I drafted this post in 2020 and didn’t get around to adding a photo. So, I’ve added the photo and will post it, but you should know we have finished the bathroom and I’ll add a post about that soon.
The original bathroom in the house, upstairs, was quite small. I’ve seen photos of smaller bathrooms, but this one was small enough. One couldn’t sit on the toilet without bumping knees on the bathtub. It had a pocket door, a small pedestal sink, cabinet above the toilet, and a 5′ clawfoot tub.
The bathroom was at the end of the hall. To the left was the main bedroom and to the right was a spare room. I used that spare room as a wood refinishing room. Prior to that it was my home office.
To get into the spare room, there was a 3′ ‘tunnel’. Along the west wall was small closet, which earlier owners of the house had built a closet extension feature, making it possible to actually hang clothes in it.
That closet wall was shared by the other bedroom upstairs, my son’s room. He too had a small closet, with a custom built closet extender. So, between the spare room and my son’s room was a double wall, permitting closets for each bedroom.
We have now removed the spare bedroom closet wall, gaining about 2 feet in that room. We have also closed off the original entrance to that room and added that space to the bathroom. The bathroom door is now extended at an angle across the hallway. The bathroom is significantly larger. Here’s a picture of it in its gutted state:
The plan now is, once taping is done, to:
The window stool (what most people call the window sill) was broken when the exterior siding was put on last summer. I”m not sure how that happened but they obviously pulled or nailed so hard that it cracked the stool. And I damaged one of the window casings when I pulled it out. So, I have to re-do the window trim for the bathroom. I’ll leave the window as it is – vinyl casement – for now, and hope to find money in the next few years to replace with a more appropriate window.
- prime and paint (a light sea-foam green)
- install in-floor heat
- install rectangular floor tiles, reminiscent of marble
- install wall panelling about 3′ up and leave it a creamy white
- install a traditional medicine cabinet
- install a larger pedestal sink, already purchased- here’s a stock photo:
- Install new toilet, already purchased – here’s a stock photo:
- refinish exterior of claw foot tub and paint black
- have interior of tub refinished
- install new light fixture, already purchased- here’s a photo:
- install linen cupboard in newly created space. Not sure where I’ll purchase that from.
So, lots to do, but it’s amazing how quickly some things can get done. The reconstruction of the space upstairs (which included changes to my son’s old room and the stair case, to be covered in another post) took just a week. Drywall hanging took a couple of days. Taping seems to be taking forever. We’re on week two of that, I think. But it can all come together pretty quickly. Or not. we’ll see.
