GroupWBench

We've been wanting to update our master bathroom since the day we bought this place. The shower was a one-piece fiberglass shell, and the fixtures were all "builder grade"—functional, but about as exciting as watching paint dry. After months of planning (and procrastination), we finally embarked on our bathroom renovation journey. In the process, we took on the roles of a tiler, a drywall installer, a rough carpenter, a finish carpenter, a plumber, an electrician, and—more often than I'd like to admit—just plain exhausted.

This wasn’t exactly our first rodeo. We’d already redone three bathrooms in our house in North Carolina and one at Ivy’s parents’ place. All were complete gut remodels, down to the studs and subfloor. Those projects went smoothly—none were too difficult, and only took a few weekends of spare time. The master bath in North Carolina turned out pretty nice, so naturally, we assumed we were pros by now. As it turns out, confidence only takes you so far. Skills… well, they were there for most of it, but confidence and skills still don't make it easy

Here’s what we started with:

What you don’t see in the picture is that the cabinet was about as sturdy as wet cardboard, and the Formica countertop looked like it had been through a few decades of kitchen grease wars. You can see that the shower was cramped, with a big plastic enclosure that might have been designed for hobbits.

For starters, we decided to remove the vanity. Simple, right? Well, it turns out our new tile floors didn’t extend under the built-ins, which presented our first “fun” challenge. Thankfully, we had some leftover tiles from the original installation, so Ivy and I were able to fill the gap. Crisis averted.

We held our breath while removing the mirror over the vanity, half-expecting it to shatter in our faces, but of course, it didn’t break. When we wanted it broken so we could trash it (the silver backing was peeling), it was suddenly indestructible. Go figure.

 

The vanity we ordered was 60 inches wide, which fit exactly between the walls—or so we thought. When we finally muscled the beast into the bathroom, we discovered the cabinet was indeed 60 inches, but the countertop was 61 inches. Apparently, vanity manufacturers just love keeping us on our toes. So, I had to channel my inner surgeon and carve a groove into the drywall to make it fit. Of course, once that was done, I had to patch the part of the wall sticking out past the front of the vanity. Matching that curved corner and wall texture was about as much fun as it sounds. First stage down, many more to go.

Once we got the vanity in place, we got to experience the joy of “under-cabinet yoga” as we hooked up the water supply and drain lines. After trimming the shelves for the drain to fit properly, we managed to get everything connected without sprouting any new gray hairs – although, I would have happily welcomed them to my bald pate.

We initially wanted to put up fancy mirrors with in-wall medicine cabinets, but our trusty wall radar tool informed us that there were pipes in the wall behind the vanity. So, we settled for simple mirrors on the wall, because what’s a renovation without a few compromises? We also ripped out the old medicine cabinet on one side and tiled the wall behind it with our soon-to-be shower floor tile. I built a little frame, and it turned into a nice niche.

Next up: the toilet nook. Since we’re thinking about putting in a sliding door between the bathroom and closet, we needed to move the closet light switch to the wall over the toilet. Oh, and because we’re apparently fancy people now, we needed a plug for the new toilet with a heated seat and bidet. The electrical work was pretty straightforward—I’m proud to say I didn’t electrocute myself or set the house on fire. Small victories.

After painting the walls, we decided the nook felt a little dark. Ivy suggested wallpaper to lighten things up and found something perfect. But, as with all things in remodeling, nothing’s quite as easy as it seems. Every house we’ve had in Texas has textured walls, which meant we had to slap on drywall mud, sand it smooth, and create fine white dust clouds that covered everything. Fun times. In the end, the wallpaper looked great and really brightened up the nook.

Installing the toilet was easy—well, as easy as installing a toilet can be. It wasn’t cheap, but with the bidet and heated seat, it's about as luxurious as a toilet can get. Let’s just say it is far more civilized than a hole and last year’s Sears catalog.

We decided to take a month off before tackling the next phase: the shower. Once we got back to it, step one was demoing the fiberglass enclosure. TV shows make demolition look like a blast—wild sledgehammer swings and debris flying everywhere. They can do that because they’ve got a cleanup crew on standby. We, on the other hand, carefully cut the shower into pieces, trying to avoid any major disasters.

Good thing we were careful—there were a couple of water lines running right behind the fiberglass rather than in the wall. I considered reworking the supply lines myself but decided to exercise caution and called in a professional. Knowing the limits of your skills is an important skill to have. The pro handled it in a couple of hours, and I slept better knowing it was done right.

You never really know what you’ll find when you open a wall or remove a built in. When we removed the shower base, we found a surprise: a hole in the concrete the size of a small laundry basket. It was about two feet across and 18 inches deep into the dirt. Because our new shower pan needed to span no more than seven inches, we used a seven-inch pipe to cover the drain line, filled the rest of the hole with sand, and poured concrete over that to level the floor. Problem solved.

I framed out a niche for the shower wall and then added blocking for grab handles. Something to hang on to when the klutz gene strikes is valuable.

We used TileRedi base and wall boards for the shower, they are made of strong closed-cell foam that’s waterproof and easy to work with. Setting the base in mortar and screwing in the 3’x5’ panels was probably the least stressful part of the whole project. A little sealant on the joints and screws, and we were golden.

Next, we tackled the mosaic tile shower floor. We spent hours trimming tiles to fit perfectly, and while painstaking, it came out looking great.

For the walls, we chose 1’x2’ tiles, which turned out to be way more difficult to work with than the smaller tiles we were used to. Instead of getting the tiling done in a day, it took about four days of painstaking messy work. Taking extra days meant time setting up and cleaning up every day. We finally finished installing all of them. The leveling system we used probably saved us from making a total mess of things. We used the floor tile for the back of the niche, which I think came out pretty nice..

We found some matching bullnose tile for the curb, which worked perfectly.

Finally, we hooked up the shower head and control handle. Of course, for few brief, terrifying moments, no water came out. As I started troubleshooting I was already imagining tearing into the newly tiled wall. After removing and replacing the shower head and working with the valve handle it turned out that the handle wasn’t properly connected to the valve. A little fiddling, and—hallelujah—water! Crisis averted.

The last step was installing the door. We went with one that swings in and out, instead of a sliding door. No overhead bar to smack my head on—much appreciated. Plus, it looks a lot cleaner without all kinds of metal frame on the glass.

In the end, the bathroom turned out better than we had hoped, and we’re really happy with the result. That said, it was definitely more work than we’d bargained for. While we’ve got plenty of stories (and maybe a few scars) to show for it, we’re in no rush to tackle another big remodel anytime soon. I think it’s safe to say that we’ll need to let the memories of drywall dust, plumbing contortions, and stubborn tiles fade a bit before we’re ready to dive back in. For now, we’ll just enjoy the luxury of a finished project—and a nice, long, heated shower!