Bathroom Reveal

I hope you guys aren't tired of all the before and after photos yet!  It was so hard to take time off from blogging over the summer and I've been saving these photos to post!

Do you guys remember our awful upstairs bathroom?  Most Toronto 1920's semis don't have the space on the main floor for a powder room so the second floor bathroom becomes the main bathroom.  We have a bathroom in the basement as well but it's not in great condition and won't be redone until we start working on our basement.  I can't see this happening for at least a couple of years.

The family who lived in our house before us included a daughter with some mobility issues and special needs.  This meant that many of the rooms had been modified for wheelchair access and many of their solutions were pretty creative.  Unfortunately, they weren't in a position to hire professionals to assist them so there were quite a few sketchy DIY renovations that needed to be undone.

The upstairs bathroom may have been the worst example of this.  There was no storage (we assumed this was to maximize floor space) and there was no separation between the shower and the rest of the bathroom.  To make matters worse, the floor seemed to slope away from the drain and out towards the door.  Corey and I never actually attempted to use this shower because we were afraid of flooding the hallway.

Oh, also notice that weird tiled lip in the shower, which we thought was a ledge but actually hid some plumbing.  The toilet also sat too far forward and almost in the centre of the room, to add to the weirdness.

We had also purchased a very heavy clawfoot tub from another house that was built the same year as ours.  We knew we had to have it painted and refinished but there was no point until we actually began work on the washroom.  We ended up just storing it in the bathroom for the first year that we lived in our new/old house.

I think one of the worst things, that you can't even see in the photos is how wobbly everything was.  The shelves were not properly secured so if you knocked one with an elbow, I risked everything falling off.  The floor was pretty stained as well and the bathroom never looked clean, even when it was freshly scrubbed.  I told Corey I felt as though I was getting ready for work in the bathroom from the first Saw movie.

If you guys have been following, you'll know that the bathroom reno took a lot of time.  It also happened to coincide with my pregnancy, which was especially difficult for me.

Here's a list of some of the improvements we (mostly Corey) made.  You can read about them all in more detail in our old renovations posts.:

• Corey removed all the old tile and found a window in the wall, which we had replaced.
• He added insulation and reinforced the floors to support our heavy tub.
• He added heated flooring coils before tiling the floor.
• Corey tiled the tub surround and included recessed shelving for all our bath products!
• Corey created recessed spaces in the wall for towel hooks.
• I painted the bathtub (eek, I was pregnant and didn't know it yet...) and the feet before we had the inside professionally reglazed.
• We found hardware for the tub at a specialty store and Corey installed it.
• Corey installed a pot light above the tub that was rated safe for wet places.
• We bought an Ikea vanity and mirrored medicine cabinet for extra storage.
• Corey replaced all the drywall so we could paint and decorate.

The finished product offers us so much more functional storage!

It's hard to photograph such a small space but there's really room for everything we need!

We even have a small bin for all of Rudy's bath toys!

What an improvement!

Grout Expectations

While still not finished, the bathroom is fully functional.  After the kitchen and nursery are complete, Corey will go back to frame the window and door, paint and add the finishing touches but for now we're using it like a real bathroom.  NO MORE FAMILY ROOM SHOWERS!!

Looking at these pictures makes me so glad we opted for the look of white grout with our subway tiles.  The light bevel adds enough definition to the tile and the white grout keeps the look clean.

See the difference between where the grout has been added and where it hasn't?

It's all done now and my pregnant self has been soaking in the tub, which Corey hooked up.  Another tip we learned along the way was to cut slivers of a hockey puck to use as padding under the clawfeet to support the heavy tub.

Our thermostat is now also working and we have programmed it so that our floors are toasty in the morning and at night.

And Corey also added a pot-light above our shower.

We'll paint later but for now, we just love having a fully functional bathroom!

Tile Update

 So, I've been holding out on you guys.  I've been enjoying nightly baths for weeks now... WEEKS... and yet I still haven't shared any more bathroom updates.

I'll admit that part of the reason for this is that, while functional, our bathroom still needs some drywall patching and a coat of paint before it's actually ready.  That's a poor excuse though because there are enough perfect rooms all over pinterest and I promised this blog would be real so I'll post progress photos now and you can see the finished product when it's ready.

Remember when we chose our tile last spring?  I remember being really excited about the marble mosiac that we chose for our accent strip.  Not only does it tie in nicely with the flooring, but it adds some depth and interest to our tub surround.  At $25 per tile, this was a great example of choosing an expensive accent to add elegance to more budget-friendly finishes.

This pictures shows quite clearly the bane of Corey's existence last spring and summer.  I think the frustration of tiling those shelves is what prolonged our reno by so many weeks.  Corey hated those shelves with such a passion that we almost had a party the day he finished!

I'll leave you here for tonight but I'll post soon with some photos of our tub and shower as they appear today.  If you're looking to start a similar project, we found this advice to be pretty helpful.

Bathroom Tile: Take 1

I am so sorry for going AWOL the past couple of months.  I promise I started like a gazillion posts (at least a dozen or so) but I'd always end up just falling asleep after work and not finding the time to finish them in my early pregnancy stupor.

I began this one back when Corey first started tiling the floor.  We chose shiny black porcelain (because it looked just like the granite at the tile shop but didn't come with the steep price tag) and also because porcelain is known to be very strong.

We Corey began by placing the tiles where he wanted.  This gave him the opportunity to play around before he made any cuts.  Tradespeople have a saying that you "measure twice and cut once" and since we were on a 4K budget for our entire bathroom reno, Corey really took this to heart.

