But besides that, we’ve just been using our bathroom as is, making mental notes of what we someday wanted to do. As the list grew, we knew our budget would have to, too. Because the list started including things that were beyond the scope of DIY. Major plumbing projects like moving toilets across the room and nixing tubs in favor of multiple shower heads. So we waited and waited and this year, we’re celebrating 5 years in our home by knocking out the last room on our list, the master bathroom–at last.
(this photo is the same angle as the one above it)
One big lesson we learned this week is you can plan and prepare for years, and there will still be 150 decisions you have to make every day–even if you aren’t the one necessarily swinging the hammer. And a lot of them have to be made on the spot. Quickly. It’s exciting and crazy and exhausting. For the sake of summary, in my mind, there were three curveball decisions made this first week–one by us, one by the contractors, and one by the plumber…that is gonna have to get fixed.
1. The curveball decision we made
Mid last week, after they had the walls down, they ran into a few snags with the plumbing layout. In the toilet closet, Where the toilet would fall was right on a thick floor joist. It needed moved forward 4 inches. Which made our shower 4 inches smaller. (I initially thought this had to do with our plumbing for the sinks having to be built out, as well, but they are separate). After standing in the area by ourselves, and with each other and with a measuring tape and squinting, we decided to bump out the wall into our bedroom 4 inches–which is basically the thickness of the wall. To some it may sound extreme. But to us, the wall is coming down anyway to house a pocket door, and we’ve come this far. Why not keep our grand shower as grand as we wished it to be. The final shower will be 60″ wide x 48″ deep.
2. The curveball decision our contractors made
We decided not to do a steam shower a couple weeks ago. Mostly because of a tile conflict, but also three shower heads in a 5 foot area felt like it would get steamy enough. Still! Making sure our shower had enough water pressure and power and heat to it has been the name of the game all week. Two days ago, I overheard them saying, “we’re going to have to take down the ceiling.” And sure enough, a portion of the ceiling from our utility room, down the hall and into the girls’ bedroom came down so they could run the appropriate pipes–a necessity! Part of the wall in the girls’ bedroom also came down and it’s fascinating to me how this house of ours is all connected.
Sometimes, right now, it feels like every inch of the house is in shambles, but it also makes me grateful we hired this out. How scary it would have been if we had to make the decision to take down a bunch of the ceiling and the wall in the girls’ room. I don’t know if I could!
3. The curveball decision our plumber made
Because we’re running so much water to our shower, the drain pipe has to be 3″ instead of a standard 1.5″. They warned us a few days ago, a p-trap might not make the angle in the floor joists which would mean we may have to add an extra drain to the shower or the other option would be the trap would have to be concealed somehow from below?
Yesterday afternoon, we learned our plumber (who is a genius! but definitely puts plumbing over everything else) went the route of–not my problem. There is a p-trap hanging down from the ceiling in the girls’ room!
Hahaha What?! He was thinking we could just drop the ceiling there. I can’t even wrap my head around that, but we’re talking with them tomorrow about making the switch to two drains if need be.
All in all, it’s been a whirlwind first week, and my fingers are crossed that we’re still on schedule to finish by the month mark, but it’s hard to tell right now. Is this the hardest part? Moving all these pipes around? It feels like it could be.
I’m also taking notes and working on a post about living through a renovation. If you have any pro tips to share, leave them in the comments below! I’d love to add them to a post with credit.
36 COMMENTS
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Catherine Olney
9 mins ago
Amazing home and this is wonderful! Finding such a beautiful home in an established neighborhood! These are the homes Americans are looking to raise families in. Keep up the good work in guiding us thru renovations, the good and the ugly! Oh and the drain pipe, keep it the way it is, the plumber knows best! I am sure you will think of something, it’s such a little thing in the big picture. These are the BEST days of your lives! Thanks for sharing!
Catherine -
Cover everything in your house with blankets, plastic or anything you have that drapes over furniture and decor that is not easy to dust. no matter what there will be dust in the air from some work they do.
Add 7 to 10 days to your expectations of finished job.
Monitor that works they do at end of each day. Even though we had a very reliable contractor, there were little things that were done and not done that we caught at end of reno and didn’t want to call them back. ( Outlets above sink in wall were installed upside down. The more we showered, the more we saw some grout dripping, which indicated they did not seal the tile. Honest mistake, one thought the other did it
If your contractor says he is not comfortable installing something I E colon the flooring you picked out, trust him and get the installer from flooring store you purchased from.
Hope that you aren’t sick while they are there like I was, laying on the couch with influenza for two of the five weeksthey were working, they probably thought I was the laziest person in the world.
Good luck and keep your sense of humor -
So many on the fly moments! I’m sure it will be fabulous!
The only thing though is all that extra water that will be wasted and the environmental impact it has in the long run. Take short showers ? -
OMG. I can’t imagine what I would say to a plumber who did that. That is literally ridiculous and I think it would be hard for me to not seriously question his judgement going forward. “Not my problem” mindset on a construction project is a really, really problematic sentiment. Kudos to you for taking it in stride!
