# 1916 Bathroom gut rehab



## Andiy (Jan 13, 2013)

This is actually my second major DIY rehab job in our house. I rehabbed a kitchen first, but this one is fresh in my mind, so I'll show y'all this first. We bought a brick two flat (that's a two story building with two basically identical apartments) in Chicago. Our plan was to live in one unit and rent out the other, letting someone else pay our mortgage. Well as the saying goes, "The best laid plans of mice and men often go awry." We still have never rented a unit, 2+ years later. But someday...

Anyway, there was some hideous "updating" done in the first floor bathroom in 1974. And I'm pretty sure that was the year, as I saw someone had scribbled "1974" on the wall behind the giant mirror that I took down first. Yeah, call me Sherlock Holmes. The bathroom is a pretty standard size for back in those days, about 5 x 8. There was a 9 foot ceiling, as there is in the rest of the house, but the "remodelers" from 1974 decided for whatever reason to drop the ceiling by a foot, and then put a soffit over the tub. The walls were completely tiled in an oh-so-lovely beige lizard scale diamond.

Pardon the pictures, it's tough to get a full view from inside a tiny room like that:



















Drop ceiling tiles in the bathroom - with a 4 foot fluorescent fixture. Very classy:









At least they went with something pleasant for the tile. Kind of a sewage-y, vomit-y, decay kind of color.










Unfortunately, the previous rehabber took it upon himself to dispose of the original door casing and replace it with tile:










After living here a while, and using the other apartment for guests only, I decided to get down to business. I was hoping to just replace the tile and ceiling and vanity (Ha! The innocence of the naïve...) so I started poking around. The tile in the bathtub seemed like a good place to start, as there were a few loose tiles. Hmm I wonder why. More specifically, I started at the "shelf" in front of the glass block window. I don't know when the window was put in; it may have been before 1974. The vent in the window was jalousie glass, and I think there was a date on the metal from that was previous to 1974, but regardless, you can guess what was lurking under that tile.










Pictures do not do it justice. There was up to 3 inches of some kind of cement or whatever on top of mushy, moldy drywall on top of well-rotted wood. 










As I would find out later, there were the inevitable leaks that did their worst.

Hello water damage!










Yeah, I knew I had my work cut out for me now, since this was rapidly turning from a retile/spruce-up-the-bathroom job to a major undertaking. 

I went to ponder my situation at a local establishment. Fortunately, Chicago is chock-full of such places, and there is one with a fine and ever changing menu about 5 minute walk from here. More to come...


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## Andiy (Jan 13, 2013)

The previous rehab consisted of drywall over the original plaster and lathe. I was really hoping to be able to do the same; my kitchen rehab introduced me to the beauty and healthiness of plaster wall demolition. Unfortunately, I began to discover that most of the plaster would actually have to come down. I guess that is the right way to do it anyway. But that doesn't provide much consolation when you are covered in plaster and lead paint dust. I methodically pulled down the plaster, double construction bagged it, and then moved on to removing the lathe. Extremely slow moving - this wasn't some easy drywall replacement deal! 



















Anyway... One of the cool things about a slow demo on an old room like this is to be able to do a little time travel and see the room in its various stages over the years, and to get a better idea of how it looked when it was new, almost 100 years ago. The window was just a standard sized wood window like everywhere else in the house; it doubtless had a cast iron claw-foot tub sitting below it:










Look at the "wainscotted" level of plaster, about halfway up the wall. They cut lines in it to resemble subway tiles. There obviously was some kind of beltline wood trim around the room, which of course is long gone.










The level of sophistication in the previous rehab occasionally left me speechless:










I was pleasantly surprised to find that the nauseatingly colored tile came up quite easily, and it was glued down to some beautiful original porcelain hexagon tile in remarkably good shape.










I would love to have been able to keep the same floor. Unfortunately, due to plumbing and other issues, I had to pull up the floor too. Keep in mind, there wasn't any Durock back then, the old school way was 2" of concrete on top of 3/4" planks!










AS many of you know, these jobs are like pulling the thread on a sweater: you just keep pulling and pulling, and it only seems like a little bit at a time, until eventually everything is gone. I knew once I got to this wall, that some plumbing work was on the horizon too.










The demo kept going, and I kept filling my trusty trash can, double-bagged with those thick construction bags. I'm estimating 100-150 lbs each, depending on the debris. They were heavy enough for me to have a real tough time getting them into the back of my truck, and I'm no slouch. Not including wood, cabinets or fixtures, I took 13 bags of plaster and tile out of this little room, just from the 4 walls. That would be somewhere between 1300 and about 2000 pounds. The floor was separate, and I didn't weigh it, but you gotta figure a good 6 2/3 cu. ft. of concrete, and if it is ~150 lbs/cu. ft., that would have meant another 1000 or so lbs of weight the house lost there. I guess there was no worry of these houses blowing away in the wind. They built 'em *heavy* back then.

I'm a good 2 weeks into this project now, and although I'm not drowning yet, I can see that the tide is rising - quickly. I guess it's about time I figure out a game plan. I have no idea how I'm going to rebuild this. Plus I'm due for a little down time, somewhere I can sit and think and collect my thoughts...










Next up: plumbing!


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## Andiy (Jan 13, 2013)

Since the full floor demo was next, I had to decide what to do with that tub. Since it was is surprisingly good condition, we decided to keep it. That meant I had to figure out how to get it out of this tiny bathroom and out of the living area of the house; no small task mind you, as this thing was some thick cast iron. I wish I knew how I did it, but I was "in the zone", or I got p.o.'d enough and turned into the Hulk or something, but I got that thing up on its side, out of the bathroom, and out onto the back porch through a rather tight kitchen, with no damage. By myself. :boxing:










Now I could clean up the floor (relatively) unobstructed. Here's the best shot I have of what the floor originally looked like. Pretty cool, I think. Too bad I couldn't save it. In addition to having to pull up some ancient plumbing under the floor, the floor itself had "settled" either due to water leaks or just the sheer weight of the cement, and the tile surface was noticeably "wavy" in a couple spots. Oh well, time to pull it all out.










The majority of the subfloor planks, however, were in pretty good shape. And considering that these were up to 14' planks (again, something I discovered from the kitchen rehab) I wasn't too interested in having to cut them at the walls to replace them.










At this point, I had all but given up on the idea of drywalling over the old plaster and lathe. I could tell that the plumbing was a cacophony of pipes all over the place, old and new, so those would have to be corrected. Actually, I already knew this since I had to put all the kitchen plumbing into this wall when I eliminated the pantry in the kitchen rehab (but that's a story for another time.) Here's what I saw when the rest of that shared wet wall was opened up. The PVC and insulated copper there on the left are new stuff we put in for the upstairs kitchen when I moved the main floor kitchen wet wall. 










At some point, I decided to change gears for a bit and replace the old glass block. I don't exactly remember why, but maybe it was because I saw them on sale at the HD...? Eh, whatever, it was good for a change of pace anyway. The opening was already rebricked to a standard 32x32, so this was a quick job.

Before:










During: (note that this is when I knocked a hole in the bricks for a bathroom vent. You'll notice that I didn't remove the original ceiling. There was a very good reason for that, which I will point out later. And since the ceiling was already at 9 feet, I figured I had a foot to work with, if I wanted to drop the ceiling down to 8.)










After:










Now with some sense of accomplishment, I could continue my quiet contemplation about the new bathroom design. And you can guess where that was.










Ok, next: plumbing! For sure this time!


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## CoconutPete (Jan 22, 2010)

Nice project!!! Looking forward to this one. Your wall o' plumbing looks like mine, I'm in for a similar "treat" when I tear mine out (1930 thoug).

Is that an old drum trap I see in the floor?


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## joecaption (Nov 30, 2011)

Looks like any old bathroom I've ever worked on.
Something fails, just cover it over, that fails why fix it right? Lets just add another layer it will be cheaper.
One I did had hardwood with no subfloor, then tile, next was partical board glued to the tile, a layer of peel and stick tiles then another layer of tile with mastic.
The baseboards looked like they were 2" tall because no one ever took them off when adding the layers.


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## handyman_20772 (Jun 28, 2006)

Nice thread..keep the updates coming.


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## Andiy (Jan 13, 2013)

Now that I had the floor and wall open, it was time to take a look at the plumbing. Granted, that cast iron stuff can last for a long time, but as long as the wall was open, why take the chance right? Plus 100 years leaves plenty of opportunity for wear and tear (ever think about how much gets flushed down a toilet waste pipe in that much time?) Yeah, let's replace all the plumbing.

Since the bathroom in the upstairs unit is a copy of the one I was working on, I figured it would be "easy" enough for some preventative replumbing. I wanted to get a look at the area around the plumbing upstairs, so I had to open the ceiling. 










