Bathroom Redo - Part 1

Two years ago, I redid my master bathroom. I put in a new sink and vanity, took out the old vinyl flooring, put down ceramic tile, and installed new baseboards and trim. It was a fun project and it turned out great. There were a few surprises, but overall, it went pretty much as planned so ever since I finished it, I've been wanting to redo my powder room downstairs. I figured this would be a snap - tiny room and the only real upgrade was to the vanity and sink. (I initially thought about redoing the floors, but they were in good shape, I liked the color, and wasn't up for removing and then replacing all the woodwork which a new floor would require.)  Here's the bathroom before the remodel:

 

Not hideous by any stretch, but the vanity really bugged me because it was the same as my kitchen cabinets. I had the same situation in my master bath when I moved in. Basically, the builder used the same stuff in the kitchen and both baths. Nice 1980s formica with wood trim. The vanity and sink were in good shape but they were definitely due for an upgrade. And I hated the dirt-cheap faucet. Seriously, it looked like something from a cheap motel.

I sort of started the project on a whim one Friday night. I hadn't planned the project completely but went into the bathroom and started to remove the backsplash and the woodwork that surrounded the vanity. Then one thing led to another and suddenly I was here:



So a few surprises...

1) No tile under the vanity - just bare concrete
2) A trough/borderline hole behind the old backsplash
3) Unpainted drywall behind the vanity
4) Mold leftover from an old leak (I checked to be sure the leak wasn't current and, thankfully, it wasn't)

Already I knew this would be far more work than I'd anticipated but I still couldn't know the full extent.

The first thing I had to do was cut out the old moldy drywall and replace it. I'd never done this before but I'd taped and spackled before so I understood the process. Of course, I didn't have the right tools to cut drywall but I was able to sweet talk a guy at Home Depot into cutting me the relatively small pieces I needed. (This may actually be a service HD offers - I'm not sure. All I know is I told the guy my sob story and he cut away.)

Once I got the drywall in place and everything had dried, I patched up the other holes, spackled, sanded, primed, and - at long last - painted the new area + about 6" all around. I also took the opportunity to touch up a few other places since I had the painting supplies out.

Last of the patching...


I was so excited Saturday night when I finished the last of the patching, sanding, and painting. Sunday morning I would put in the new trim (which was already purchased and cut to size) and then I'd go vanity shopping. Installing it would be cake so I felt like the hardest part - and the surprises - were behind me.

Not so. I walked into the bathroom Sunday morning and discovered that the new paint was a noticeably different hue from the old paint. Even though it was the same color from the same can of paint. I guess the paint had darkened over the last 5+ years because the new paint was definitely lighter. So I set about repainting the entire bathroom, and then touching up the trim and ceiling where I got green paint on white.

Once I repainted everything and it was dry, I began installing the new trim. It was time consuming but relatively painless - once I recut the pieces, of course. I had measured before going out to buy the trim. I don't have a saw other than a hack saw and figured it would be easier to cut the trim to the right size at HD since they have a whole workbench/measuring tape/saw station set up. Somehow I mismeasured pretty significantly, though, and had to break out the ol' hacksaw at home to trim the trim. What a nightmare.

Trim installed - waiting for putty to dry


This picture also shows the ace job I did on finding suitable tile to go over the bare concrete. Since my new vanity was going to be slightly smaller than the (irregularly sized) old one, I knew I had to put something underneath so you wouldn't see bare concrete. The floor in the powder room is original to the house (1984) and there was no way I'd find an exact match. But this vinyl stick-on tile worked out pretty well.

Once I got all the woodwork painted, I was excited to bring home the vanity! But in keeping with the theme of this project, it wasn't quite as simple as I'd imagined...

[Stay tuned for part 2!]