Master Bathroom Remodel

Have you ever just thought something simple like, "I really should fix that little hole in the drywall in the bathroom," or "I should just get X done and it'll look nicer" type of thoughts not knowing that one small little thing leads to a complete room remodel?

Let me tell you how mine started....

When we first built our house 20 years ago, we skimped on several things to make sure our payment didn't skyrocket. Some upgrades I regret not getting but hey, that was 20 years ago. So when we were specking out our master bathroom, we didn't add a double bowl or a extra cabinet under the counter. Well, now it appears that without the full cabinets holding up the counter, the counter has started sagging and therefore pulling away from the wall, which has torn up the current paint job and it looks bad.

And in order to fix said sag, we need another cabinet, which we can't find one that fits the current space and trying to repaint the custom paint job on the walls just isn't going to happen since there are stripes involved. So, that meant I'd have to repaint the entire room with primer white so I can fix the cabinet situation. Fine.

So as I was putting on the first coat of primer white (it will no doubt need 2 or 3 coats to cover the medium blue color), I see the medicine cabinet that was installed when we built the house. I guess it just came with the bathroom because I certainly didn't pick it and I thought, "I might as well rip that out of the wall 1) because I hate it and 2) because I hate it. Do I know how to patch a 14x18" hole in the drywall? No. No, I do not.

But I can YouTube strangers can show me how to do it....

So I ripped the medicine cabinet out of the master bath and the other full bath. I figure, if I'm going to do it one bathroom, why not both? No reason. No reason at all. 

Then I looked at the light fixture that had been there for 20 years with 8 globe like bulbs stuck on a gold plate and thought, "Cripes, that just ugly."  I'm painting anyway, so I'll just take it down, paint and then I'll find another light fixture or better yet get two vanity lights. 

Oh and that giant mirror that takes up 2/3 of the wall really should go as well and get some mirrors with frames... so yeah, let's do that too. After all, I'm painting anyway, so I might as well take it down and put something else up. 

So now, I need wall board, joint tape and compound, a new light fixture or two, a framed mirror or two, possibly a new cabinet or something that fits that will hold up the counter top. Right. 

Then I figured, I should take off the base boards, just to make it easier to paint and so I gently pried all those off and labeled them with numbers, so I can easily put them back and of course that revealed something else...

When the house was built, they didn't put the vinyl floor under the cabinet. They cut the vinyl around the cabinet. So now if I get a different type of cabinet or different sized cabinet, you'll be able to see there's no vinyl flooring. I mean, why would you do that? It was sheet vinyl. Why would you rather cut something to fit when you could've just put it down then set something on top? Cutting around stuff is NOT easier. It's just not. So in order to save myself from ripping out the cabinets, I've decided to take a cabinet from the 1/2 bath downstairs and move it upstairs to the master bath and I've decided to paint the cabinets and base boards white.

And I also decided I'm pretty tired of looking at the same vinyl floor for the last 20 years so the floor has to go and the new vinyl planks that look like wood are fairly easy to install. Take your time, read the directions and depend on YouTube strangers for advice and you can do anything! Right? Right.

By the way, the faucet on the sink has broken like 6 times, so it's gotta go to and oh yeah, the toilet. Hubby has fixed that thing a lot so time to upgrade. Did I mention the blind yet? No? Well, it needs replacing too...

See how it all just snowballed? 

So the only thing not getting ripped out and replaced is the small tiled shower although I'm totally considering it so that might change. And I'm fairly certain that I might go with a bronze light fixtures and faucet so that means all the rest of the silver stuff has to go too.

By the way, during this remodel, I've discovered peel and stick vinyl wallpaper. OMG, have you seen this stuff? If you don't like it peel it back off. Change your mind in a year or two about the pattern? Peel it off. The days of wallpaper paste and chiseling that stuff off with a jackhammer is over. Whoo Hoo! I went with a rock wall look and although it was a bit tricky to do by yourself (you really do need a buddy) it can be done. But be forewarned, I had to re-adjust it so I peeled it back off and it pulled ALL the layers of paint down to the drywall off as well...it's not that simple.

So here's a picture of the bathroom after I starting painting with the primer white. The room was a medium blue stripped color which you can still see a bit of around the mirror and light.

And here's a picture after it's been finished. I will probably do so little touch ups but it's mostly finished. I'm still waiting for the blind and I'm going to re-grout my shower tile since I've discovered it has big gaping holes. This bathroom is definitely an improvement over the old one.

 

I started this lengthy DIY project July 21 and I got finished on September 3. I didn't work on it 8 hours a day either because well, food just doesn't magically appear and dishes don't clean themselves but I got it done with life getting in the way and everything. Thankfully hubby is really good at fixing everything that I messed up.