Bathroom Remodels - Prep and Demolition

Usually I wait until after we complete a project to share it with you but I decided to take you along the journey this time. We may be a little crazy but we have decided to remodel both 2nd floor bathrooms at the same time...actually there was no way around doing one at a time. We did scale it back from our original plans of expanding the 2nd bathroom which is suppose to be the master bath.

The smallest room in the house is actually the master bedroom although we have never used it. The plan had been to connect our bedroom with the "master" to make a larger bathroom and walk-in closet but in the end we decided to scrap that idea and do a more simplified impactful remodel.

The best money we have spent so far is paying Lowe's $59 to shop and deliver the large bulk of our supplies...doors,bathtub, plywood, drywall, concrete board etc. Next was probably getting a dumpster instead of loading the trailer for the dump especially since we only have a week to completely gut the 2 bathrooms before my dad comes to help lay the new subfloors.

We started Saturday on the smaller bathroom ripping down the tile, removing the vanity, and smashing the cast iron tub. I was hoping to remove it in one piece but that was before we knew it was cast iron and installed very tightly.

This meant we had to turn off the water to cap off lines and such so I knew we had to get up Sunday early to get showers in before services. Our first issue came after my husband and boys took their showers. I was headed to take mine when I ran to our basement to get a razor and found the floor drain backed up. One project is now 3! My wonderful husband was able to unclog it but not in time for me to jump in the shower. Either the baby wipes and throwing my hair in a ponytail fooled everyone or they were just to polite to say "you stink." I was thrilled to come home and finally jump in the shower. I can't say that drywall and tile was not washing out of my hair, yes it really was that bad.

Second Bathroom:

The demolition of the 2nd bathroom began with removing the vanity and finding live wires in the wall. Sometime I wonder how the house is still standing. I am just happy we are finding and correcting the issues throughout instead of finding out when we sell the house.

I was in charge of removing the tile, this is very theraputic for me. My goal was to get the bathtub surround out by the time my husband returned. In 2 hours even answering normal mom calls..."I'm hungry" "Where's dad?" "Come see this!" oh and the fighting I removed all but 4 pieces of tile and had about 45 minutes to sit and relax before my husband came home.

The dumpster arrived this morning so tonight will be removing the rest of the debris so we can tear out the rest of the drywall and subfloor.

Hopefully next week I will be sharing the starting of putting the rooms back together!