Bathroom Remodel

“Your voice belongs in every room.”
—Matthew West

In July of 2024 we began a remodel of the only bathroom on our second floor.  We've been thinking about this remodel for twenty years.  The ultimate cause of this remodel project was the rusting drain on our 100-year-old tub.  We had tried to re-glaze the tub a few years back, but the fix only lasted about a month.  Although the drain was rusty, I so loved the shape and feel of the old tub... so I kept putting off the project.  I couldn't bear the thought of getting rid of such a gorgeous old feature of our house.  

But last year our neighbors began getting quotes to remodel their bathroom (the proximate cause), which spurred us to finally start the project.  They got about 4-5 quotes and chose someone they had worked with previously.  We chose the least expensive contractor they interviewed.  I had seen a bathroom they had worked on at a neighbor's house sale and so off we went!

BEFORE & AFTER

I thought I would start with some before and after photos for those who may not be able to make it through this entire post.

When we were shopping for houses twenty years ago we saw some hideous bathrooms.  I was always happy that we chose a house with very neutral tile.  In fact, I loved the smooth, flatness of the original hexagon floor tiles.  The floor had a thin crack in it, but overall it was still in remarkably good shape.

We debated whether or not to keep the original vanity.  It is a beautiful old antique, but it had some issues.  The knobs were always pulling off and items in the drawers fell through the holes cut for the drain pipes.  But the carved wooden lions won us over (close-ups at the end of the post).  We decided to keep the base and replace it with a new marble countertop.  The top of the vanity was originally painted a very colorful faux marble that I re-painted brown.  I was quite happy to see that old countertop go.  In the end, we are happy we kept the old wooden vanity, although we still need to build walls inside the drawers so our items don't fall into the black abyss behind the drain pipes.

Below you can see we got rid of the shower curtain and added glass.  I think it helps the room to look bigger.  We also get a new shower fixture!

I was very excited to finally hang this bowl which I bought about five years ago.  I didn't hang it before because I didn't want to put a hole in the plaster wall.  We added crown moulding with a bottom layer of picture-hanging moulding.  It felt good to finally hang it and the colors match the stained-glass window perfectly.  

I put George in charge of choosing the new toilet.  He choose a water efficient TOTO and we have been happy with it. We considered a fancy bidet toilet, but George didn't love any of them.  We did, however, put a new electrical outlet behind the toilet for possible future fancy toilets. 

DEMO

The demolition of the old bathroom began July 10th.  Our house was built around 1917 and it was built like a rock.  As you can see below the walls were plaster on wood lathe and tearing out the old walls and floor made quite a mess!

The floor had about 8-10 inches of solid concrete.  It took days of jack-hammering to remove the old floor.  

BYE BYE VINTAGE TUB

I was so sad to see the tub go.  I absolutely loved the curved corner.  The name of that kind of tub is a "double apron corner tub".  I scoured the internet looking for a similar replacement, new or old.  There were some with rounded corners, but I had to eliminate them because I didn't think the glass could fit the curve.  I found these three with sharp corners (Mackenzie, Aqua Eden, Claire) but wasn't sure if they would hold the weight of glass.  So we decided to build a knee wall.  (After we had already purchased and installed the new one, the man at the fancy bathroom store told me you can get a cast made of these old tubs.  I would have looked into that if I had known.  FYI, I just googled this and couldn't find much about this option.)

NICHE PROBLEM

One of the first problems we encountered was the placement of the shower niche.  Since we had the whole wall torn up, we decided to fix the electricity of the room behind the bathroom.  The old light in the room was located above the bed and at night you had to walk into a dark room to turn it on.  So we asked if we could have a two-way switch (one at the door and one by the bed).  When we chose the location of the new switch, we put it right next to the bed.  We weren't thinking about the bathroom when we chose the location...just concentrating on where was best if you were in bed.  However, when we started considering where to put the shower niche, we realized the switch box was in the way.  We ended up having to move the switch down.

