The Builder and I are about to embark on another bathroom renovation, this time in our Master Bath. We've been putting it off for a good six months, but it really is time. No matter how much I bleach my shower, it looks gross in a matter of days. Plus we're worried about the structural beam getting damaged from water. In case you forgot, here's the bathroom at it's present state:
The shower in it's present state is 30" wide. It's TINY. Since it has to be gutted, we're widening it to 47". We're also putting in a shower niche for a more practical storage for shampoo bottles. Instead of glass blocks (I really, really won't be sad to see them go) there will be a solid wall so we can have dual shower heads. Say goodbye shower curtain that hides the ugliness behind it and hello to a glass shower door.
The first step was to decide on tile. I stalled here because I wasn't really impressed with the selection at either Lowe's or Home Depot. Then I happened on a local tile store and found this:
It may be hard to see in the photo, but these are large, rectangular tiles. And while I would love the diagonal (over and a herringbone) pattern, The Builder emphatically said no. Something about too many cuts, the expense of extra tile, blah blah blah (yep, that's what I heard after he said no, lol).
We also plan to run a band of decorative tile in a vertical stripe all the way up the middle of the back shower wall. The tile I fell in love with was on clearance that day, so we bought it. This will run through the niche as well:
I don't know if it's a good thing or a bad thing, but when I saw this tile, I knew it had to be my accent and we'd need to find a tile to coordinate with it (I suspect you're supposed to do it the other way around!). I was OK with the price, but when the cashier rang it up and it was 50% off (I literally spent $40 on one box and two extra sheets) I was beyond pleased!
Surprisingly, it was the shower floor tile that was the most difficult to decide on. We looked at a river rock style, but it was too dark. We looked at a "penny" style tile in gray, but the The Builder thought it looked too cheap. Then we came upon this octagon tile:
If you look closely, there's a band of dark tile sort of in the middle. On the left is a large tile, on the right is a smaller tile. We both agreed we like the larger tile better. This tile picks up the darker color in the accent tile, as well as coordinates with the carrera marble tiles in the wall.
The shower doors we're ordering custom from Home Depot. A little over $200 for a custom fit, frameless shower door is a good price. Before we can order it though, we have to rip out the old shower, replace all the damaged studs behind the wall, replace the cement board, drywall, build a new floor pan (thank goodness for YouTube videos!!) build the new wall and redo the plumbing - not necessarily all in that order! It's going to be a lot of work, but definitely worth it in the end.
Since this is our master bath, the full renovation will have to be done in stages. Here's the current plan:
- Shower renovation - we're hoping for a 6 week turn around, unless The Builder has to start working weekends again, then it could be longer
- Replace both vanities, which will include reworking the plumbing and adding more electrical (there is ONE plug in the whole bathroom, and it's not on my side). We estimate this to take about 3 weeks since we're purchasing vanities from Ikea (more on that in another post).
- Tub re-do. We're either going to refinish our existing tub, which we're not 100% excited about since the jets have recently started leaking rusty water even when we don't use them, or buy a updated tub from Restore, which still may need to be refinished. We're seriously leaning towards the second option, since we'd like a larger tub as well. I'm a bath girl!! We also want to do built in shelving behind the tub for decorative and storage purposes, as well as tear out the medicine cabinet and put in a recessed panel there as well. I don't have a time frame since I'm not 100% sure which option we'll go with
- Add a bathroom door! So we have an "open concept" master bedroom where there is no separate of space. I hate it. If I leave for work first, I have to tip toe in a dark bathroom to get ready with only the light of my cell phone to do my hair. If The Builder leaves first, there's no way he can be quiet, and I'm going to get woken up anyway. Plus if the kids are hanging out with us watching TV, I have to have them leave if we need to use our restroom, or go use our powder room toilet. Not practical. This should be a weekend job for The Builder and is last on the list of priorities.
Huge list when I look at it, but since we won't start a new phase until the first one is completed, it shouldn't be too bad. Famous last words...
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