31w5d: Bathroom Renovation!

A couple of months ago, friends who had recently had a baby warned us to make a list of any "around the house" projects that we wanted to do in the next five years, and then do them before the babies arrive. First on my list--remodel the hall bathroom.

I hate this bathroom. I've hated it ever since we first looked at the house. It makes no sense whatsoever. It has the original hexagonal tile from the 1920s with a giant crack through it, a vanity probably from the 1950s with a seashell cutout for a soap dish and a height appropriate for elves, light green paint, and a (new-ish) shower with mauve tiles. Mauve and light green?? Would it have killed the prior owners to have slapped a coat of beige on the walls before selling??

Another thing that was weird was the electrics. There were three--THREE--separate switch/outlet plates within a couple of inches of each other.

There's one plate for the main light switch, one plate for the two outlets, and one huge plate with four switches (FOUR) to control the fan: one for the fan itself, one for the light in the fan, one for a mysterious "night light" that was supposed to be in the fan that we never found, and one for "heat" from the fan. We had the electrician disconnect the heat part when we had the knob and tube pulled out of the ceiling--that just sounded like a disaster waiting to happen.

Our goals with the remodel are to perform a mostly cosmetic upgrade--we're replacing the floor, the vanity, toilet, cleaning up the mess of electric, and repainting, but we're leaving the shower and layout alone. We don't intend to stay in this house for more than 4 more years, so throwing a lot of money at the project was not going to be a good investment. I think that the changes we're making are going to be a vast improvement regardless.

The guys showed up yesterday to begin the demolition. Noisy but exciting--for us and for someone else.

Despite the curtains the guys hung up when they took a break, someone who is curious still managed to explore the tileless floor. Of course then he had to get his paws wiped off, which he did not enjoy.

Poor Murray.

It's actually working out pretty well that I'm on bedrest because I'll be home when the guys come next week to finish up. David's dad is here right now so all three of us are having to use the tiny bathroom off our bedroom, but that's okay. I cannot imagine how people with only one bathroom have renovations done--and certainly that should not be done while pregnant!