Scrubadub

 Now the bathroom in this apartment was the MOST gutted. The bathroom, although original to the structure, seems to have been built as an afterthought on the back of the house. Instead of the basement continuing underneath it, it has a little crawlspace that is separate. In this crawlspace were leaking pipes (probably from freezing), trash, electrical wires from disused pipe-wrap, fiberglass insulation, and the inevitable effects of lots of moisture in a closed-up space. In the walls we found layers of old tile on old tile, covered in the-inevitable-effects-of-moisture-in-a-closed-space (we don't say the m-word). At least three of the wall studs were completely rotted away from a roof leak sometime in the past, since fixed. We removed all of the floor joists, effectively turning the bathroom into nothing more than a dirt pit on the back of the house.

Like I said in the last post, we had to drastically change the layout of the bathroom in order to both make it functional, and to give it an entry from a common area, rather than one of the two bedrooms.

In the old layout, there was an 18-inch vanity shoved in the corner, in front of the door, no door to speak of, a shower than ran lengthwise through the room, and a toilet in the very back corner that required one to squeeze past the tub in a walkway the width of a bus aisle to access. It also had a disgusting drop-down acoustic tile ceiling with a bath fan in it, that was venting moisture to between the drop ceiling and the old original crumbling plaster ceiling, again causing moisture problems.

The simplest and most elegant solution we could come up with to solve the problem of this very small, narrow bathroom was to special-order a tub to fit in the room widthwise. Standard tub size is 60". We bought a 54" tub. I guarantee most people wouldn't notice the difference, but it makes ALL the difference in the world for how to lay out this bathroom. We closed up the old doorway, re-ran all the supply lines and drains, properly venting all of them, raised the ceiling, installed proper ventilation, and of then of course, made it gorgeous.

The finishing touches include the ceramic tile tub surround. I used a white 6"x6" tile, slightly oversized, and laid it in a brick pattern, rather than grid pattern, reminiscent of the period of the house, while still fresh, clean, and durable. It was scaled to the height of the room (10-ft ceilings), rising to 8 feet above the floor. It was finished off with new Moen fixtures and a luxury curved shower curtain. This time I even added matching curtain rings and the shower liner.

The toilet is a brand new dual-flush from Costco. Looks sleek and modern, and saves water. A good deal from Costco, too!

The vanity is a cheap one from Home Depot, but nice enough looking and sturdy. Simple beveled glass mirror, matching vanity lights, separate lighted fan over the shower, and extra hardware and hooks for hanging clothes, towels, etc.

Here's the bathroom before we started:

Unfortunately, it's so cramped that it was hard to get good pictures because you can't get far enough away from anything.

TEAR IT OUT!! (you may want to hold your breath to look at these pictures)

 Gosh, who would cover up those gorgeous plastic barbie-pink tub tiles?! And with wet drywall?!

Without much work, I sold the tub and the toilet on craigslist. Also the kitchen appliances.

Here's the tub surround going in:

After grout, caulk, fixtures, and paint on the walls:

(I had to take that picture from outside the window to get the whole thing in! I'm in love!

The rest of the finished bathroom:

 Shower curtain liner and rings.

 Vanity from the doorway. (Sorry you have to see me too!)

 Dual-flush toilet. Also, notice the ceramic floors! Same as in the kitchen, also laid in a brick pattern.

 Doorway from the inside, extra robe hooks on the back of the door.

Enjoy! Wood floors come next!