The "get rid of the old lady bathroom" remodel build thread of sexiness

gutting commences tomorrow, so the kids were allowed to attack the bathroom with crayons and markers this evening.

sweet previous owner electrical work. yeah, that's safe.

the kids didn't write this

hmmmmm. that's what i think of that certain company that covers any moldy E36 M3 you have with some plastic crap

observations. there are no less than 3 layers of drywall behind the toilet. there seem to be 2 everywhere else. they drywalled around the mirror, medicine cabinets, and vanity. i knew this already. the floor is 1.25" below the hall. it used to be level with the hall and the kids' bedroom, and 1.25" below the living room. i put new hickory in those areas and bumped it up to living room height with the plan to bring the bathroom up to the same level for safety reasons.

the next thing posted is going to be a gutted room. i hope to have it all out by noon then head to home depot to pick up whatever ends up on the list as far as framing repairs, plywood, greenboard and cement board go along with probably some self leveling compound and the new tub. should have enough plumbing to run everything minus a few stray fittings. right now the pipes are below the bathroom, below the insulation, in the crawlspace. 10* or below i need to put a heater under there or else they freeze. will be running new pex tubing in the wall to prevent future freezings.

the plywood for the cabinet boxes is in the truck along with maple 1x2 for face frames, my maple doors and drawer fronts are ordered from the cabinet door company, and i have a beautiful granite vanity top with sink bowl sitting in the living room. it's better than it looked online.

Pro Tip:

For years, most toilets were 14.5" high. Get one that is 16.5". They're becoming more common. I recently upgraded the one in our master bathroom. I got a Kohler at Lowes for about $200.

It's amazing the difference that the added height makes. You'll never want to E36 M3 from 14.5 inches again.

pro tip: i'm a pro and have installed hundreds and hundreds of toilets, and i'm usually the first to test every one

i honestly do not care for the chair height toilets. elongated bowl yes, tall no. there is a whole scientific explanation about legs reaching farther, pulling knees closer together, making it harder to wipe due to the fact that i'm not skinny that makes me not care for them.

It's nice to get an extended bowl and a slow-close seat while you're at it. I don't think I could live the old barbaric loud-slamming-seat way ever again.

patgizz wrote: pro tip: i'm a pro and have installed hundreds and hundreds of toilets, and i'm usually the first to test every one i honestly do not care for the chair height toilets. elongated bowl yes, tall no. there is a whole scientific explanation about legs reaching farther, pulling knees closer together, making it harder to wipe due to the fact that i'm not skinny that makes me not care for them.

Because my job requires me to know about a lot of E36 M3 about a lot of E36 M3 that I would rather not have to know about, I will toss this in:

https://www.youtube.com/embed/pYcv6odWfTM

Cmon guys.... Stop E36 M3ting up this thread....

Wow, that's some E36M3!

Is that romex coming out the front of the box, and buried under the wallpaper?

XLR99 wrote: Wow, that's some E36M3! Is that romex coming out the front of the box, and buried under the wallpaper?

yep. it's actually mudded right into the drywall. to be fair they did put mesh tape over it first

just took my final shower in the old tub. as soon as everyone else wakes up and gets clean, E36 M3's coming out.

patgizz wrote: ...as soon as everyone else wakes up and gets clean, E36 M3's coming out.

Literally and figuratively!

Good luck with your remodel.

pizza break. almost everything is torn out except the floor.

walls upon walls.

want a 5 foot vanity with the sink in the middle but have a pair of 30" vanities? no problem, hack that middle right out.

yeah that wire didn't just go out the front of the box, it was surface mounted on the old wall in the seam of the 2 pieces of new drywall, held in with roofing nails.

the floor. yeah.

How are you planning on dealing with the window there; is that just a tub, or a tub/shower? I'm living in a home (that I rent so this is not my issue really) that has a setup much like that one and I'm curious how you'd deal with that window the best way possible. I like having it there for light, but it seems like a problem that's best solved by removing it entirely. Or is there some other solution?

pres589 wrote: How are you planning on dealing with the window there; is that just a tub, or a tub/shower? I'm living in a home (that I rent so this is not my issue really) that has a setup much like that one and I'm curious how you'd deal with that window the best way possible. I like having it there for light, but it seems like a problem that's best solved by removing it entirely. Or is there some other solution?

