Before & After: A Wildly Outdated (We’re Talking Shell Sinks Here) Bathroom Totally Transforms
Jesse’s bathroom was not only leaving a lot to be desired aesthetically, it had some major functionality issues as well. Once they decided to drag their bathroom kicking and screaming out of the dregs of the ’80s, they encountered a little bit more than they bargained for with the plumbing. In the end, however, living a shower-less life paid off as their bathroom is one heck of a stunner.
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From Jesse: Our bathroom was from the ’80s; almond toilet, bathtub and shower tiles (with floral printed tiles mixed in), faux brick tile floor, shell shaped sinks with silver sparkles in the counter swirl patterns, and the vanity was wood vinyl applied to press board. The windows were in such bad shape that they had to be covered over with drapes. There was no exhaust in the bathroom which caused lots of mold and mildew build up on the walls. There was an odd corner of the bathroom that was walled over to make the angle of the main wall make sense, but in turn created wasted open space behind the wall.
I hated the bathroom ever since I moved in 13 years ago, but I loved the rest of the condo. It’s a building that used to be an old mansion and is actually on the registry of National Historical Places. The condo is filled with beautiful tudor style wood work and crown molding in three rooms that unfortunately have been painted over for years and quite distorted (that’s my next project after my kitchen remodel). The condo is extremely spacious with an old layout of individual rooms for entertaining and has an immense amount of character. Last year our landlord finally allowed me to purchase the condo from him and I knew the first project was going to be gutting the bathroom!
The process was long and very intense. Being in a condo building, when things are found behind the walls they then have to be put in front of the association to decide how to be fixed, requiring multiple bids. Unfortunately with our building being so old, several issues were found with corroded and incorrectly installed pipes that needed to be repaired, that effected both the unit above and below me. Even to the point to where work had to be done in the unit below me to repair the pipes correctly. This created a huge delay which then put my contractor behind on his other projects, where then the labor had to split between other projects, causing even more of a delay!
The most difficult part of all of this was that I only have one bathroom so once the bathtub was removed we were without a shower for two and a half months. So then it was showering at friends and the gym for that duration, which was not fun. The entire project took three months to complete. My focus was on putting in a very clean, timeless look for the bathroom, making it sellable to anyone’s tastes. I also wanted to put in a really amazing large shower with several high quality shower heads to make it marketable while still removing the bathtub. So that said, some of those areas I spent more than I needed, but I looked at it as a very good investment. In the end the project ended up costing me around $34,500.
I am absolutely obsessed with everything I did with my bathroom and would not change a thing! The transformation is huge and actually increased my square footage, with removing some of the walls to make a bigger shower, the built-in storage and drop down hamper. People that come and see it really can not believe the change. I love every single thing from the caesarstone, to the custom built-in, to the toilet, to the huge shower with insane shower heads, to all of the accessories that I paired with everything! Absolutely in LOVE and SOOO HAPPY!!!
Jesse’s words of wisdom: My only advice is that it all adds up quickly and that plan on it taking twice as long as it should! Seriously, I thought going into this that it would take no more than two months and that it would cost half as much. Stick it out and you will be thrilled you did in the end!
Thank you, Jesse!