"Bathroom Renos"

I've only been in my house since the end of August 2010. I was extremely lucky to find an amazing tenant for my basement who moved in a few days after I did. Unfortunately, she had to move out recently to be there for her family in a time of need. This gave me the opportunity to look at doing my bathroom in the basement.  Something I have wanted to do since before I had moved in. But thinking I wouldn't be doing for a few years given all the things I had to do to the house exterior. More on that later.

All of this has to go. My tenant so lovingly pointed out to me how freezing the bathroom is in the winter. Well, I found out that would come from the lack of insulation on that exterior wall. In the many weeks I have been thinking of what kind of layout and fixtures would work, I realized to keep a tub in my house I'd have to add one downstairs, as my upstairs bathroom is so tiny.

That tub needs to go, so worn, so tired, so stained. However any new tub would not fit in this space. So shower it is. But that darn window. How do I get glass doors and shower door opening to work in this space? After much searching and googling, I found an Ove Decors Shower, only distributed by Costco. Thanks Teen, allowing me to be your guest. Super good buy at less than $700.

Now with that decision, how do I get a tub and which tub in the downstairs bathroom? I want a separate tub and shower, but again how to fit in this space? Thanks to my tenant and her step-dad who works at Best Plumbing, I learned about an awesome show room for everything bathroom. And in the sale section I found an awesome Neptune Bora Corner Tub that doesn't look like your typical corner tub, and it has air jets.  Mmmmmm.

The shower I already knew which one it would be by my many trips to Rona; a smaller glass shower, that's a bit bigger than just a square one, would work and be all I needed : Ove Shower at Rona.  Never, ever, wanted a neo angle. If there's no room for me in one, there's no way anyone would be comfortable using one daily, was easy, but it's placement, not so much. It will entail knocking out a closet, which happens to have the only basement floor drain inside. Can you say, breaking concrete? Cha-ching! Gotta move that drain to laundry room next door.

But if I'm going to do it, I may as well do it the way I want the first time. So that means I'm going to make the bathroom bigger, more knocked out walls, pushing about 16" into a bedroom, and making the bathroom a bit wider, especially to add that insulation and having space to get into that soaker tub.

I found the sweetest 4.5L/3L low flush Johnson Suisse Cottage Toilet at Best Plumbing.  Adding much needed storage thanks to IKEA and it's 15" depth Lillangen Cabinets. An above counter Glacier Bay Sink thanks to Home Depot, and glass tile up the ying-yang! If the luxury bathroom upstairs can never be, I will have one, and downstairs it shall go. Now to get it done, and in time to catch students for a renter. Timeline and amount of work needed for structure; poor electrical, plumbing needing to be moved, and yes even a water meter that needs to be moved; the end of August is not so likely.

Site measure was to be done today, but once he got here, and all the plumbing and electrical needs, he has to bring reinforcements Tuesday. So the adventure continues. Finishes and fixtures chosen and purchased, with layout complete, getting it done is the next challenge.