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It took to contractors and three and a half months to finish one bathroom between the plumbing and the tiling and painting and nothing was done right except taking out everything to the Bone putting up new walls and putting in the shower floor and the tile floor in the rest of the bathroom. I’m an old fashioned girl I like tile rather than those walls the all in one piece you know what I mean lol. Anyway two months later the grout is starting to come out of the tile walls in the corners, the toilet kind of leans an eighth of an inch on an angle, the towel holders and toilet paper holders we’re all put in wrong I had to redo them myself and the caulking around my beautiful frameless glass doors you could just pull it off!! The first contractor did everything so poorly and he was here a month that it all had to be ripped out and he ripped us off for thousands and thousands of dollars and the second one before he finished the bathroom just left without getting paid his last $400. Meanwhile we need master bathroom done and I’m petrified of what’s going to happen and these are reputable people who are licensed. Go figure. Needless to say I hope everything for you goes better than its going now I love to hear the update.. I wish I could do it all myself. Because I don’t think anybody really cares anymore about their work. If it’s a little difficult and they have to go out of their way they rather not do it or they’ll charge you an arm and a leg. Well that’s my story anyway. Good luck
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OMG – I think I would have flipped out on that plumber!! 🙂
Must keep a sense of humor when remodeling. Thank you for sharing it all.
Love the nitty-gritty, makes me miss major demos – NOT 😉
I can’t even repaint my kitchen cabinets, I’ve changed my color scheme more than once since I started dreaming about it. Maybe, just maybe you’ll give me the inspiration to just get it done this summer 🙂 -
Oh my gosh that trap coming out of the ceiling! Hahaha! Face palm.
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I am super impressed with how you are dealing with the P-trap/ceiling situation… I would be losing it BIG TIME.
But really, how does the plumber think that anyone, let alone a client with the most perfect pinch-pleated pink linen curtains, would we okay with a large PVC pipe poking out of their ceiling!?!? -
Have our bathroom done now and yes there are always new problems. Lucky we were out if town for demo so contractor made the right decisions. Should have been down yesterday but three out of the four plumbing fixtures were missing something out of box! Having to have wood floors refinished to clean drywall,grout and dust. Glad project is almost finished
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Have you ever thought about building your next house from scratch? We’re doing it right now and it’s SO fun. Just make it right the first time instead of buying and undoing all the bad stuff to make it howtou want.
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Welcome to the world of remodeling. My husband and I went for a remodel of the master bath and bedroom and all I can tell you is be prepared to be delayed to have things change and push it out to 3 weeks easily. We had to have the whole house replumbed then they started on the bathroom. Of course are issues with plumbing pipes and where something is situated, Add all the people walking in-and-out of my house all day long with the plumbers, The title guys, the countertop installers, the wallpaper hangers and the carpet layers and finally the painters. The amount of dust that spreads to the house no matter what you do is always going to be there Spent more time dusting and vacuuming then I care think about. But in the long run it was well worth it. I get more compliments on my bathroom I had a decorator come in for the blinds and such and take pictures of it and then she asked me who the decorator was and I said ME!
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OMG the p-trap in the bedroom!! Hilarious! I vote you cut a disco ball in half, glue it to the ceiling, and call it a day 😉
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Maybe the plumber wanted to add a water feature or noise machine to the girl’s room. Sounds like a generous and thoughtful guy to me!
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I know your contractor will be patching all these holes in your ceiling but could you do a tutorial and review of how it looks after patching? I want to make changes to my house but I’m so scared of patched ceilings looking bad.
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Oh my goodness that is hilarious! And annoying, hah. A good tip and something we always do is use painters plastic to tape off areas of the home that will not be affected by the reno to help keep dust, particles, whatever out. An air purifier can help, which I think you have. And then the number one thing after reno wraps – well, I guess number 2 after ya’ll enjoy that shower – is to change the air filters in the house. We’re always surprised how much has built up. Hang in there!
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Ahh!! So exciting!! And also crazy to think that you’re only renovating the bathroom but so much is happening throughout the rest of the house too! Can’t wait to see the end result
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My husbands a plumber and made the decision that thered be a piece about the size of yours sticking out of the top of our wall in our only bathroom. ? i have yet to figure out how to hide it! Argh.
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This is a very timely project for me to follow along with, as we are in the midst of renovating our master bathroom! We are taking one large bathroom, and making it a small guest/kids bathroom and a small en suite. I was hoping we would hire out the job, but alas we are doing it ourselves! It may be salt on the wounds to see how quickly your crew overtakes us!
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I am laughing at the plumbers decision. Although, it is not funny at all.
Those of us who have done retro reno’s certainly understand.
My hubby who knows nothing about reno since I am always the contractor always tells me-oh just go or be gone when they are there. Perfect example of why we sometimes needs to micro-manage.
AND YES, do the dust removal. Otherwise it lingers everywhere for weeks and weeks -
I can’t believe the plumber just cut a hole in the girls’ ceiling and left that pipe hanging down! How is that okay? Hang in there – it’s going to be great when it’s done!
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I can’t get over your plumber’s decision to just drop a gigantic P trap through the ceiling! Who wants a weirdo bump out like that in a bedroom?! That’s such an amazing example of ‘not my problem’
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After each renovation we’ve done, we had a team come in for dust removal. They use super, super powerful vacuums and vacuum every surface, crevice, furniture and upholstery item, and HVAC. It’s priceless. Otherwise you will be dealing with residual dust for weeks. It’s anout $500 – $700 in our part of the country, but so worth it.
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Lol what?! How could your plumber think that “just lower the ceiling in the bedroom” was an acceptable solution?? Too funny. Love the updates!
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Why didn’t he just ask you??? I primarily work at home & my favorite contractors/subs have been the ones who are not afraid to just ASK ME what to do when they come to a decision point. Bonus points if they have a specific recommendation & can tell me why they think it should be one way vs another.
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I love hearing about t he bathroom and all, but what I really need to know is where to find those shoes!
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hey guys, I cannot wait to see the final project as it unveils… good luck and greetings from Bucharest, Romania! 😉
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Prepare for the dust that comes with dry wall repair and sanding. If you can get another air purifier for the basement, that might help. That is my least favorite part of the construction process — all if the dust. But, this is all really exciting. It will be worth it when it’s done!