Write From Karen

We have them.

I know it doesn’t look it? But the room is actually turning out to be bigger than I imagined. Of course, we don’t have the sink in there yet …

Still not crazy about the shower head on the back like that … but that’s as good as it gets, I’m afraid.

The construction guys taped off where our mirror will go …

Picture a small (think SMALL) sink/cabinet under the mirror. The electrician is supposed to come by tomorrow – we’re putting sconces on either side of that pretend mirror.

The guys also knocked out the back bathroom wall …

We’re moving that toilet and putting it up against the wall. The tub will go back in the area behind the toilet and the shower you see there now? Will be gone and we plan on putting a huge cabinet in that space for dirty clothes and bathroom “stuff.”

The guys are making progress. I have yet to even meet them. They always come after I leave for work and are gone before I get home from work. I told Kevin to thank them for keeping everything so CLEAN. I can’t believe how nice they clean up after themselves. It’s like we don’t even know anything is going on – they just shut the door and *POOF* no construction mess.

I’ll link to our construction guys when this is all over … I’d like to give them a fair critique of their work, but so far? I’m very pleased.

Kevin said they tore down the shower wall. They actually gave the toilet area, and the sink area, two more inches. I’m SO relieved on that front. However, the fly in the ointment is that they didn’t have enough room on the left wall to put the shower head – that wall is actually the back side of our rock fireplace. And the other wall, the wall on the right, next to where the toilet is going to go, is too skinny, so, that only leaves the back wall. This means, the shower head is going to be spraying toward the shower curtain.

Hmmm …

I’m not exactly thrilled with that, but we really don’t have a choice, otherwise; we’ll just have to make sure the curtain remains IN the shower so we don’t soak the entire bathroom floor.

I’m hoping the light is NOT going to remain where it is now because … ugh, that would IN the shower. We’re actually planning on putting two sconce lights on either side of the the oval mirror we plan on putting above the small sink. I’m also sweet talking Kevin into putting a recessed light above the toilet area so people are not having to do their business in the dark.

They placed the shower base in today and worked on re-routing the plumbing. I have no idea what they have planned for tomorrow. It’s sort of fun to leave the house with it looking one way and coming home to a bunch of changes at the end of the day.

I’m thankful that Kevin’s job is flexible enough that he’s able to come home and check on them periodically.

When I got home from work, it looked like this:

Pretty, right?

We are, in essence, cutting our front bathroom in half. See that long hallway bathroom in the top picture? The tub is right behind the wall next to the sink. We are extending that wall, and the tub will be part of the master bath.

Whoever built this house obviously didn’t care too much about bathroom space because in a nutshell? There isn’t any. We’re just trying to utilize what little space we have and make every square inch count.

I have doubts. The front bathroom is going to be TINY, but we sort of have to sacrifice the space in order to make the master bath even normal size. I’m a little concerned about the toilet being in such a tight spot, but if you look at the top picture, it was like that before – the only difference will be it won’t be in a long hallway.

I can’t believe how much progress our guys made today. I’m still amazed they got the tub removed. I’m even MORE amazed there wasn’t more water damage. I was convinced that they would have to replace the sub-flooring and possibly the wall. Though portions of the wall have been removed, I’m thinking they had to remove it so they could get to the plumbing.

I think they are going to re-route the plumbing tomorrow. I think the tile guy is supposed to come tomorrow, too, though quite honestly, I have no clue what to expect. I have a final picture of what I want it to look like and this in-between stage is … disconcerting, to say the least.

At least they left us one toilet and one shower (the master bath hasn’t been touched yet). I know when my mom and dad re-did their bathroom, they had to give themselves sponge baths and use the restroom at a nearby restaurant because they only had the one bathroom to begin with.

The construction guys are telling us it’s going to be about two weeks before they’re through, but if they keep going at the pace they’re going now, I’m thinking it won’t even take that long.