That's right, that toilet was not connected at the time.  Imagine how tough that was in my first trimester when I was sick several times a day!  That's right, I have a working toilet upstairs by now but I would still like your sympathy!  

Corey used an angle grinder to make some of the challenging cuts around the toilet.

And then he mixed the mortar and got to work!

He used precise 45 degree angles to join the tiles on the step.  It was extra work but it turned out beautifully!

We chose dark grey grout for our floor tiles because it's forgiving but would still give us a little contrast.

And he even created and tiled a small shelf to hide some of the pipes.

So here's a good picture of what our bathroom looked like a couple of months ago.  Today, we're not totally done but we're pretty darn close but I couldn't post new pics without showing you the early tiling.

I'll post updates soon!

Nightmare on Elm Street... Just Kidding! This is Another Bathroom Post

Aaarrrgh!  It's not moving fast enough and I'm getting so cranky!  I feel like I'm living in some creepy episode of the Twilight Zone where Corey works non-stop on our bathroom and yet no progress is being made!  This is like my own personal horror movie, only instead of running from a serial killer, I'm running to the basement so I don't pee my pants.

Okay, so I'm exaggerating a little...  But we consider ourselves to be pretty seasoned renovators after all the work we had done in the condo and still we have never tackled a project as annoyingly complex as this bathroom.  I feel like every time we turn around there's another obstacle... The most recent being the need to add the platform for extra floor strength.

Don't be fooled by the toilet and tub in the picture folks, they're not actually hooked up and are just there to tease me so that Corey can measure for the plumbing.  Just look at them taunting me while I'm still showering in the family room and peeing in the basement.

Then one night, while having dinner with some friends, I noticed something I loved about their bathroom.  The area behind the door is recessed to provide room to hang towels without interfering with their ability to open the door fully.  Brilliant!  Darn!

It's a gift and a curse to live with Corey because on one hand, I can point to things and say, "I want you to do that!" but on the other hand, sometimes we underestimate how much time these little details take.

But then one day, Corey began putting up the drywall and our progress seemed to move a little faster...

Here are the recessed towel hanging nooks behind the door:

We also bought pre-fabricated shelves for the tub area.  They're already waterproofed and we can add tile to them directly.  Of course, nothing is as easy as we hope and our walls weren't deep enough to accomadate them so Corey had to add some depth first.

While that toilet is still a tease, it was a pleasure walking into my bathroom one day and seeing this.
We are finally ready to tile!  Yippee!

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Bathroom Progress (Correcting a Mistake)

Sometimes we take a step forward only to move right back and that is the theme of this post.  It's been a while since I showed you any bathroom reno updates and part of the reason for this is that we had to take some giant steps back.

Corey had finished "sistering" the floor joists in order to reinforce them to hold the weight of our heavy iron tub.  Keep in mind that, unlike the urban tale of the library that is sinking because it was built without the weight of the books in mind, we are considering the weight of water and people in addition to our tub.

Our plumbing fixtures (not easy to find for a traditional clawfoot) arrived in the mail.  It was very exciting to see them.  We had deliberately chosen modern chrome fixtures designed with a bit of a nod to the era of the tub.

And then Corey began to cut and lay the subfloor.  Our engineer and seasoned renovator friends (ahem, Reid and Sascha) will probably notice the mistake in the photos below but I'll tell the rest of you after the photos in case you want to try to look for it.

The Mistake

I should mention that sometimes when renovating, you discover that you made an error or inadvertently cut a corner.  Sometimes you don't realize this until you're several steps past the place where it would have been an easy fix.  This happened to us the other day, when Corey was conducting extra research on ways to ensure floor rigidity and he discovered two things:

1. The grain of the plywood should run perpendicular to the floor joists.

2. Any seams between boards should be over a joist, if possible (especially where you expect lots of weight.)

Shoot!  Corey realized that he didn't do either.  Luckily, he caught it before we tiled, but it does mean that he had to remove the subfloor and replace it with new plywood.  At least it gave him one last opportunity to double check all the joists that he sistered.

Normally, we wouldn't be quite so concerned and we both think the floor is pretty stable... Just perhaps not quite stable enough to support a 300 pound tub... filled with water... and one or two adults... balanced on tiny feet.  See what I mean?  You can never be too careful!

Poor Corey was a little blue when he realized he had given himself more work, but I'm so proud of him for taking the time to research and fix a mistake.  He's the reason our tub won't fall through the dining room ceiling!  Friends- give him a pat on the back for it, if you see him!

And the opportunity to take a second look gave Corey an idea to offer even more strength.  He ended up building a platform, which also serves to allow us to hide some of the pesky plumbing and move the toilet against the wall.  As it happens, I also think this is a great way to draw attention to the feet on our pretty new/old tub.

So Corey prepared a new subfloor to be placed the proper way this time.

We relied on our neighbour to help Corey to move the tub in to measure for the plumbing...

Which is where I'll end this post.  We are actually pretty close to finishing but I'll post some of the steps Corey's taken in their own posts so that you can follow our progress all at once without dying of boredom.  ;)

I can't wait to show you guys some of the next highlights.  And just remember when you think that everyone's lives on social media seem so perfect and glamorous, that Corey and I are still at this point showering in the family room and running to the basement to use the washroom.  If our bathroom isn't finished soon, I'm buying a chamber pot!  Not kidding, I think I saw some at the Aberfoyle Antique Market last year.

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