Bathroom Remodel: Stage 1

Kevin and I have hated our bathroom at our condo for quite some time... so we finally decided to do something about it during my summer vacation. After doing a lot of research online we decided that a simple bathroom remodel was something we totally could do by ourselves. Since I didn't have work to do, I spent many hours scouring the internet for video footage and articles to explain to us how to replace our bathroom cabinets and countertops and install new ones. Our new weekend hangouts are Lowes and Home Depot. One Saturday when we were waiting to borrow the Lowes truck, we spent a little too much time browsing Home Improvement magazines and Kevin convinced me that not only should we replace our cabinets/countertops, but we should also replace our linoleum with tile and redo our bathtub... so we got started. It is actually really exhilarating to do all this stuff by yourself and actually have it turn out ok (although it was really more Jeremy and Kevin doing the work... I was the slave driver taskmaster who tried to keep us on some sort of schedule while making treats and offering encouragement from the couch where I caught up on my TiVo-ed shows :-)).

Here are some pictures from Stage 1:

Here is a picture of our white vanity/ little bathroom cabinet.
Kevin removed all the caulk and took off the ugly white counters and nasty pinky sink. Yay!
Next he had to turn off all the water and disconnect some of the pipes. When he got stuck, I showed him the fabulous HGTV video footage of "Replace your vanity without Insanity" so that he knew what to do next.
After he disconnected the pipes, he took off the vanity and we threw it in the dumpster- a definite bonus for remodeling a condo is that there is a dumpster just downstairs in the garage.

Next we got to pick our new cabinets and tile. We chose this cinnamony vanity because we thought it worked well with the black granite countertop.
Tile selection was a little more tricky. We brought home about 15 tiles and tried to decide on one. We finally picked Desert Mist- kind of a beigey tile with specks of black, yellow, and other sandy colors in it. Unfortunately after the tile selection process ended we discovered that Lowes was discontinuing our tile. We searched several stores and finally gathered enough tile so that we could start tiling.

Since I'm not very much help in the lifting heavy objects department, our friend Jeremy came over to help out. Kevin and Jeremy disconnected all the hoses and plugs and moved our washer/dryer into the office. Kevin and I had to make sure we did a week or two 's worth of laundry before this process started since our w/d would be out of commission for a bit.
After they removed the w/d, they started tearing up the floor. Demolition is a lot of fun- and LOUD! Our neighbors didn't like us too much for awhile- especially since most of the demolition went on from about 8pm until midnight.


After they finished ripping up the linoleum and plywood, Jeremy and Kevin carried out loads and loads of trash. I got to help a little bit by sweeping all the staples off the floor. Jeremy finally got to go home and take a break! Thanks for all your help Jeremy!


Next Kevin cut all the backerboard to lay on the floor so that it perfectly fit around all of the corners. We finally finished this first stage just in time so we could head off to Utah for the BYU Marriott School Commencement. Notice behind Kevin that there is a hole where our toilet used to be. The downside of living in a small condo is that we only have one bathroom. I never realized how much I appreciated an indoor toilet until we started this project. Fortunately we have a clubhouse a few feet away for those bathroom emergencies.