After the bathroom was built I was telling a friend about the niche.  They said their contractor did not recommend niches because they leak.  Hopefully that will not occur, but I was happy we put the niche farther away from the shower than shown in the photo below.  We moved it to the right by one stud width.

HOMEMADE SHOWER IN BASEMENT

After a couple weeks showering at our neighbor's house and the gym, I decided to rig up a shower in the basement.  Every so often the gym wasn't open or my neighbor didn't answer the phone.  I bought a hula hoop and used the old shower curtain and rings.  We have two old giant vintage wash basins in the basement with threaded faucets, so hooking up a garden hose to one of them was super easy.  It wasn't the greatest shower experience as the curtain tended to cling to your body, but it worked in a pinch.

REBUILDING

New Tubs

We were very happy when the demolition was completed and the rebuilding could begin.  I happened to get sick around this time.  I didn't want to risk getting anybody sick so I moved into a friend's house who was out of town for a week (if you are reading this in the future, we were still being careful because of the pandemic).   So I didn't have any photos of the floor after they chiseled up the concrete.  But as you can see below, the contractors laid down OSB plywood in preparation for the new tub. 

We ordered an American Standard tub from Amazon.  I was happy to find this tub because it was described as the next best thing to cast iron.  The advantage over cast iron is that it is WAY lighter.  The material was enamel-coated iron...called Americast.  The tub arrived in two days and sat in our living room for about a month before they brought it upstairs.   

Sadly, as you can see in number 4 above, someone scratched the tub.  No one ever admitted to doing it, but the contractor said he would pay for a new one.  At first I thought we could remedy the situation pretty fast.  Unfortunately, the Americast tub was back-ordered.  So we moved to our second choice in tubs which was a true cast iron tub (Kohler Irvine) we had seen at Ferguson.  Somehow it felt right that we should replace the old cast iron tub with a new one.  However, the new tub was extremely heavy and the contractors had a hard time getting it up the stairs.  They scratched the wood of our stairs in several places.  They were able to touch up most of it, but one spot on the floor was deeply marred.  Every time I see it (which is every day), I remind myself that I love this old house and that we both have our age spots.

"Scars are but evidence of life."  —Marcia Lynn McClure

Tile Floor

Before the tub could be installed the contractors built the knee wall.  We could have built a high wall to hide the toilet (and hold the glass), but I thought the room would appear larger if we made the knee wall as short as possible.  We, and the contractors, did our best to estimate the height for the finished wall by adding up full tile heights, plus grout heights.  In the end, it wasn't perfect, but at least we didn't end up with a sliver of a tile on the knee wall.  It is definitely something to consider beforehand!

After the new tub was installed, the contractors moved on to installing the tile floor.  I bought the tile at Floor and Decor.  The hexagon tile came in 12x12 inch sheets and was made by Maravilla (Bianco Orion Hexagon Polished Marble Mosaic).  The grout color we chose was "Frost" for the floor and "white" for the walls (from Floor & Decor).  I chose a slightly gray color for the floor because my friend Jyoti said white grout gets dirty right away and appears gray.

I was so relieved to see the floor tile laid.  You never really know if you will like it until you see it in the space.  I loved it and was pleased with the grout color too.

Wall Tile

Once the floor tiles were laid, work on the walls began.  The contractors put up the cement and green board on all the walls except for the exterior wall.  The exterior walls were plaster and concrete.  We would have had to add new window moulding if we wanted sheetrock on that wall.  

Tilework began on the shower wall first. In hindsight, I wish we had centered everything around the niche, but you live and learn.

All of our meticulous calculations worked pretty well for the height of the knee wall. It would have been perfect had we not had the following floor problem.

