It might have been the worst project of them all. The plumbing for the bathroom was a little strange. Not only did it leak in about a million places, the water never got warm. The pipes ran from the water heater (about 3 feet outside the bathroom door) about 20 feet through the uninsulated crawlspace to the kitchen sink, out to the unheated mudroom, and through the concrete back to the bathroom. Where the pipes ran along the outside of the walls. All completely uninsulated.
By the time the water started to warm up, there was very little left!
The fact that the bathroom was tacked on to the back of the house on a concrete slab and was completely unheated didn't help much either. That first winter we kept a little electric heater in there and took very short showers. When the pipes weren't frozen.
Add to that the vanity that sloped to the floor so all the water ran off, the awful tile board on the walls, and the terrible floor, it wasn't my favorite room in the house.
And I had just one word for the hallway. AWFUL.
About a hundred gallons of hot soapy water and a couple gallons of paint helped quite a lot, although the winters were still chilly! The hallway certainly became a new place with a coat of paint, a new floor, and a new light fixture. We also ripped out and replaced the broken down cabinet and the sheet rock (and some of the structural wall as well!) behind the water heater and built a new pantry (with a built-in litter box cubby underneath).
So much better now!
It wasn't until our 2nd year in the house (with a 6-month-old baby) that we were ready to completely redo the bathroom. Since it is the only bathroom in the house, this was a major problem! I took the baby to visit my parents for 4 weeks while Steve started demolition. He had it almost done when we got back - I only had to run across the street to my neighbor's for 2 or 3 days before he got the toilet working. The shower took another week.
Steve took everything out except the tub. Then he
ripped out the old linoleum, cut through the walls, ran brand new
plumbing from the water heater across the ceiling of the hallway, and
through the walls of the bathroom. All insulated. We had hot water!
The holes in the walls and ceiling were all covered with crown molding
and baseboards. An electric heat mat with tile over top made for a
beautiful, WARM floor. New vanity, medicine cabinet, light fixtures, and all new hardware completed the new room. We thought about replacing the toilet while we were at it, but couldn't find another triangle tank to fit in the space!
It was a huge job!
However, the finished result was completely worth it! Although it is still a small room, it feels much brighter and more spacious now. And stepping out of a hot shower onto a toasty warm tile floor on a cold winter morning - heaven!
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