a real beating through all this. Damn that tile is sure looking good, though. A detail that didn't work out so great; We hated the old TP dispenser, looked like something out of an outhouse. So we wanted a tiled-in TPD. Unfortunately it ended up a little smaller than we wanted, so we have to use single-roll TP upstairs instead of double. Oh, the humanity.
Lookin' good! Got new floor tiles in to replace some broken ones around the water pipes. Got that hole filled where the old vent fan was. The south wall is tiled, still need to finish the TPD and switches, but it's gettin' there. This is about the third week of December.
The baseboard tile was a stone bitch to find, but it was worth the hunt. Our nice, clean floor; this is after the acid wash TG used. At this point, we're almost totally done. This is our Restoration Hardware towel bar; Mercy wisely placed it over the heating vent, which is quite large for so small a bathroom, in order to expedite rapid towel drying. I am glad my life is so small that such a thing is important.
Our oft-delayed shower and tub set, and the triple sconce, all from RH. Note that we've still some paint work to do at this point. The completed TP dispenser. The hand-towel holder. We love the polished-nickel finish with white porcelain accents that our style of fixtures has; works perfectly.
This is the weekend after Christmas, when we finished our paint work. Gotta cover up that expensive-ass tile before you start taking a roller to the ceiling. Just finished painting over the old vent hole and doing the ceiling at this point. I am the ghost of subway tiles past.
At long last, it's done. I took this just minutes before having the first shower. Probably the biggest miracle of this whole thing is that I installed the flush kit correctly enough that TG and his crew were able to install the toilet without worry. Mercy's aunt bought us matching blue-and-white towels as a Christmas gift. Pretty awesome.

The Wrap-Up

Well, obviously, we learned a lot about household rennovations during this whole thing, but I find there's no real cap I can put on the experience. In the end we're really glad we did it and we're glad for a lot of different reasons. It didn't end up perfect, but what project ever does? I'm just happy I'm lucky enough to be living in a house so I can do this sort of stuff.