What She Needs Is A Toilet

I am not going to say that I neatly and completely finished the demo and cleaned everything up before starting on any other projects.  Because frankly, that would be a lie.  But it was late January 2016 (about 3 months in) and I was ready to see some progress in a constructive direction.  I was told that if I needed people to help me they were available.  But I was also told, in no uncertain terms, not if I didn't have a toilet to use.

And that's how it was decided that the master bathroom was project zero.  If you recall, this was the starting point on the bathroom (from day 1).

The first thing I did was clean out everything that belonged to Marguerite, took out the toilet and the sink, and removed the medicine cabinet (the mirror was broken).  Part of the wall was also removed because my dad installed shut off valves to the sink and toilet (there were none before).  When I removed the remaining plaster near the base of the wall (to even out the hole to the studs), hundreds of razor blades fell out.  History lesson - old medicine cabinets have a slit near the bottom for disposal of used razor blades.  I guess technically the wall would never fill up with blades, but... GROSS. 

When this poured out of the wall, I thought about Marguerite and her ex-husband and the years he spent in this house with her.  I wondered if she had ever thought about pieces of his life literally still in the walls.  My nana always said that the house she shared with grandaddy was haunted by him after he died.  He was either there or her memory of him took on a life of its own.  Is it the same when your husband just leaves, but dies later?  I feel like Marguerite was probably haunted by her husband, but not in the same way my nana was.

With the fixtures removed and the demo done, I could really see how damaged the floor was.  Though I loved the mid century character of it, it would have to be replaced because there were too many missing tiles and a hole that went through to the crawlspace between the toilet and the tub.  I chipped it all out individually (hundreds of tiles).  At the time I was trying to salvage them to use elsewhere and I didn't want to disturb the mortar bed beneath them.  But alas, I wasn't able to salvage the tiles.  There was mortar stuck to the back of them (and grout stuck to the sides) that wouldn't come off.

After removing the tile, the first step was to pour self leveler to even out the mortar bed and fill in the hole.  This stuff is the shit.  I prepped according to the instructions, poured and let it set.  And of course, didn't take a picture of what it looked like because I never thought I would need one.  lol  It works incredibly well, fills in and levels itself out to give you a stable base for your floor.

At that point, I was ready to lay tile.  This is something that I had done several times before, so I wasn't too concerned about getting it right.  I opted for the same tile I had used in my own bathroom at home, because it is a neutral gray and textured (so it isn't slippery) and it is a unique shape (7 inches x 20 inches).  Bonus: it was on sale when I went back to Floor & Decor.

Tiling and grouting is not particularly hard if you don't suck at geometry and can take (and cut) a specific measurement.  In general, it is recommended that you buy 10% more square footage of tile to accommodate for mistakes in cutting and the pattern lining up.  This job is also a LOT easier with professional tools.  You can use a tile cutter that basically scores the top of the tile in a straight line then snaps it along that line.  This is only useful if all of your cuts are straight AND you don't have to make small cuts (you have to have enough tile on either side of the scoring line for the tool to successfully snap it).  I hate this thing.

I opted to use a wet saw.  I had access to one (thanks to my mom and step-dad), but even if it meant buying one it would be worth it (in my humble opinion).  The not-so-useful tool above is around $40.  The wet saw below is not the one I used, but is pretty much the same and costs around $100.  It works similarly to a table saw (blade comes up from below the level surface), but it also has a reservoir of water that wets the blade so that it doesn't throw sparks while you are cutting the tile.

I also used tile nippers.  These are handy for nipping off a little piece of tile (like when you are trying to fit a piece around the toilet flange).  A word of caution... they can crack or break a tile you have spent a lot of time custom cutting.  I try to use the wet saw for the majority of what I cut, but they can be useful if you have a tiny bit to nip off for a better fit and they only cost about $10.

In addition to a wet saw (or tile cutter) and tile nippers, you need: a thinset trowel (thinset is the stuff that makes the tile stick to the underlay), tile spacers (to make sure your tile is evenly spaced), a grout float (pushes the grout in between the tiles), a bucket and sponge (to wipe off the extra grout and residue), a pencil for marking, a tape measure, thinset, tile and grout.  I buy premixed thinset and grout because although it is more expensive, it is far easier to use.  If you buy powder versions, you would also need: a bucket for mixing, a mixer paddle (drill attachment to mix everything), and a drill powerful enough to mix up something the consistency of wet concrete.  Oh and the confidence that you will mix it to the correct consistency and only mix the amount you actually need.

