Thursday, December 30, 2010

The Guest Bathroom Remodel: Day 1

It seems to have become a tradition that the week between Christmas and New Years is some sort of remodeling project for Teddy and I.  Last year it was the basement and the remodel that spurred this blog.  This year we decided to tackle the guest bathroom.  It's probably the smallest project we have on our list, so we thought it would be something we could definitely get done in the few days we had between the holidays.  This is more of a cosmetic remodel than a major bathroom overhaul.  We're keeping the tub, toilet, vanity, mirror, but changing the light/fan fixture, doors, trim, paint, toilet seat, faucet, towel bars, toilet paper holder and doing some caulking repair. 

Here are some before pictures.

The trim around the windows is what we'll be switching the doors to.  We're going to be bringing in some color vs. the now white and yellowish cream color


Check out these original doors from 1971. 

Here's another original gem from '71 that is going bye bye

Day 1 was started by shopping for everything we needed for the remodel.  We hopefully got just about everything we needed and won't need too many follow up trips to the Home Depot or Menard's to finish it out.  We're doing the whole remodel for less than $1,500 with the highest cost items being the doors for the bathroom and linen closet, which with the trim, nails and other items needed were a little over $600.  So, close to half our cost.

When we got home we got to work getting started on what I thought would be the most challenging part of the remodel, the light fixture.  Since it has a fan in it, and the housing for the new one is smaller than the old, we would need to drywall part of the ceiling.  Plus anything with electrical makes me nervous.  Here's Teddy working on taking out the old one.



He ended up having to climb up in the attic to get it completely out and make sure the fan connection was in there right.

Here it is with the old fixture completely out.  That electrical box was a mess, and Teddy did some work to clean it up.

Here he is with the much more organized wiring getting ready to install the new light

He got the new housing up and in, and at this point was climbing up to the attic to connect the fan output to the white duct work that you see in this picture.  But you can also see here the giant hole in the ceiling that is from the old light.

Teddy then cut a piece of drywall to fit in the space perfectly

And began mudding over it.  It's already looking pretty good!

Here is the housing after one coat of mud on the new drywall. 

After finishing that we decided to call it a night while we waited for the mud to dry on that and the other spackling that was needed on the walls. 

Day 2 is up next.  Demo!

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