“Six weeks seems like a long time until you’re knee deep – literally – in broken tile and busted up drywall.”
THIS is Season 6 of the Jeffrey Court Fall Renovation Challenge, where we will renovate our kid’s full bathroom… taking it from an outdated, carpeted, builder-grade bath to a functional, beautiful oasis where my boy-girl siblings can fight over counter space in style!
14 contestants – 1 grand prize winner – YOU get to choose!
I have been dropping hints on IG for months, and I finally get to let the cat out of the bag! That secret that I’ve been SO excited about? This is it! I was chosen to participate in a home renovation challenge sponsored by Jeffrey Court, FrogTape, and Wagner SprayTech. Eek! Along with 13 other talented designers, we will transform a room in our home in just 6 weeks! I have always wanted to learn to tile, and what better way to learn than to demo an ENTIRE bathroom!
Come behind the scenes with me on INSTAGRAM, where I will show you live video of the entire process. Then, hop over to the blog for a weekly breakdown of our progress. Lastly, head over to the Jeffrey Court Site and VOTE VOTE VOTE for our design along the way! The design that YOU – the voters – choose will win a grand prize of $5,000!
You have the chance to vote once a day EVERY day, from each internet-accessible device you own. Your cell phone, tablet and computer? Absolutely! And don’t worry… I’ll remind you 🙂
Let’s get this thing started…
WEEK 1
THE BEFORE
Our kid’s bathroom is small, and I can’t do much about that, but we can upgrade the space to better suit their needs. The biggest offense in this bathroom, in my humble opinion, is the carpet in the sink area. Eew. That’s got to go. The second big thing we want to change is the tub. Both of my kids take showers, but my son doesn’t like that the current shower is closed off by the shower curtain (hello claustrophobia) and I need a handheld sprayer for my two-year-old daughter. Last but not least, the builder-grade counter, vanity, and mirror. Our house was built in 1994, so it’s just time for a refresh. We have slowly but surely been updating the rest of the house and now this bathroom is going to get some major TLC.
THE PLAN
As much as I wanted to try a patterned tile or a black herringbone floor, we decided to go with a classic design so that the bathroom is timeless. This is the only other full bath in the house, so we wanted it to be comfortable for guests as well as for our kids. We plan on using some fun, bright accessories for now, but these will be able to be easily changed as they grow older.
We will be:
- Ripping out the tub and installing a shower
- Tiling the floors
- Putting in a new countertop
- Painting the vanity
- Building shaker style doors and drawer fronts
- Installing all new hardware – faucets, mirrors, towel and toilet paper holders, and lighting
DEMO
It’s demo day! Demo week actually… welcome to the chaos and the fun! We all know DIY is 50/50, or maybe 60/40 depending on the project!
Before we begin, lets talk tools. Many different tools can be used for demo, but here’s a great list of items to have on hand:
- Hammer
- Rubber Mallet
- Sledgehammer
- Scraper
- Crowbar
- Oscillating Multitool
- Reciprocating Saw
- MUST HAVE – PPE – Personal Protective Equipment: equipment worn to minimize exposure to hazards that cause serious workplace injuries and illnesses. For removal of tile and drywall, I highly recommend ear protection, eye protection, a respirator made to block out fine particles of dust, work gloves (Firm Grip are my go-to!), and steel toe shoes (Find my Cat Footwear shoes HERE)
The first step in any good renovation is ripping out what’s there. I started out easy, taking down the shelves, the hardware, and the shower curtain. Then I tackled the vanity… removing the doors and drawers and taking out all the contents to prepare for paint. Hubs took out the toilet and turned off the plumbing so we could remove the shower fixtures.
My last endeavor was the bathtub. We are converting the tub to a stand-up shower, so everything had to go… the tile, the drywall and the actual bath tub. Removing the tile started out slowly but eventually I found my groove and got a little more aggressive, and it all started coming down easily.
Let’s dig into each section separately!
THE BASICS
When removing hardware, shelving, etc, I did my best not to do too much damage to the drywall. Anything is possible to patch, but the bigger the hole, the more involved the patchwork. I unscrewed each screw but left the anchors. Instead of trying to pull them out, I am going to push them IN to the drywall. In my experience, it is hard to smooth over a hole made by an anchor. If you pushthe anchor into the drywall and create a dent, you can then fill and sand the dent and it’s virtually invisible.
If you are using the same hardware after renovating, you’re in luck! No holes to fill… just paint over the anchors and you can replace the hardware once your fresh paint is good and dry. (Make sure you give at least 24 hours after painting before replacing hardware or if you ever try to change it out, the paint may stick to the hardware and rip off the top layer of paint and drywall with it if ever removed!)
THE VANITY
I will be painting the vanity and building shaker style doors and drawer fronts, so everything must come off! Taking the doors off the hinges is simple, but the drawer fronts are more challenging. The faux drawer fronts on the top were nailed on, so I used a rubber mallet to bang them loose from the inside, then a pry bar to get up under the edges and pop them off. The drawer fronts on the three center drawers are still attached for now. At first glance, I am concerned these are nailed AND glued, so we will deal with these another day. Although there wasn’t any damage to the pieces I have removed so far, I will not be reusing them, so if all else fails, I can cut them off if necessary. If you are keeping the doors and drawer fronts, try to be as gentle as possible. Any damage will have to be repaired!
THE TILE
To begin removing the tile, I scored the caulk all the way around the edges. I used a crowbar and a rubber mallet to remove all the outside pieces so that I had better access to the wall behind it. I tried to remove the rest of the tile using the same method, but the tiles were popping off one at a time. Which would be fine, it was just very time consuming. There was a layer of cement board over a layer of drywall, so I started cracking sections of tile with the sledgehammer and was able to pull down large sections with the cement board.
Once I had the tile removed, I used a hammer to bust through the drywall so I could see what was behind it. I knew there was electrical on the side closest to my son’s room, so I had to be extra careful around that and the plumbing. Then I used my reciprocal saw to cut through the remaining drywall and tear it down.
That’s all the demo we got through in the first week. This is the remaining demo:
- Hauling out trash
- Removing the tub
- Taking down the mirror and light fixture
- Removing trim
- Taking off the faucets and removing the countertop
- Ripping out the carpet and tile
I hope you’re enjoying seeing the process… come back next week for
- The remaining demo
- Plumbing: the plumber will be coming to rough in the new shower fixture and move the drain
I’m looking forward to sharing our progress in WEEK 2! Thank you for being here and following along!
Remember to hop on over to INSTAGRAM for behind the scenes video and DIY tips!
[…] week 1, you saw the hardware and accessories removed, shower walls come down, and the vanity doors come […]