The Bathroom

I realize it has been a while since I posted, and to my two readers, I apologize.

In our defence, Alex and I have been furiously travelling from house to house, living like hobos, for the sake of our project house. A HUGE thank-you to the various friends and family that took us in last week, they were wonderful to us during a particularly stressful time.

So, on to the house. I don't know if I ever mentioned the dreaded bathroom before, but she was a real treat. At a whopping 26-ish square feet, the lone bathroom in our little house was a force to be reckoned with. Original floor and wall tile, steel tub, ancient sink, and...the piece de resistance, the leaky toilet that was hooked up to a lead and cast iron stack. Every time we flushed, half of the toilet water decorated the floor of our basement. Luckily, that portion of the basement is unfinished so we got to witness the loveliness that is a toilet overflowing on a regular basis.

This was our first major renovation, and so I wanted to do it right. We realized rather quickly that in terms of doing the heavy construction, that we were in way over our heads. So we called in the experts aka some professional contractors (who also happened to be family so a discount was applied to our final total :). The bathroom was completely demo'd down to the studs, and a new subfloor was installed, framing was re-done, insulation, drywall, the works.

We picked and purchased all the main fixtures, which saved our contractors a lot of time and effort (and us money!), and allowed us to get exactly what we want. However, we also had to hire plumbers to do extensive plumbing work in our basement, which turned out to be more expensive than we thought.

All in all, our bathroom cost us double what we originally budgeted. I want to say "it was all worth it" and mean it, but I do admit it is painful to see the final cost. Our solace is that the bathroom was done correctly, the plumbing is excellent, and we have forged some great relationships with wonderful contractors who we will certainly use again.

And if we ever want to add another bathroom. We know who to call.

On to the photos!

The washroom is not fully finished, we still have to paint and have the boiler guy come back to put in the new radiator, but all the big stuff is done. 

Sink, shelving and tap are all from ikea, toilet, light fixtures and medicine cabinet are home depot. 

Shower curtain from Home Outfitters. 

 Tile is porcelain, from Savoia tile.

That toilet took us two hours to find. Alex's main contribution to the renovation, which turned out to be the inspiration behind the modern vibe we're going for.

Bathtub, showerhead and shower tile are all from Home Depot. 

Naturally I chose the most time-consuming application of tile.

 But it looks amazing eh?

We literally had 13 inches of clearance when the door opened, so a traditional vanity was out of the question. Luckily ikea makes fantastic vanities and sinks for small bathrooms. 

So this is the finished product, but I'm sure you're wondering what we started out with. Well, ask and you shall receive. Behold, the most disgusting washroom you've ever seen:

I DARE YOU to find a dumber washroom layout. 

There was about an inch and a half of mortar on the wall with that tile. 

Lovely non-matching shower tile (installed incorrectly I might add).

Try sitting on this toilet. 

Illustration of the lack of clearance space.

Obviously, we're thrilled with how our bathroom turned out, and will certainly update once we're done painting.