Upstairs Bathroom Remodel Part 1

This has been a long time coming, but a few months ago we finally broke ground on our bathroom remodel!

We were super excited to start this remodel, little did we know that this would become a 3.5 month project. And I’ve just realized that while I’ve been sharing updates on my Instagram account, I haven’t shared anything about it here.

If you don’t follow us on Instagram, you can do that here. It’s the best way to follow more of the day to day projects, tips, etc.

Here’s where we started

This tub and tile was nasty. If you can’t tell from the picture, just trust me. The tile needed to be re-grouted, but somewhere along the way someone used silicone caulk in the grout lines instead. The caulk was a little sticky, so things stuck to it and it just didn’t look very pretty. And the tub was like yellow ish brown. I’m sure it was 23 years old (original to the house) and saw lots of use.

Demo Day – August 2019

Someone was pretty excited to start ripping things out… Luckily I didn’t have to do a thing during the demo phase, my husband enjoyed it (I think) and just got to work. The tile didn’t come off very easily, so we (I mean, he) ended up just cutting the drywall out with it.

New Tub

A good friend of ours is very handy and has done it all in his own house, so the two of them got together, drank a little whiskey and got this tub in. Which was kind of a concern of many, since it’s such a tight bathroom. The concern was that it would be extremely hard to get it in the bathroom and lay it down and fit it into the space. But they did it no problem. I remember hearing “Oh my gosh” and panicking, only to go in the bathroom and find that they already had it in place. It took all of 2 minutes.

We ended up going with an enameled steel tub, simply because I didn’t love the look of the acrylic tubs in my price range.

Cement Board

It’s still all the guys at this point. My wonderful husband and father (as in, they are both wonderful) cut and put up the cement board. They replaced the old drywall with Hardie backer board, simply because it’s more water resistant, and in a bathroom, especially a shower, that just made the most sense to us.

And so it begins…

Tile. I think we thought this would be a somewhat simple and quick task. But let me tell ya, I wouldn’t use either of those words to describe this process. With that said though, I am so excited to have this finished, because it’s going to be so pretty. I can’t wait to see it all finished up.

This back wall took the most time, because it was so big and we were brand new at this whole tiling thing. But as we went, we learned quite a bit and got much quicker. Yay for that.

Walls 2 & 3

Here we go on wall #2. Less space to cover, but cutting tiles more often. I laid the tile and either my dad or my husband cut the tiles and handed them to me. That was a really good system for us, and was much much quicker than one person doing it all.

Here’s wall #3 and my cute little supervisor, checking in on the job site.

Tile is DONE — on to grout

FINALLY – The tile is done. The most time consuming part of this whole process, I’d say, is putting the little rubber spacers in. It’s super easy taking them out though, and it’s oddly super rewarding. That’s what I’m dong here.

Now all that’s left is grout. Our plumber will be by next week to put in all of the fixtures. Can’t wait!

That’s it for today! Stay tuned for more updates later next week. Hopefully the updates will be the finished product, but I guess you’ll just have to wait and see 😉

Thanks for reading!! As always, pin for later below.

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