Welcome to Week 2 of the Fall 2021 One Room Challenge. Where my goal is to take our girls hardworking bathroom that was stuck in the 90’s to a whimsical and feminine space with plenty of room for the three girls that share it. Let me start you off with a few before pictures of the room we’re remodeling.

Here you can see the 90’s era builders grade cabinets and the doors falling a part. What you can’t see are the faucets are almost impossible to turn on, the finish is ruined and the Corian is chipped and discolored. Those prints though…those are coming back.
I’m not a fan of medicine cabinets-especially ones that look bolted onto the side of a wall. I’m also not a fan of towel bars in kid’s bathrooms. They never hang their towels nicely so why do we try to make them. Hooks work best for kids.
This bathroom is Jack and Jill style with one entry from the hall that serves two bedrooms (Kate and Evie’s) and another entry directly into Sienna’s bedroom. This is the hall door. You can see how the bathroom is sectioned off if you go back to last weeks floorpan.
This never looks nice. I’m also sad that I didn’t get a picture of the linen cabinet that was opposite the toilet with a soffit on top. If you look closly enough you can see there used to be sliding doors on this fiberglass surround. They were removed long before we moved in but the silicone from the slider was still on the fiberglass and so were the holes from the fasteners.

Have you ever remodeled a bathroom from start to finish with your own hands?

If you have you probably believe this is where the saying, “blood, sweat and tears came from.” Demoing anything is no joke. I remember it was the beginning of July when Mike and I tore the roof off of our last house to add a second story (in Southern California you might as well be standing on the surface of the sun) and I could feel the soles of my shoes melting (yes, I actually was wearing shoes) into the asphalt shingles.

Demoing isn’t fun, sure you get some stress out but that stress is quickly replaced by new stress, the, “WTF did I just get myself into?” creeps in pretty quickly when you start tearing sh*t apart.

A good before and after always begins with
a little bit of demolition. Right?

For only reasons Mike knows, he had the sawzall with him at work. So when I decided to demo this bathroom I wasn’t going to let that hold me back. I used a skill saw and cut the surround into manageable pieces and removed as much as I could.

In case you ever need to remove one of these things, be aware there is a flange that sits just behind the drywall and is attached to the wall studs with screws or nails.

In remodels there are always surprises. Like this beam that the plumbing sits in front of. We need to reroute the plumbing some how so that we don’t have to build the toilet wall wall out or the shower floor up. I plan on adding a shower ledge to the window wall so we are going to try and reroute the vents and plumbing through there.
This is where the soffit and old linen cabinet were. You can tell when I removed it that it didn’t serve any purpose. The builder/designer chose to add this in. I won’t throw any shade though because I did this too back in the day. And there’s the door to Sienna’s room.

Then Mike came home. He was surprised. I think he was happy he didn’t have to do the demo. Although I’m absolutely certain he would be happier if I hadn’t done the demo and the bathroom wasn’t touched at all.

Mike would love it if I were into some other hobby but I’m not. Projects/remodels/custom building makes me happy. I can’t help it. In the immortalizing words of Lady Gaga, “I was born this way.” He shrugs his shoulders and starts his part. Plumbing, electrical, rough framing, he’s in.

Rebuilding and Dealing with the Surprises

Here’s an up-close view of the shower drain situation and how we are rerouting it. You can see the cold/hot water copper supply pipes to the left. Those we will cut down below the floor and re-routed through the shower ledge wall we are building on the new floor plate you see with the two holes for the vent pipes to route through.
Here’s the finished shower ledge.

The two 2×4’s on the top of the new shower ledge aren’t absolutely necessary but Mike likes to frame walls with double top plates. So, if you frame your own shower ledge or pony wall and don’t do a double top plate it’s not really a bid deal, it’s not like the roof is sitting on it.

Here’s the new drain situation behind the bathroom sink locations. I also added a wall here that will serve as a ledge behind the sinks. Above you can see the holes were the new hidden cabinets I’ll be building will go recessed in to the wall behind each mirror over each sink.

This all took place a couple of weeks before the challenge started. The last week Mike hasn’t been home and if you follow me on Instagram you probably have seen me installing the tile in the shower a little bit each day. Next week I’ll talk about the shower water proofing method we are using and reveal the tiled shower on the blog. In the meantime here’s some more photos of the last month of progress.

Proof of rats and the discovery of where all the lost socks go.
From left to right working clockwise: Mike drilled a hole for the “old work box” for the new sconces; Notched hole for the sconces; Rerouted the electrical to bring power in to each new medicine cabinet behind the sinks and the sconces between the mirrors – he also removed the electrical going to the upper wall light; He installed and wired two new can lights – this bathroom was always so dim before – at night it was impossible to see anything; new 2-gang light switch (using an “old work box”) to accommodate the new ceiling lights.

For anyone who is still trying to figure out what the One Room Challenge is, follow that link and check it out. Linda has done an amazing job creating this challenge and keeping it going through the years and I’d like to give her a shout out and a thank you for doing it. I’d also like to thank Better Homes and Gardens who consistently shows up every year as our media partner. Special shout out to all those who are Featured Designers for this round, as many of them have done several ORC’s throughout the years. And also a sweet salute to my fellow Guest Participants who are here to complete our rooms and support each other along the way.

And if you’ve made it this far and are still looking for more, click around to some of my past ORC’s.

Similar Posts

3 Comments

  1. Seeing a full bathroom remodel on the ORC is inspiring. It’s a huge undertaking. I’ve said it before, I’m loving that you’re making your house work for you. 3 girls sharing a bath and there’s 3 sinks and 3 cabinets.

    Reply

  2. Wow! Great progress! My husband also questions my renovation hobby lol I thought you were doing a makeover on your bathroom but your actually doing a full gut renovation! You go girl!

    Reply
  3. Pingback: Girls Shared Bathroom Reveal with Three Sinks | Hambel’s Get Real

I promise to reply if you do!