Tuesday Morning Tidy: The Unplanned Bathroom Remodel

One afternoon in late August as I walked from my bedroom to the stairway, I discovered wet spots on our formal living room ceiling. The dry wall was bubbling right above our piano.

It turns out, our oldest's shower, on the second floor, had a leak. It's an interior bathroom so the leak affected three different rooms -- the downstairs living room (ceiling, walls and floors) and one bathroom and one bedroom (drywall behind the shower in my middle child's room) on the second floor. What we originally thought was a somewhat minor repair, turned into a bit of a nightmare to deal with during remote work, remote school and the spike in COVID cases through the fall and early winter.

Since were were faced with an insurance claim to replace the shower, we decided to pay out of pocket to have the entire bathroom remodeled. (We hired the same contractor who remodeled our kitchen two years ago.) Our home was built in the late 1960s. Our oldest's bedroom is what was once called a "mother-in-law's suite." The bedroom has its own 3/4 bathroom -- the vanity is in the bedroom near the closet, and the shower and toilet have their own small room nearby with a door.

Below are a couple before pictures. The vanity consisted of the original cabinets and black formica counter tops from the late 60s. The shower, floor tile and shower doors, I believe, were original as well.

Old vanity before the demo. We had already removed the knobs.

Old shower, doors and flooring.

The bathroom project and the other related home repairs took months to complete. Material shipping delays, and other COVID related issues, made it painful at times. Finally, on Christmas Eve, it was complete with the installation of the sliding shower doors. It felt like a Christmas Miracle!

Below are pics of the new space. If you're interested, I've included links to products featured.

The shower before the sliding doors were installed.

Mirror - Wayfair's Modern & Contemporary Beveled Overmantel Mirror

Fixtures (sink faucet, shower head, towel and tissue holders) - Delta's Kyra Collection in stainless steel

Knobs - Square Euro Contemporary knob 1 1/4 inch in satin nickel

Wall color - Sherwin William's Zircon

We are thrilled with the final product! Although it took weeks longer than expected, it was well worth the wait!

If you have questions about anything featured in this post, please email us at andshewritesblog@gmail.com!