But this was no ordinary plaster and lathe arrangement, no sir. The ceiling was lathe, heavy-duty "chicken wire" mesh, cement, skinned with plaster and then the ubiquitous lead paint. I don't know the purpose of this combo, although I guess it was to help guard against the likely water leaks from the early 20th century plumbing? Whatever, they made it awfully difficult to remove. Since that mesh was so damn tough to cut, I ended up using the sawzall with a demo blade. The tool worked fine for the job, but what a )#($& mess. I think there is still dust in the air from that tiny opening I cut. That experience confirmed that I definitely would not be removing the rest of the ceiling.

Anyway, I was able to get a look at the wood and base pipe for the upstairs toilet, and it all seemed to be in reasonably good shape. So it would stay until a remodel for that bathroom. For now, I would just pull out everything up to that.

Pete, you can see the drum trap here.










And the inside. Just a whiff of that stuff makes an excellent appetite suppressant. Mmm, mmm good!










Demolition in progress. Just give me a chain pipe-breaker and that 3 lb demo hammer and let me at it!










So basically I went all the way from the stack and waste pipe upstairs to the basement. Yep, the house was on a serious weight loss plan. Geez that stuff was heavy. And the scrap collectors were happy with me that day. 










One of the interesting things about the city is the "eco system" that works in the alley: the scrap collectors. If I think there is any possible reuse of an item, I will leave it next to the garbage cans and inevitably it is gone quick. Sometimes it seems like they have cameras monitoring the alley. Last summer I took a broken down cheap old dryer out to the alley with the understanding that someone would take it. Keep in mind, there was no one in the alley when I took it out there. No exaggeration: by the time I walked the 40 or so feet back to the house, I heard some noise going on in back of the garage. So I turned around and opened the gate, and there were 3 people, busy disassembling the dryer to take it away. Like they just appeared out of nowhere.

Back to the plumbing.
I thought this was interesting: the Chinese-level QC on this pipe. Ok, it lasted for 100 years, no harm, no foul. Still...










PVC on the other hand, so much nicer to work with. Of course, I was high as a kite from all the PVC weld fumes... Man, that is some strong stuff! But they're all checked and leak-free! Any new feeds will come later. As you can see, the existing "wall" (and I use the term lightly) needs to be replaced and will actually be pulled out a bit after I throw down some new subflooring. But stage 1 of the plumbing replacement is done. Whew!



















However, I still don't have the final design confirmed, so I really need to fire up the mac and get to work. Hopefully this won't be as difficult as designing the kitchen was. But Sketchup can be my friend. So, time to get creative. Now where can I go to help motivate a little creativity? Ahh, yes, I know just the place...


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## CoconutPete (Jan 22, 2010)

Nice!

What did you use where the new PVC stack meets the old cast iron one?


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## kickarse (Mar 7, 2009)

He probably used this

http://www.homedepot.com/p/Fernco-4...h-40-PVC-Compression-Donut-P44U-405/100372279

Looking good btw! I'm going to have to do something similar in the coming year or two (depending on if the which takes precedence, kitchen or bath). Btw, you have to let us know what you get each time you go to think


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## Andiy (Jan 13, 2013)

CoconutPete said:


> Nice!
> 
> What did you use where the new PVC stack meets the old cast iron one?


Pete, there were two points in this rehab that needed a pvc-to-iron junction solution. Keep in mind there is one major waste pipe in the building. The upstairs apartment is essentially the same layout as the main floor apartment. Since I didn't (or haven't yet  ) rehabbed the upstairs unit, I didn't remove the toilet and replace the cast iron "head" of the waste pipe there. So in that spot I just used a pretty simple rubber coupling with compression clamps. In the basement where the PVC meets the iron that goes under the concrete, there is a rubber gasket inside the cast iron with some material that we packed into the space between the metal and PVC. To be honest, I wasn't exactly sure what that was - I had one of my Polish plumber neighbors working down there, and he finished it when I was working upstairs. :001_unsure: Well, it doesn't leak anyway.


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## Andiy (Jan 13, 2013)

I'm a little far into this project to start designing now, but since the small size of the room limits my options (structurally anyway), I figure that part of the design shouldn't be too tough. The tub, toilet, and sink will still be roughly in the same places they were, and I didn't move or seal off the window opening, so the design should be purely an academic exercise. And since I wanted to retain as much of the original appearance as possible, I figure even the final look should be pretty simple to figure out too.

