We moved into our house in 2007, and it was pretty rough then. It dates back to 1900, and we bought it as a repo, so you can imagine the condition.
We did a bunch of work to the house that first year, and have gradually added on and updated most of the spaces over the years, but had never gotten around to re-doing the bathroom. There's only one, so that poses some logistical challenges (especially after we started making babies and our family grew to six), and while it wasn't nice at all it was functional. I was also kind of intimidated by all the plumbing, so we left it alone.
We finally decided it was time. My wife took the three younger kids to her parent's place in Florida for a week and left me and the oldest at home to do the job. Her parents bought a second house down the street from us a few years back, so that was our plan for pooping and showering during the project...kind of a pain, but easier with two people than six. Naturally it was 20 below most of the week that we were working on it, so that made it much more "fun".
I wish I'd taken more "before" pictures before we started ripping everything out, but this gives you a basic idea of what we were starting with. Really bad, cracked tile and a nasty old tub. There was a hideous pedestal sink next to the toilet before we ripped it out, and a small cupboard for towels and stuff to the right that were already gone when I took this photo.
We started Thursday night after work and got most of the tear-out done in a day. Thankfully they used cement-board under the tile, so I didn't have to grind a bunch of mastic off the subfloor. I did have to cut out and replace a bunch of subfloor around the toilet though...half a century of seeping toilet water soaking into the plywood under that cement board
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The crawl space isn't really a crawl space. It's not accessible and the only way to get to it is through the floor. As such, in the 18 years that we've lived in this house, I've never been down there. I'm not exactly sure what I expected to find when we opened it up, but it certainly wasn't a mummified chupacabra!
I actually think it's a cat. We've never had a cat. It was probably down there for the last 30-50 years!
By Sunday we had the tub in, the floor laid, and a vent fan installed. The bathroom had never had a vent fan before, so adding one was an important upgrade I wanted to do. Unfortunately, the ceiling joists ran perpendicular, and the outside beam was native hardwood about 6" thick, so there was no drilling through that. I ended up with a smaller fan than I wanted, mounted it sideways in the wall, and vented it directly outside.
I hate drywall and painting. Nothing slows down progress on a project like multiple coats of mud, sanding, painting, etc. And it's a huge mess. That burned a couple of days, but thankfully it fell on days that I had to work so I could sand and recoat in the evening and let it dry all day while I was at work.
I finally got everything painted and installed the following Sunday. It's still small...there's nothing I can do about that, but it's a whole lot nicer. I re-designed the closet/cabinet so I can relatively easily get to the shower plumbing in the future if I need to. I hung the shower head high enough that I don't have to hunch like Quasimodo to wash my hair, and the faucet handle doesn't fall off if you bump it wrong. We have a vent fan that works, and a toilet that sits flat and is properly sealed so it's not rotting the subfloor. The faucets work, nothing drips, and I even beat murphy and got the hot/cold sides right on the first guess. I'm gonna call it a win!
