First Floor Bathroom Project - Preconstruction

On top of all the other projects we have going, we've decided to rework the first floor bathroom as well. The bathroom is not very big (maybe 8x8x10), but has seen a number of configurations over the years. When the house was a two family place, this was the primary residence bathroom. There was a tub, sink and toilet in what must have been a very tight space.

At some point in the 80s, probably when the house was converted back to a single family house, the bathroom was reworked. The tub was removed and the old sink and toilet fixtures were replaced. A vanity was installed on the west wall and a newer toilet installed on the north wall. We think the toilet probably has always been where it is (after all, who wants to move around cast iron pipe), but we know that where the vanity is (under the window) is where the tub used to be and the south wall had the sink.

Making this room all that much smaller was a bumpout on the south wall. It stuck out about 2 feet and was about 7 feet long. The bumpout houses the main sewer stack for the second floor, along with water supply and a decommissioned gas line (presumably for when there used to be a kitchen on the 2nd floor). It also housed the medicine cabinet over the sink.

We've already removed the bumpout. While we've determined there is no reasonable way to completely do away with it, we do believe that we can make it much, much smaller than it used to be. We're going to install a pedestal sink along side the toilet on the north wall. We're planning on replacing the sagging floor and putting 1" octagonal white tile with occasional cobalt blue accents. We'll put a bead board wainscoting on the lower half of the wall. The area above the wainscoting will be painted a light blue and the lower half will be white.

At least, that is the plan now...

Here are some photos of the bathroom before the work starts. Unfortunately, I forgot to take pictures until after I had already removed the toilet. Also, we removed the bumpout well over a year ago.

	This is a view from in the bathroom of the south east wall. On the right you can see the exposed area where the bump out used to be. On the left, the door. Mark has already started stripping the door trim (though we will be painting this, we figured it was best to get back down to the wood first).
	This is a view of the west wall and the vanity. This is where the tub used to be 20 years ago. The drawers have already been taken out in preparation to remove the vanity.
	This shows the north west corner. You can see some of the existing floor tile. To the right of the picture is all that remains of the toilet.
	Here is a picture of the north east corner. You can see more floor tile, the HVAC vent and the the toilet mount.
	Finally, here again is the north east corner, but the upper area. The electric blue is relatively recent - we did it as a test a few months back. We were looking at potential blues. Suffice to say that once we tested it, it didn't make the final cut.

Last updated June 8, 2001