My primary design tool in all of these projects is the free SketchUp program. Popularized as part of the Google productivity tools, the 3D modeling program is now owned by Trimble, but Google maintains the link on their site. If you have this program, you probably know how helpful it is. If you don't, then you really should get it. Really it is the simplest and most intuitive, yet expandable and powerful, CAD-type program available for us non-architects/engineers. I've designed a lot with this program with no actual training, everything from a simple closet organizer up to the detailed design of a 35,000 sq ft warehouse and shop. I can't recommend this software enough; I love it.

I spent plenty of time with the trusty Mac and Sketchup in the office, the kitchen table, the living room floor, and of course my favorite establishment :drink:adding all the dimensions I took from my now-gutted bathroom. Obviously, accurate measurements are necessary, but 8 years in the glass business taught me how important it was to measure right. Glass is nowhere near as forgiving (or as easy to correct) as say, wood or drywall when it comes to adjustments! Anyway, just start with the basic dimensions:










Start populating it with some of the structure:










Then let the creativity start running wild. Spend as much or as little time as needed, this is a very clean part of the job... on the computer that is.

There was the idea of wood wainscotting: 



















"Theater" style curtains around the bath:










And many more variations in color, tile, wall coverings, etc. But after much deliberation, and many (cyber) changes, I thought this design would help keep close to a period-correct design, and still make the room as functional and storage-friendly as possible.



















This was quickly approved by the S.O. (who just wanted it to "be done already!") and my next task would be to start the rough framing and scouting up materials. I now had a very clear visual goal, so I could see the light at the end of the tunnel. 

As I felt is was all downhill from here (ha!), it was time to reward myself with a treat, and a potent treat at that. 

FYI stamandster, it was cold outside, so I was going for the BCS.


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## leonki (May 9, 2012)

Omg! How did the original Reno pass inspection with that electric outlet next to the shower head!?!


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## kickarse (Mar 7, 2009)

Nice choice on the BCS!


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## CoconutPete (Jan 22, 2010)

Any new pictures? You stuck at the bar?


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## Andiy (Jan 13, 2013)

CoconutPete said:


> Any new pictures? You stuck at the bar?


Ha! Thanks for the reminder Pete. I'll update later today.


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## Andiy (Jan 13, 2013)

Now with the design ideas out of the way, it's time to jump back into the hands-on. Plus, I also have a cutoff date on the calendar: my daughter's 4th bday party. Of course it's good to have goals right? On the other hand, is there ever a construction goal that doesn't go over budget and past the due date? "Lucky" for me, I didn't set a budget. 

I left off after replacing the cast iron with PVC. The new copper would have to wait until the new wet wall was roughed in. First though, the floor. Keep in mind that the floor previously looked like this: 










which was about 2" above the subfloor, so I had some buildup to do. Fortunately, most of the the original planks were in good shape. I removed the sections that were weakened due to water leaks. Plus I really wasn't too excited about cutting the planks at the centers of the "outside" joists. Here's what remained after checking the integrity of the original planks. 










Remember, plywood wasn't as commonly used back then. I guess it wasn't as good and cheap like today? 

Starting with the replacement for the bad planks:










As a replacement for all that concrete, I doubled up the plywood for the new subfloor. No OSB here. And this floor was going to be *solid.* No flexing, no squeaks, so all that plywood was getting glued n' screwed. Layer one had the seam on the left, although right in the "high traffic area." Note the valve for the single pipe steam heat radiator. I was not about to mess with that, so I just left it where it was:










The next layer would have the seam on the right, under the vanity. Since the seams should go out of the way where people won't be walking, I hid the seam in the top layer there. Not that it really matters since I used plenty of subfloor glue and deck screws. 










WARNING - ERROR AHEAD: Yeah, this is the point where I realized I forgot something. You may have figured it out already. As you saw above, the orientation of the room is such that the long dimension of the room goes toward the center of the house, parallel to the joists. After a century or so, the center of the house tends to settle a bit. In this case, about 1.5" over about 10 feet. The funny thing is that I knew this and accounted for it in my much bigger kitchen rehab. I forgot it in the bathroom rehab, and after putting down the floor, I wasn't about to go back and correct it. So I basically ended up with a floor that pitched about 1.25" out to the hallway/center of the house. And before you say it, I couldn't level it up since I was already within 3/8" or so of the finished hallway floor level. Well, I guess it could have been worse. At least it was a consistent slope from the exterior wall to the center of the house.