Floor Problem

Once we had about 6-7 rows of walls tiles, I happened to notice the tiles in the corner behind the toilet drain looked odd. It appeared like the floor was rising in the corner and you could see the wall tiles were cut shorter in the corner (1).  We put a level down and sent a photo to the contractor (2).  We had a lot of debate over whether or not to fix this problem.  They wanted me to let it go because fixing it required cutting the plywood which might ultimately leave a hump.  Also, the fix underneath was not so simple, although I never totally understood exactly why.  I strongly felt that since "we" had taken it down to the studs, this should have been level.  I really fretted about this decision and ended up asking them to fix it.

Below you can see they tore it up (3), laid new plywood (4), and leveled it (5).  To this day I am not sure what the problem was and it did make a hump in the floor in front of the toilet.  (Plus the tiles around the knee wall base also got a little shorter...so much for full tiles.) So I don't know if it was the best decision.  If I knew then what I know now, we would have had them rip the whole floor up and start again...because more floor problems awaited us.

Niche Problems

As the tiles approached the niche I realized we were going to have to move the pre-bought orange niche yet again (after our first electrical switch situation).  I wanted the niche to start at the beginning of a full tile.  I was happy because they were easily able to move it vertically.  But I did not have the foresight to also move it horizontally so that it would be perfectly centered between two evenly cut tiles.  As you can see below the cut tile to the left is shorter than the cut tile on the right, but at least it wasn't a tiny sliver.  For all those DIYers out there, ALWAYS start tiling with the niche!

Another problem occurred with the back of the niche.  I wanted the fish-scales to appear as if they were a solid sheet laid down before the shelves.  Instead, the tiles appeared to shift both horizontally and vertically after the shelf.  It was mostly only a problem with the first shelf.  Again, I cringed to tell the contractor as it had already been a day drying.  He told me that if he tore the orange coating while attempting to fix it,  that he was going to have to rip out the entire niche and start again.  I asked him to please try and he was able to successfully fix it.

Exterior Wall Tiles

The exterior wall was a little different than the other walls where it was possible to put up sheet rock. The original tiles were laid onto concrete and left a texture when pulled off.  It wasn't possible to put green board on top or the tiles would have been thicker than the window moulding.  So the contractors did a skim coat to level it (3) and then another coat of drywall compound (3).  And finally finished it with tile (4).  We almost added an additional moulding trim to make it thicker, but decided we could live with the tiles being almost flush to the window.

Also, between 3 and 4 above, we added the base window moulding.  My amazing neighbor Mark, matched the moulding in the rest of the house and made us a new base.  In these old houses when there was tile, they often didn't have a base window moulding.  Maybe because it was a pain to tile around?  Anyway, a big thank you to Mark for his amazing woodworking abilities!   

Here you can see the exterior wall tile completed with the moulding below the window.

Tile Completed!

Below is an image showing what we thought was finished tile (dunt dunt duh...theatrical music foreshadowing disaster).

Window

As the contractors were laying the tile, I was working on painting the stained glass windows.  When we started the project George took the windows to Classical Stained Glass to have the stained glass cleaned and repaired.  They did a great job. but the wood still needed to be repainted.  In this photo you can see the glass is cleaned and I was preparing to paint the window.

Another Floor Problem

We were excited to re-install the windows.  The day finally arrived and George brought the window up from the basement.  I happened to be following behind him and noticed something odd as he walked across the new bathroom tiled floor.  The reflected light on the tile moved with his weight.  It was subtle but it appeared to me the floor bowed slightly with each step.  When I first saw it, I mentally noted it but didn't want it to be true.  I started noticing it even when he wasn't carrying a heavy window...and George is not a big guy!  At some point later in the evening I mentioned it to George.  We both went into the bathroom and he jumped up and down while I watched the floor.  Sure enough, the floor moved slightly under his weight.  Tile floors are not supposed to move!  I'm no expert, but it seems like this might cause the tile to crack eventually.  We noticed this problem on a Friday night and I was sick about it all weekend.  

On Monday I texted our contractor about the problem.  I simply said we were worried there was an issue with the floor bowing.  We didn't hear back from him all week and I thought we were never going to hear from him again.  I was on pins and needles all week.    

