One Room Challenge- Master Bathroom Demo

**This post contains affiliate links, which are of no additional cost to you, but will help me pay for any medical expenses from hitting my thumb so many times. So. Many. Times.**

I have been doing some sort of DIY since I was in elementary school thanks to a very handy family. As my skill level grew, so did the complexity of the projects. However, this was the first time I have EVER taken a room to studs or removed flooring to the sub floor and it’s as every bit as scary as it sounds. Especially when we pulled up the shower floor and could literally see the actual ground. No lie. Thanks to the power of the internet and a ton of research we did before we started this project, I wasn’t too worried. Shook, but not worried. 😉

But first, let’s take another look…

Due to some scheduling conflicts, we were a little tardy to the one room challenge party. The real demo started this past Friday and between more scheduling conflicts, lasted up until this post.

**First word of advice, research any project as much as you can. With the beauty of the internet, YouTube tutorials, and Pinterest, there is plenty of information that can walk you step by step through the process. If you’re taking a room down to studs like we did, you do need to be cautious about what is behind those walls. You definitely don’t want to cut through any electrical or plumbing. **

As we researched more, we discovered that we needed to take out more and this included the vanity we were planning on keeping to get to the rest of the tile underneath. Until the vanity broke.

Because I’m a glass half full kind of girl, truth be told, the vanity was too big for the space anyway. So take that weak vanity.

Now that everything is out, we are going to start prepping for the tile and honestly this is the most important part of the project. We need to make sure the floor is level and we also need to make sure that it’s water tight.  Lord knows you do not want any water getting through or the vanity breaking will look like childs play compared to the damage water will do. No pressure.

Speaking of water damage, we did find a small area under where the floor met the shower pan and I can see the crack in the grout line in my head now. It’s a good thing we did the bathroom renovation when we did, because I’m sure over time, that area would have been a lot worse.

At the moment we are going back and forth still about the type of water proofing we want to use. This I blame on the vanity we added to the project list. There’s the standard Durock, or there is a system through Schluter-Kerdi. The Schluter is more expensive, but based on what I see, the installation is a bit easier and the product is amazing. Did I mention that it’s expensive?

While we’re at it, let’s talk about budget. I’m going to be honest, ours was tight when this project started and this vanity situation had me cringe for a second. I was super lucky to have just won a contest from Rust-Oleum and the prize was a gift card to the home improvement of my choosing. I chose Home Depot and this prize was a huge blessing.

My goal is to keep the cost down tremendously and I have a number in my head, but in fear of jinxing us, I won’t say just yet. I will tell you at the end what we spent out of pocket. Being a part of this One Room Challenge through Jeffrey Court, the tile was provided to me from them and that too is a huge blessing.

That’s it for now since we are a bit behind on the process. While I had hoped that we would be laying tile at this point, one thing I have learned in DIY, things don’t ever go as planned. The important part is to stay as patient as possible. Take deep breaths, walk away if you need to. And above all else, do your research. It helps to have some handy friends who have done this before and you can always ask the folks at Home Depot. Oh and before I forget, Home Depot also offers DIY classes on various topics keep that in mind too!

XOXO,
Brooke

P.S. Mother’s day and Father’s Day is coming up, do yourself, and them, a favor and get this awesome tool set from Ryobi! I have this entire set and I’ve used EVERY tool in the last two projects. Go ahead, treat yourself!