I guess I will continue to embarrass myself here and show more evidence of my laziness. At some point in the demolition, I convinced myself that I could leave some of the plaster and lathe on the wall, and just install the drywall right over it. But eventually my construction conscience got the better of me, and I went back into demo mode. Time to get out the dust mask and heavy duty garbage bags again.




















Here's a close up of the plaster and lathe in case you've never seen it. 










Note the fibers. In many places (including Chicago) it was very common to use horsehair to help hold the plaster together. I've read that other materials were used too, depending on availability. It made me wonder though, with all the construction, how many horses were used for construction material back then? Of course, the horse was still a primary mode of transport, so that made for a lot of horse parts to eventually be used for something else. This whole "green initiative" isn't so modern as portrayed in the media these days. Back then, it was just pragmatic, not politically correct "progressive." Something to ponder over a beverage or three. What kind of beverage though, and where to go...










(I think this was an evening for Begyle Crash Landed Wheat, and maybe Rye of the Tiger. I'll leave that DFH 120 Minute for a day I'm really feeling my oats.):wacko:


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## CoconutPete (Jan 22, 2010)

HA! Nice.


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## Andiy (Jan 13, 2013)

This job is starting to go a bit long, so it's time to pick up the pace. For me anyway, that is the big problem with the DIY - time management. I guess it is easier to live with the mess than buckle down and get the damn thing finished. Of course, having an unhappy woman in the house tends to help motivate things a bit. :whistling2:

AS I mentioned before, that shared wall with the kitchen was a mess of interconnected, sistered, cut up studs, and I wasn't about to solve that particular riddle. And since that riddle would've involved quite a bit of creative copper tubing work, I opted to just rough in a new wall. This would cost me a little floor space in an already small bathroom, but it was better (i.e., easier) than the alternative.



















I also took advantage of the extra foot of ceiling space I had to just cover up the mess at 9 feet. I made a second ceiling of 2x4s since the span was only about 5 feet. (and yes, the garage-quality fluorescent fixture came out of there before the drywall was up!)










I made sure to frame plenty of potential pitch for the forthcoming window shelf in the shower. I'll tone that pitch down a bit when it comes time to put in the cement board.










My next challenge was the tub. Since I was able to save the cast iron tub that was in the bathroom already, I had to adapt the wall to fit it. And since I already used up some of the room width when I rough-framed the wet wall, that left me with a few inches on the opposite wall. Lucky for me, it was almost exactly 3.5". The challenge then became how to continue that wall. Should I pull the whole thing out 3.5" or just the wall in back of the tub? I was going to go the easy route again, and just bump out the whole wall, except there were two things in my way: the radiator pipe and the door swing. That little space behind the hinge of the door is surprisingly important, as I learned. And since I would've had to notch the new wall to fit the radiator (there was no way that I was going to mess with the placement of the steam pipe), I decided to go ahead and just bring out the wall behind the tub, and keep it at the original location for the rest of that wall.










In the last shot, you can also see the mesh/plaster that was used for the wall between the dining room and the bathroom. That didn't get the standard plaster/lathe on top of perpendicular mounted studs due to the niche in the dining room:










My guess is that there was originally some very nice wood china cabinet or some other furniture mounted in this location. It was very common in houses from this era to have "permanent" furniture occupying this kind of space. Unfortunately, this house never had or no longer had what was almost certainly a beautiful piece of woodwork. Well at least it leaves the space open for something creative later.

We're making some progress now! It's time to start sealing up some of these walls. The electric went in next, with a new (to this bathroom) ceiling vent and can lights.










And on to the drywall and Hardibacker! I'd read about using Hardi plenty of times on this site, but I'm more accustomed to traditional Durock-type boards. I was actually picking up the Durock at the local HD when the Hardibacker rep started talking to me, selling the advantages of Hardi over the old cement board. The fact that it was on sale didn't hurt either.  So I decided to try it out, and I was glad that I did. It is so much lighter, and surprisingly easy to cut, even just using a typical utility knife. It's not drywall of course, so it doesn't cut *that* easy, but I was able to get reasonably precise cuts without my usual mess or cut fingers.


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## CoconutPete (Jan 22, 2010)

Nice progress!


