Our first major project (of the many listed previously) will be a complete remodel of the bathroom. As soon as closing is complete next week, we plan on starting the demolition.
The house currently has one full bathroom on the main floor. The house was built in 1927, so most of the wiring is knob-and-tube style and the plumbing is currently all galvanized. We’ll be tearing the bathroom down to the studs in order to get a good idea of the “insides” of the house – it will enable us to see what kind of insulation is in the house, what condition the wiring is in (and upgrade it) and also allow us to upgrade the plumbing. The bathroom is 4′8″x 9′8″ and contains a bath/shower, 2 vanities (though one is only a countertop, no sink) and a toilet. There is a fairly large window (28″w x 45″ h) over the bathtub.
The bathroom contains at least one layer of lead-based paint, which was pointed out by our home inspector. Apparently separation and cracking of individual layers of paint is a good indicator of the presence of lead, so we will be wearing special masks to help filter the lead particles while we are tearing out the walls and ceiling.
Since there’s no way to know exactly what we’ll find when we get into the walls, it’s hard to know exactly what our next step will be after demolition. We’ll need to upgrade the wiring and electrical, as well as insulation perhaps.
We worked to try and change the layout (illustration coming soon), but there really isn’t much room to expand any of the walls. There is a closet against one wall, however inside that wall are numerous pipes, including the main sewer vent line. The pipes could be moved, but it seems like we wouldn’t be gaining enough to make it worth the extra hassle, time and expense. So, the layout will remain basically the same.
The floor will be ceramic tile from DalTile (we’ll put up tile samples soon) in a pinwheel pattern that has actually been a lot of fun to layout. It is a combination of white 8″x8″ and gray, dark blue and light blue 2×2″ tiles. The walls will have wainscoting, painted white, that goes up 48″ and the walls will be painted light blue above that. I’ll be building the vanities and the sinks will be ceramic basins created by a pottery studio nearby. We’ll be putting recessed lighting in the ceiling along with a exhaust fan, as there currently isn’t one. The countertops on the vanities will (hopefully) be made of the same material we plan on using in the kitchen – Caesarstone – in a dark gray that resembles concrete.
We’ll be posting illustrations of what we’re planning on the bathroom looking like, as well as more photos of the existing bathroom as soon as we can.