All I could think about was this problem and how to fix it.  As I waited for a response from the contractor I went into full research mode which included asking a few neighbors for their opinion.  My neighbor Mark sent me two very helpful websites about chamfered joists.  It turns out, the week I was sick was the week the floor studs were exposed.  My husband happened to notice that the floor joists were chamfered (meaning filed to a point lengthwise).  Apparently this was common practice in the early 1900s to help the concrete poured between the joists not to crack when drying.  

Page 141, Suggestions for Setting Tile, by Karl Langenbeck. April 1907.
Carpentry and Building, Vol. XXIX.-1907.
New York, David Williams Company
from Thomson Remodeling Company, Inc.

The second website Mark sent was titled, "Pointed joists under 1920s tile floor" and was SUPER informative about how you deal with this issue.  It stated,

"You have no choice but to sister every floor joist with 2x material. It doesn't have to match the same depth as your floor joists, 2x6 is fine. Find the "highest" joist and work from that spot as your level line, leveling all your sistered pieces to that reference spot. Glue and screw (or framing nailgun it) the sisters to the old joists. You'll probably have to add blocking (2x pieces perpendicular to the joists) in various areas, because they used to do wacky shit with the framing in bathrooms to accommodate plumbing, so blocking may be needed in spots to provide framing to support plywood." 

(I am putting all this detail in the hopes that this post might help someone else not to make the same mistake we did.)

My assessment of the situation was that our contractors had laid the OSB plywood down onto pointed joists that were not level.  And this allowed movement in the floor.  I was worried it would require tearing everything out to truly fix it properly, including the tub.

As the week progressed, I had basically given up hope of hearing back from the contractor.  But through a very weird twist of fate we met someone who was very connected to our contractor.  They mentioned our situation to him.  Friday evening he contacted us and said that he had been busy and that he would come the next day.

To his credit when he saw the problem he said they would fix it.  When he left we thought they were going to tear the floor up in the bathroom down to the studs.  I was hopeful we could add sister joists and re-do it properly.  Plus, fix the floor which was not still not level even with the aforementioned fix.  Needless to say I was VERY surprised when they started making a giant hole in the kitchen ceiling! 

As soon as I realized what they were doing I stopped them and had a long discussion with the person doing the work.  We talked about the pros and cons of going through the kitchen versus going through the bathroom.  In my opinion, going through the kitchen was the less effective of the two fixes.  It would only fix the movement through the addition of one sister joist.  But it was a lot less work than tearing up the tile floor.

In the end, I conceded and they added one sister joist through the kitchen.  In an attempt to appease me I was surprised that they tore up a portion of the tile.  I could not understand how they were going to level the floor without fixing all the joists.  It turns out they were going to back butter the tiles to level the floor...thicker in the lower spots.  I thought it was nice they were trying to fix the problem, but thought it was a weird solution.  But the tiles were already torn up and I hoped for the best.

Unfortunately the next morning I awoke to the tiles being incredibly uneven.  I had a minor meltdown at this point.  Not only had they not fixed the problem properly, but they had made it worse.  George and I marked every high tile with blue tape to show them.  I was ready to cut ties at this point...it was probably the worst day of the whole project.   

When the contractor showed up he was surprised at what had occurred.  He said the tiles moved over night and that he would fix it.  He chiseled out every tile with blue tape.

When all was said and done, the floor did indeed "move" less where they added a sister joint, but it still "moved" in the area below the vanity.  Also, there was still a hump in front of the toilet from the first fix.  But it was clear we were all done.  They were not willing to do any more and I was done pushing for a fix I wasn't sure they could make.

“When the work has five mistakes, it’s not yet completed.
When it has eight mistakes, it might be.”
—Rick Rubin, The Creative Act: A Way of Being

Sometimes, one has to move on.  Above you can see the bathroom appears beautiful...just best not to jump or walk barefoot, lest you notice the unevenness.  I was very sad that 3-4 tiles cracked already right in front of the toilet.  I am still pondering if I might chisel them out.  For now, I put a rug there.