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## Andiy (Jan 13, 2013)

Yeah it is starting to come together now - it is so close I can taste it. Actually, I probably taste the plaster dust, paint, etc... Ok, so I can see the light at the end of the tunnel, and my daughter's birthday party is coming soon. I have to put it into overdrive now. I didn't get too many pics at this stage of the game so I'll have to just narrate most of it. I did get one picture of the Redgard effort. The first thing I did, based on a lot of the stories I read here, was to put down a primer coat first. I believe I did like a 1:3 mix of Redgard and water to prime the Hardi. I didn't want to end up with that easy peel-off coating that I've heard some other folks had.










I did 2 more layers of full strength Redgard after this one, and still ended up with a ton of leftover. I guess the 3.5 gallon bucket was really overkill, but better safe than sorry. And I ended up selling the leftover online. Gotta love that Craigslist! 

Now, on to the tile. If you recall from my computer designs from earlier on, we were going retro, in keeping with the age of the house. I'm not going for a perfectly authentic museum display, but just a vintage "flavor." Since by far the standard tile back then was hexagonal mosaic, I went with a classic:










Tough to go wrong with the black and white. This isn't exactly what was in originally, but it's close. Next up were the walls. I decided on a black and white subway motif, with a couple custom ideas. My first was to go with a no-backsplash vanity top, and then run a black belt-line of subway tiles around the entire room, lining up perfectly with the vanity top. This would visually tie the vanity top in with the rest of the room via the pseudo-backsplash. Or something like that. I have no design experience, but this somehow made sense to me, visually. Naturally, my measurements didn't line up perfectly, despite my best efforts, so a little shimming would be involved once I set the vanity in place. In the meantime however, it was looking good.










The second custom idea was more of a necessity than purely for pretty looks. One of my errors along the way was not checking the floor for level. So the floor slopes out towards the door. Of course I am installing all the tiles level. That means by the "baseboard" tiles will be out of square with the floor. I definitely cannot hide 3/4" or so in a grout line, and you'd easily see a line of 3" tiles that differ by 3/4" over 5-6 feet. So here is my idea: install the 3x6" black subway tiles perpendicular to the rest of the tiles which are mounted horizontally. That way, I can gradually cut off that 3/4" as the tiles are installed from the door side (full size) to the tiles closest to the tub (5 1/4"). The change will be gradual enough, and the tiles will hopefully be tall enough that your eye won't catch the change in size. (this pic was taken after the grouting, so you can see our result of deciding to go with white grout on the entire wall. It was undecided for a while if we should use black grout for the black tile. I'm glad we went this way.)










Next up was what to do with that "shelf" area where there was a deep cutout for the window. I was very concerned about tiling the area, despite how good the Redgard was supposed to block the water that seeped through the grout. I really felt a one-piece shelf was the best solution, but I needed to have it in before I could finish the wall tile. Lucky for me, there are many options and most of them are close to where I live in Chicago. I stopped by a local counter top maker that could cut me a piece of Corian for same day use. Fortunately they had a nice scrap piece of bright white laying around, and I walked out of there in a matter of minutes with a piece sized to my dimensions with finished edges. Installation was easy-peasy.










Then all I had to do was finish the little bit of tiling left to go around the window, and grout it up!










I used my long history of color design and consulted the expert staff at the Home Depot to determine the color we should paint the walls. Here is the highly complicated method of determining the color that works with white and black: take white paint, mix with black paint. That's it. That's how we got our color for the walls! All the fixtures and cabinets are going to be white, so I wanted something to dim the brightness a bit. I think this should work.


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## Amateuralex (Mar 17, 2012)

Oh wow, that looks great. Huge progress, you're a machine.


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## CoconutPete (Jan 22, 2010)

Nice work. That is a lot of tiling.


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## Andiy (Jan 13, 2013)

CoconutPete said:


> Nice work. That is a lot of tiling.


Thanks, but I can see a ton of unevenness in the tiles. But then I guess the installer always knows where are the flaws are. So far, no one else has had any complaints...


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## Andiy (Jan 13, 2013)

Sorry it has taken me a while to update here. I have been mired in other projects around this place. I think next time, I'm just going to buy a finished house.

Anyway, the hard stuff is mostly out of the way now, and it's just time to install the fixtures & cabinets. In my attempt to save money, I tried to reuse whatever I could. That turned out to be nothing but the tub, toilet, and door.