Of course, the walls in this house are not square, as it seems many houses are not.  So I opted to lay the tile perpendicular to the doorway, so there wasn't a visually crooked line next to the wall that would make it completely obvious.  I laid the tile (1st pic), then used dark gray colored grout (2nd pic).  Laying the tile was only tricky because I wanted a full tile at the doorway (and therefore started there and worked my way in towards the tub).  So, I essentially had to leave tiles missing in certain spaces so I would have a walkway to get back out of the room.  You just put them in place at the end and back yourself out toward the door.  You can't step on tiles you just laid because it will flatten the thinset and can make them shift or be unlevel.

Tiling the floor is basically a weekend job for a room this small.  You lay the tile day one, grout on day two.  It is immensely easier with an assistant, particularly when you're grouting.  You need a bucket of clean water every 3 square feet or so and it has to be poured out in the yard (don't want grout going down the drain).  My mom was the hero assistant on this project.  It is also helpful to have more than one bucket so you can switch out as you go.

Once the floor set (I waited a week), I started working on repairing the walls.  I opted to do a board and batten style installation below the existing horizontal wood trim (it was about 4 feet up the wall).  Since the plaster walls were damaged in places, and partially demo'ed behind the toilet and sink, I installed thin birch plywood over the plaster, with lattice trim pieces to make the board and batten pattern.  I used a nail gun and compressor for the installation, along with a t-square, chop saw, and circular saw for cutting the plywood and trim.  My step-dad came and supervised this project.  Since these are mostly all his tools, he probably wanted to make sure I wasn't going to hurt myself before turning me loose.

After installing the birch, board and batten, baseboards, and quarter round, I puttied the holes, mudded/repaired the plaster walls, sanded, caulked and painted.  At some point, I had purchased a gallon of mis-tinted paint for $5.00 that was the perfect gray to go in this bathroom.  Although Marguerite clearly LOVED green, and although I would NEVER choose to paint the walls of my own house gray, I knew that this color would be good for resale value and gray is on trend (just look at Pinterest).

After everything was painted, I installed the new vanity (yay storage!) with a new faucet, the new toilet, and the new light fixture.  I had a new mirror cut to go in the medicine cabinet, reassembled it, and put it back in the wall.  Lastly, I put some decorative tile as a surround to the new vanity.  This was for water splashes, but also because this corner was NOT square (much like every other corner) and it was painfully obvious that the vanity WAS square.  You can no longer see the gaps in the after photos because I trimmed out the edges of the vanity with some of the lattice from the board and batten.

One of the last steps (which actually came MUCH MUCH later) was to have the window replaced and the tile and tub reglazed.  I have actually reglazed tile myself in the past.  It is an epoxy that you paint on after a lot of tedious prep work.  It wasn't that I was opposed to doing it again, but I opted for a professional because the tub also needed reglazing in this house.  You can DIY this as well, but if it is not done properly it can peel off.  I decided I would rather spend the $600 for a pro job on this one.  Also, I nearly asphyxiated myself, Dave, 4 cats and 2 dogs when I did this in our house with a fan blowing the fumes out the window.  This epoxy smells like the strongest paint you've ever smelled... times 50.

After the reglazing and the new window installation, the last thing for this room was to install some vinyl on the window glass (for privacy), replace the fixtures in the tub, and tile around the inside of the window with some decorative glass tile.  The plaster was damaged here and I thought it would be better to just seal it up and prevent future water damage with something pretty.  My mom and step-dad took care of the window vinyl and the tub fixtures.  Dave and I did the tile and grout around the window.

Redoing a bathroom yourself is not an impossibility (clearly).  It could even be done alone (although I had help from different people for different projects).  It helps if you are going to DIY a bathroom that you are either working on a house you don't currently live in, or you have more than one bathroom in your house.  Many things can go awry with these kinds of projects and it would *really* suck if your one and only bathroom was out of commission for a month because you uncovered a bigger problem than you thought you had in the beginning.  Overall, this was a transformation for Marguerite's house that was night and day (if I do say so myself).  I would have loved to have been able to preserve the original black and white tile, but I am happy with the results nonetheless.