We are 98% done. Still to do is...caulk trim, touch up paint, install DD's mirror, seal grout, install cabinet pulls, buy new rugs and towels. We will install shower doors when we find a good deal. Until then the kiddos will have to make do with dollar store curtains.
Sorry...some of the photos are large despite my attempts to resize them.
DS's tub before...
After...
DS's sink before
DS's sink after
DD's closet before
DD's new shower, with bench and nook
DD's sink (not pictured!!!) before was pickled, with old sink and formica
DD's sink after refinishing
DD/DS Jack & Jill bathroom before
New wall - now 2 separate full bathrooms (picture of new wall!)
This is what we found under the wallpaper.
1 1/2 buckets of spackle later, all the corners in walls and ceilings repaired.
I also had to repair the ceiling where a new duct and new exhaust fan were added.
There was much more repair work on the drywall than we had anticipated. Turns out that I can do it...but I am slow...and the sanding is hard to do on the ceilings...DH had to do that for me.
Basically, DH did all the tear-out, roughing in and prep work for the new fixtures. He did the electrical and arranged for the rough plumbing. He sized and cut the tile, installed the new fixtures and new exhaust fans. I did all the scraping (wallpaper and popcorn ceiling), spackle, repair work and paint on the walls and ceilings. I laid the tile and grouted, refinished and stained the cabinets.
Lessons learned from project...
*There is very little we can not learn to do well. Other than the rough plumbing and HVAC work, we did it all.
*Always go slightly darker on grout color. The sealer will darken it a bit, but we really liked the color of the grout while wet, and it dries much lighter.
*Be picky about things like nooks and tile arrangement. It is best to plan early where the tile will lay so as to avoid small pieces.
*DH did a better job than I thought he could with the roughing in. When it came time to lay the tile, the bench and nooks were perfectly in line with the tile and I didn't have to make any major adjustments (any minor adjustments are not noticeable in the finished product).
*Wallpaper hides very bad things. Never plan a time-line or budget until the paper is down and you can see what you are really dealing with.
*There is not enough lotion or gloves that can keep your hands/nails looking nice while you do a project like this.
*Plan to replace the door
and window trim if it is old. We replaced the door trim, left the window trim. With everything else being new, the window trim stands out as being old.
*I can realistically only work 3-5 hours a day on big projects. Any more than that and we are eating out everyday and digging through the hamper to find socks. I just was not able to keep up with the household while dedicating so many hours to this project. The kids still have homework and other things must be tended as well.
*Trust DH to pick some things like paint colors and tile...but also know that he doesn't always look at details. I had to push to get the nooks and bench built just so...but he was very capable of doing it, he probably wouldn't have worried about having everything lined up as much as I did.
*It is possible to drive DH crazy with the details and wanting everything 'just so'. The poor man's head was spinning with all the detail I wanted...some of which may have been unnecessary in the end.
Overall, it went fairly well. It took much longer than we planned and we are very glad to be done. If we can't find a great deal on shower doors in the next few weeks, we will probably just belly up and pay for them as we don't want to go too long without. About half way through the project we declared ourselves CRAZY for tearing out 2 bathrooms at once. What were we thinking??? However, by the end we had realized that if we had done only one, we most likely would have waited before doing the other...and so many of the items (plumbing, exhaust fans, wall) had to be done in both at once...it was best to do it all at the same time.
Now we can relax...and be jealous of the kid's bathrooms...they are much nicer than ours!! DH and I are already talking about bumping our bathroom up on the project list...maybe in the spring. :misc5: