New Bathroom, not so easy...

So, about 6 months ago I decided our bathroom was starting to drive me crazy. Yucky dirty tile, a bath tub that would sink when filled with water, floors that were cracked and ugly (and not real tile, just the stick on stuff), plus mold all around the unsealed tub and tile, and nothing matched!

Well at the time we couldn't afford to spend a few hundred dollars to fix it. But about a month ago I decided I couldn't stand it anymore. As you can see in the pictures it was pretty bad. I felt bad bathing my kids in such a yucky tub.

So, I called up Dad and asked him how to start this project.

Day #1: Demolition Day!

I know it may sound weird but I had a lot of fun tearing out the walls of my bathroom. The hard part was getting it all cleaned up after it was all done.

Do you see the black stuff on the plastic? Yeah, that's mold! Gross! Day # 2: Fixing the plumbing for our new Faucet.

I pretty much stood and watched my dad do this, for a few hours.

Day # 3: Sheet Rock, Mud and Taping.

This of course took several days to allow drying time between each layer or mud and sanding before each layer.

Day #4: Securing the Tub and Tiling bath and silicone.

We picked just your standard square white tile, but added a little color with a strip of blue and white glass tile. (It doesn't look great in these pictures, but believe me it look awesome!)

Day #5: Removing Old Floor, Remove Toilet

I pulled up the old "tile" floor (which took a few hours) being very careful not to hurt the floor underneath so we wouldn't have to replace it.

Of course after Dad came over and removed the toilet we found that part of the floor was molded all the way through to the sub-floor. Lame! Which led us to...

Day #6: Cutting a big hole in the floor and replacing it with new, not moldy wood.

Luckily, Day #6 was a Saturday, so we (me and Dad) were able to fix the floor and get it tiled, all in one day! You wouldn't believe how long it takes to tile such a small area. Here I am putting adhesive on each of the tiles, after Dad cut them to size. Also, Dad got the walls re-textured to match the rest of the bathroom.

And Here is the floor all tiled and drying, waiting for grout.

Day #7 and #8: Painting!

Now this is something I could do all on my own. I painted the walls and ceiling a nice clean white that will resist water (good for steamy bathrooms). And I re-stained our yucky cabinets too. Now they look shiny and new... kind of. Let's just say they look better than before. And the walls don't have a blue tint to them anymore.

Day #9: Grout

Dad helped (mostly did it himself) me grout the bath and floor.

Day #10: Sealing the Grout, reinstalling toilet.

After the grout dries, you have to seal it so it resists water and stains. Yeah, no more going downstairs every time I need to use the bathroom.

Day #11: Base boards and finishing touches.

After a lot of work we finally got to put on the rubber base boards around the bathroom. Then install my new shiny towel racks and shower fixtures. Everything looks so awesome! I love my new bathroom! It all matches! We have fancy new tiles in the tub, nice tiles floors and matching accessories! I'm so happy it's done!

So, I'm sure we worked more days than I actually listed, and I'm sure there were lots of steps that I forgot we did throughout the whole process. So, my advice to anyone wanting to remodel their bathroom... Plan on a lot of hard work, get help from someone with experience, and plan on spending more money than you might think. There are always unexpected expenses. But, in the end it is all worth it!

And even though I fell like I watched my Dad more than I worked... I had a lot of fun and I learned a lot! Maybe next time I want to remodel a bathroom, I can do most of the work myself.

Thank you Daddy for all of your hard work! I never could have done it without you!