Bathroom Remodel: Part 1

The first floor bathroom renovation has officially begun. Gus and I have always hesitated starting this project because... well, who wants to live without a bathroom on the main floor? But one day, I came home from a late night of work, looked at the poop colored walls and 80's ceramic tile, and then I just randomly starting disconnecting things. 

Here's the bathroom before I started. To be fair, I didn't even take this picture. It was the one provided by the real estate agent when we bought the house. 

So I started ripping stuff out as Gus looked at me in horror. In a matter of an hour, I had the sink and faucet pulled out, the medicine cabinet disconnected, and then I started pulling out the tiles. 

 This was a pretty fast process. Of course, I went to bed. But the next day, I couldn't wait to get home and demo more stuff. Breaking out floor tile is a lot of work. I used just a chisel and a hammer. Dust was flying everywhere. Gus continued to look on in dismay... while sipping a glass of vine.

Demo is something I think anyone can do. It just takes time and patience, but you can see the transformation happen right before your eyes.

Next went up the moisture resistant drywall, and I think at this point, Gus was starting to get onboard. You should know that he is the designer in this family. I'm the one that gets us into some kind of mess, and he's the one that plans our way out of it. I always trust him. In the early days, I'd question him on his design choices (my personal style might be best described as shabby-chic-eclectic-bohemian farmhouse).  But I learned pretty quickly that he's way better at this than I am. He always surprises me with his ideas. 

Gus ordered cement tiles for the floor, and I'm in love with them. Before laying down the flooring, we used the Schluter Kerdi Waterproofing Membrane. I highly recommend it. If you apply tile directly onto the plywood base board, the wood will contract and potentially crack either the tiles or the seams. Also, it's just better overall. It might have been overkill, but I also used Redgard over the subfloor, the walls, and around any area where water could potentially seep. 

I just can't stop looking at this flooring. The cement tile is beautiful. I gave Gus a budget of 4k for this bathroom, and 25% of it went to this tile. He said that everything else will use classic, but much cheaper materials like white, traditional subway tiles. He wants to keep everything else in the bathroom muted so that these floors will pop. I personally think he chose these floors just for me, because they are exactly the kind of funky design I love, but with his own modern geometric touch.

To save money on this project, we literally painted the cabinets that came with the house. I was careful to disassemble them in a way that didn't cause any scratches. Gus painted them himself a "black evergreen" color. I saw the same color at a restaurant we went to recently in the swanky Gold Coast part of town. In other words, I feel like our bathroom is turning into a ritzy Michelin star restaurant!

That's the update for now. I'll share more pics as they come!