bathroom work begins

With the electrician and plumbers scheduled to begin work this week, Ben spent this past weekend preparing the bathroom...

Demolition Day 1
The first step was removing the sheetrock on the walls. Because we are essentially gutting the space (you can read about the new bathroom layout here), Ben thought it would be easier for the plumber if he had full access to everything.
When he first started removing the tile he discovered that it actually wasn't installed directly on the sheetrock, but instead the previous owner had it installed on a board of masonite. This made the tile removal pretty simple..
but it did add an additional step. Once all of the masonite was removed Ben had to begin removing the actual walls.
Because we haven't discovered mold in any other areas of the house (shocking!) we were sure we would discover lots of different things growing behind the bathroom walls, but we were pleasantly surprised. Most of the mold was easily removed with the sheetrock and there were only a few moist areas left.
Also surprising? There was actual insulation in the walls! Yes it was in bad shape, crumbling in Ben's hands, but we had definitely expected the walls to be hollow since lots of older homes were built without.
By the end of the day Ben had gotten through the tub surround. He lined the walls with heavy plastic so he could take a much needed shower..

Demolition Day 2
Ben started off day 2 wanting to get through the rest of the sheetrock- including the ceiling.
Once Ben really started pulling things down it began to smell- and the dust was overwhelming.
When we met with the electrician last week we agreed that we could only do recessed lighting in the bathroom because the ceilings were so low, but I was thrilled to find out the previous owner had actually dropped the ceiling in front of the vanity and we really had 8 feet in there!
Once Ben shared that great news with me I immediately hit the internet in search for the perfect fixture!

Unfortunately our bathroom will probably look like a variation of the images above for the next week or so. The plumber is beginning today- he'll work on the shower set up and the electrician will be in later this week to figure out the lighting situation. We are scheduled to install the new Duroc and to begin tiling next weekend (we even have a little helper coming up!) Hopefully on Sunday we'll be able to set the new toilet so we're only without it for a few hours or so. When Ben and I were on our way to the YMCA to take showers last night (oh the joy of renovating!) he said he expects the entire bathroom to be usable by the end of next weekend. Expect more updates in the weeks to come!