Brass Polishing

One day the contractor took the bathroom door outside and painted it.  It looked so good I asked if they could paint all the upstairs doors (8 doors!).  George and I removed all the door hardware before they painted.  My Dad and brother very kindly came down two weekend to help me polish the brass!  We used white vinegar, toothbrushes, Dremel tool with a sponge head, brillo pads, and MAAS metal polish.  I normally like an aged patina, but the hardware had a lot of paint on it.  So we took it all away and the hardware turned out beautifully!

SHOWER

It was nerve-wracking choosing where to make the hole for the facet and shower.  After they made the hole and put the shower fixture together we realized it was about 4 feet high.  Only a very tiny person would be able to shower.  I thought we would be able to easily call the company where I purchased the shower and order an extension.  No such luck!  They claimed they didn't have one.  I was on the verge of returning it when George found an extension part on Amazon.  I think we probably could have paid A LOT less for this shower on Amazon.  It matched perfectly.  I had heard it was important not to skimp on a cheap shower because the inner parts can go bad.  So I bought it from a website that specialized in vintage showers.  But I think we paid 6 times the price for a shower we could have bought on Amazon.  At that point, we were really just relieved to find the part and move on...that's why George looks so happy in the photo below.  

FINISHED BATHROOM!

After six months, the bathroom is mostly done.  We are still waiting on a backsplash replacement (it was uneven) and we would like to build some walls inside the main drawer to prevent items from falling.  But we are now showering and toileting in the bathroom!

I think the glass walls make the room appear much bigger.  If we had to do it over again we might have made the shower wall a couple inches longer to prevent water from splashing out.  But we just lay a towel along the tub.  It catches any splashed water and stops it from running down the outside tub wall.  We used The Glass Guru to install the glass and were happy with them.  

I was pleased I only changed the paint color one time, which is good for me.  The color is Sherwin Williams 7071 Gray Screen.  

I was also very pleased with the sconces.  They were the "Thomas O'Brien Katie Small Acorn Sconces in Hand-Rubbed Antique Brass" from Foundry Lighting.  The green light was the "Eloise Glass Semi-flush mount" from Anthropologie.  I love the green light when it is not turned on...but don't love the greenish hue of the light.  George bought a lightbulb you can change the color of and it helped ameliorate the green hue.  I considered replacing it with something else, but I really like the shape of it.

My biggest splurge of the entire bathroom was the unlacquered brass faucet.  It was the "Newport Brass Miro Widespread Lavatory Faucet" from Focal Point.  I had already purchased an inexpensive faucet from Lowe's when I happened to see this one at Keidel.  The model in the store had the perfect aged patina and I fell in love with it.  The woman at the store said it was an heirloom piece that would be here long after I was gone.  That sold me.

Overall I love the look of the faucet.  But I haven't loved the hard water stains.  I just cleaned it with water and vinegar and the spots mostly came off.  If I knew hard water would be such a problem I'm not sure would have purchased it.  I like the aged patina, but am worried I will wipe the patina off every time I clean the hard water stains.  I just watched a video that suggested using baking soda and lemon.  I will try that next time.  

If you purchase this type of shower I would definitely recommend buying the extension.  As I said above, I think we overpaid for this shower and you can buy a similar one on Amazon that has the extension pipe.  We do, however, love the spray handle and rain shower features of this shower.  If I don't want to wash my hair, I use the spray handle.  And if I want to wash my hair I use the overhead rain shower.  It's funny how much we enjoy this upgrade to the previous shower, which just had a "normal" shower head.

One of my favorite elements of the new bathroom was the tile.  The minute I laid eyes on these fish-scale tiles at Floor and Decor I knew I wanted to use them.  They were probably the first decision I made.