Shower fixtures are pretty standard, although I did match the handle to the Moen sink fixture handles which had a vintage flavor. I went with a chrome curtain rod, white fabric curtain and the old-school "ball bearing" type rings.










The cabinets are Bertsch Centennial, birch plywood construction, in an eggshell white finish, soft closing doors. As I've mentioned before, we were trying to go basically period-correct, although not absolutely so. This is supposed to be a nice, functional, modern bathroom with vintage appeal, not a museum piece. I think these cabinets work well in that regard.










The vanity is 30" wide, 36" high. Yeah, the kids have to use their step stool for the time being, but the taller vanities are soooo much nicer. I went with the "feet" instead of the toe kick for a couple reasons: one, they look more antique. Two, as I've mentioned before, the floor really pitches out toward the hallway, so it was much easier shimming the feet up to level out the cabinet than it would be to rip the toekick and cabinet base to level it up.

One item in the bathroom that is not vintage is the sink. I had the hardest time trying to get all the white in the room to come together. The tub, the toilet, the wall tile, the floor tile, the cabinets, and the sink were all some version of white. Some of those versions go well together and some don't. I was amazed that I could not find a vanity top in a traditional bowl shape that came close to the whites we had elsewhere. I actually returned some because the color was so glaringly unmatching. The other issue was that I needed a top with no backsplash since I wanted to continue the black beltline tile around the bathroom, matching up perfectly with the sinktop as a sort of integrated backsplash. I had seen a particular vanity top/bowl at a very trendy bath design place, but I shied away from it since it wasn't in the old-school groove. It was a Xylem white vitreous china with a rectangular bowl, and no backsplash. The color on this one blended in nicely, although the design was definitely a bit of a mismatch. In the end though, color won out, and so far, no one has noticed the design era faux pas. The faucet was a semi-retro Moen design.










While there is a good amount of storage in the vanity, this bathroom definitely needed more storage. I ordered the "johnny cabinet" to match the vanity. The medicine cabinet was from the same collection. I opted to surface-mount the wall cabinets since the wet wall is shared with the kitchen and also with the upstairs; i.e., there are a lot of pipes and conduit in the wall, and some of the original wall studs were in odd locations. Also, I wasn't bright enough to order my cabinets earlier than framing out the wall, so I'd know where to put the recesses. The light fixture is a traditional style chrome piece from Lowe's. 










I went a bit more high tech with the outlet. I got this Lutron LED nightlight/GFI from Amazon for about $22 or so. Despite being partially blocked by the toilet cabinet, it does a very good job of illuminating the bathroom for those late night visits.










The towel bar is opposite the sink. The chrome Home Depot double bar is perfect for our family, as you can fit four towels on there.










I still need to repaint the radiator cover, but it's no eyesore as is, so that's on the backburner for now.










Sorry, but since the room is so small, it is quite difficult to get a full picture, so you'll have to kind of stitch the pics together to get the whole view.


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## Andiy (Jan 13, 2013)

The last thing to deal with was the door. I was planning to replace it with one of the two (same sized) pantry doors that I salvaged from previous rehabs. Unfortunately, doors and their frames are generally matched for life, and they don't like to trade partners. I couldn't get either of the other two doors to work, so I had to go back to the original, despite its having been molested multiple times in the past. There were all kinds of holes, cracks, chiseled out hardware openings, etc. But the door fits perfectly and swings good too. I changed the hardware back to some original though, since the handle and associated bits were much newer and crappier. The door that I took the hardware from had been subjected to years of "thick paint abuse:"










I learned my lesson the last time I stripped a door in this condition though. Instead of using scrapers and harsh chemicals which inevitably cause some damage, I tried a very old school method: Boiling water. 










I don't recall where I heard this tip, but it worked incredibly well. I let the painted parts boil for a good 15-20 minutes and the paint literally fell right off. There was a little residue left in the corners, but that scrubbed right out with some baking powder paste and an old toothbrush.










Well, that's it folks. One bathroom down, one to go. But for now, it's time for me to take my very patient better half away from this unending money pit for some well-deserved R&R, and final thoughts for it...


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## handyman_20772 (Jun 28, 2006)

Excellent job...my bathroom is the same layout and about the same size. Thanks for posting..!!


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## Amateuralex (Mar 17, 2012)

Great work. Thanks a ton for the thread.


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## Ralph Coolong (Jun 19, 2013)

I wish I had a nickle for every single wood lathe I tore off the wall.
Your doing great. Nice work


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