Id leave it, but im an exhibitionist. Let the neighbors watch.

In reply to mndsm:

My concern is with the moisture. Not the visuals.

removing entirely. i hate windows in showers. i love the light and being able to open it when it's 80 out. whoever did this one sealed the crap out of it and nothing bad happened, however the window is junk from being wet for years and i'm just not up for tiling around a window again. i've done it many times and i hate it a little more every time.

down to studs now, still have to remove the vinyl floor and underlayment, then the linoleum tiles under that, then the tarpaper underlayment under that to get to the plywood. looks like i'll be cutting a section out the width of the room about 2' out from where the tub was, giving me access to the joists that got hacked out for the toilet plumbing so i can box that all in with joist hangers and make it right, and get rid of the wet corner. looks like one sheet of 3/4 will get me that piece and enough to go under the tub to level it.

the room is a parallelogram. will need to fix that, it's out almost 4 inches. the long walls are parallel, so i can work with them and fix the outside wall and the opposite wall for a square room so i don't have tile or tub issues.

going to store now for a couple new shutoffs and some bits to rig up a basement shower.

Keep up the pictures, I'll be attempting to do the same shortly.

pres589 wrote: In reply to mndsm: My concern is with the moisture. Not the visuals.

We had a window in the shower in the house I grew up in. My dad's solution was to hang a sheet of lexan over the window from a few hooks mounted to the wall which kept direct flow from ever coming in contact with the window (while retaining removability for cleaning). You would still have condensation to deal with, but its at least a partway solution. As far as visuals, you could sand the back side of the lexan to frost it so that noone would see more than a blob outline.

ssswitch wrote: It's nice to get an extended bowl and a slow-close seat while you're at it. I don't think I could live the old barbaric loud-slamming-seat way ever again.

Slow close toilet seats changed my life. I will never go back! And I can thank my son because it came on this thing, which I also highly recommend for the little ones.

And +100000 on removing the window in the shower. I took mine out and am so happy with the decision because I never got it sealed properly and there were too many nooks and crannies to grow mold in.

What are you putting in, surround or tile? I went with tile above a plastic tub and I am pretty happy with it. I will say this: use quality mortar and grout. My wife works for Ardex/Henry, so I am admittedly biased here, but good stuff makes all the difference. I started with whatever Lowe's had on the shelf and could not get tiles to stay put, they just slid down the wall. When she brought home a bad of Ardex mortar, the difference was night and day. Tiles stuck first time every time, even on the ceiling.

In reply to Apexcarver:

Or you could do what I did, and buy a cheap opaque shower curtain, and hang it from a curtain rod. I then cut it to a length that would well cover the window but not get in the way too much. There was a rod there already so this was an easy solution for me. But long-term, getting that window out of there, or at least making it something that won't allow moisture to get into the wall would be better. The only thing I can think of is to use some kind of glass blocks in place of the window and then tile up next to them. Maybe will work to let light in but you can't open it anymore.

I'm in a rental home that had a bathtub I converted into a shower using a pieced together "kit" and it's had me trying some really ghetto solutions. It's been interesting...

Nice to have a window in the bathroom.. In the shower is challenging.

A shower rod and curtain against the wall, or a glass door do quite nicely for a window. Anything to act as a screen to divert 99% of the water, but allow air circulation will work just fine.

More photos please!

Demo is always interesting. You spend 1/2 the time shaking your head wonder "Why the Berkley would someone do that?"

Never understood the window in the shower thing. Just seems like a bad idea all around. They aren't big enough for egress and you've got a light in the ceiling right? My only guess is ventilation before exhaust fans became the norm.

16.5" toilets. Bwaahahahaha!

Most of the world uses these:

Glass bricks solve most of the problems of a window in a shower.

https://www.youtube.com/embed/YbYWhdLO43Q

And how did we embed the serious Squatty Potty video instead of the Unicorn one?!?!?

I pulled a shower window and replaced it with a piece of fixed hammered glass, framed with treated wood. I liked the window, but hated the rot. All the flat surfaces were sloped to keep them from holding water. It had the added advantage of looking pretty good and I didn't have to replace the tile shower surround.

I'll be interested to see how you go back together.