Because the fish-scales were such a thick tile we ended up going with the Thassos marble subway tile to match the thickness.  After the contractor installed about 2 feet of the fish-scales, we found out they were a hair thinner!  Once he told me that I asked him to peel them off and back butter them thicker which he was able to do fairly easily.

Below is a list of the names of the all the tiles (all from Floor & Decor):

Fish-Scale - Maravilla Bianco Orion Fan Honed Marble Mosaic

Subway - Sahara Carrara Hexagon Polished Marble Mosaic

Floor Hexagon - Vivano Marble Thassos Premium Polished Tile 

Edge Trim - Thassos Premium Polished Marble Pencil

Grout Color Floor - Mapei Frost

Grout Color Wall - Mapei White

One small detail I haven't mentioned yet is the unlacquered brass towel bar.  It was called "Restorers Simplicity Towel Bar"  and we purchased it from Van Dyke's.   It was mentally hard to install it onto the perfect new wood of the moulding Mark made us...but I think it looks great.  The vanity knobs were "oval, antique cabinet knobs" from Amazon.  I am very happy they don't pull off like the old ones.

One big mistake I made during this process was the vanity countertop.  When I went to the store to choose the countertop, I didn't bring a wall tile (we didn't have any extra).  But I knew it was super white marble, so I chose the whitest color they had.  I had wanted marble, but the store I went to didn't have any light marble so I went with quartz.  Unfortunately when it arrived, it looked cream compared to the wall tile.  I tried to live with it, but knew it would drive me crazy over time.  So I found a store that carried marble and we chose the whitest one they had called, "ice white."  I am glad I exchanged it for real marble. 

TOP TIPS FOR AN OLD HOUSE BATHROOM REMODEL

Level the floor and walls before tiling!!!

If you have chamfered joists, add sister joists to level the floor.

Consider a dedicated breaker for the bathroom.

Start tiling at the shower niche (make sure you have full tiles between tub and niche).

While you have the radiators out, have them sandblasted and painted.

Once installed, cover the tub with a blanket or dropcloth to prevent scratches!

Put the shower fixture together from top to bottom before drilling the faucet holes.

CONCLUSION

Bravely, Be you.

George and I have been through many remodeling projects.  They are never a cake walk...and this one was no exception.  Whenever I encounter something difficult in my life, I try and see what the lessons were.  In this case, I can only say that perhaps life wanted to give me practice at speaking my truth and finding my voice.  I absolutely abhor telling people that I am not happy with their work...especially work that is difficult to re-do.  I have been accused of being a perfectionist, but in most of the cases on this project I felt I was simply asking for simple things...like a level floor.  For me it is difficult to discern when to push for something you want and when to let go.  Through this entire project I attempted to at least state my preferences, knowing that they might not always be met.  Addressing and meeting each difficulty felt like labor pains... excruciating, yet necessary to give birth to something new.

“Bravery isn’t about being fearless. It’s about loyalty, loyalty to yourself.”
—Light Watkins

Remodeling projects are also a lesson in learning about who I am and expressing that outwardly... finding my voice in a slightly different way than above.  Through making every small decision, I learn my preferences and style...my likes and dislikes.  I find such joy in choosing a light fixture that makes my heart sing.  This bathroom is a unique expression of me.  Will I make the perfect choice every time?  Will it all come together seamlessly?  Maybe...maybe not.  But somehow it feels important to try... to reflect outwardly who I am and what I find beautiful.  The process is like both finding and expressing myself at the same time.

When all was said and done, I think we now have a gorgeous, new bathroom with an uneven floor and a few cracked tiles.  On the whole, I think we will leave this bathroom better than we found it.  I gave it my all and the room is visually lovely IMHO.  Maybe more insights will come with time and distance from the project.  For now, I can say I am grateful to be able to wash my hands upstairs, take a warm shower, and exceedingly thankful the project is complete!

A big thank you to my family, friends, neighbors, and all who made this bathroom possible.