Remodeling a Bathroom for my Mother In Law for Christmas

I don’t know if you did anything big for your family for the holidays, but I toiled over a new bathroom for my mother in law.  I know there are a lot of horror stories and punch lines about mother in laws (mothers in law?) but that is not mine. She picks up my daughter from school everyday, babysits at a moment’s notice, and generally just tries to help wherever she can.  She has been equally helpful for my brother in law but was ready to move out on her own. WoodWorkWIFE and I put her up in our rental property as a good landing spot for her and it was time for a holiday bathroom remodel.

One of the major projects to do in this house is remedying what was a “Lipstick on a Pig” remodel of the house when it was flipped during the housing crisis.  By lipstick on a pig, I mean that everything ugly was covered up but barely. The finishes and appliances were builder grade, no consideration was taken with fixing the layout, it was a travesty. To me bathrooms are the biggest and hardest, but most important remodel from a quality of life perspective.

This post is part of a paid partnership with the Home Depot.

This bathroom was a travesty; builder grade finishes, substandard plumbing, and a layout from hell.  Layout from hell you may ask? This is a shotgun house in south city build in 1895, and the entire second floor used to be an attic.  The shower was oriented with the sloped ceiling at your back, which meant you only have about 3 square feet to shower in. There was also an un-insulated glass block window in the side of the shower that was FRIGID during the winter and SCORCHING during the summer, so I had to work that out.  I had to take care of this for my Mother in Law or she may not be so helpful anymore.

I started this project in November once the house was vacant from the previous tenant, and after cleaning up all the mess left behind I got straight to work.  

This project centers around some really cool products from the sponsors of this project Home Depot and Delta.  The main event is this awesome shower system from Delta called the Upstile system. It is really cool to get some super high end design without all of the trades (and thus cost) that go into a custom tile surround bathtub.  This is a simple to install tub surround that adds a space where you can add one of those high style glass tile accent strips that are so popular in high end bathroom remodels. Once you have the shower or tub surround installed, you have tons of options from Delta’s 3 part door system.  First you pick you door type (glass, frameless, framed) then you can pick you track style anything from traditional shower door track to barn door style hardware (that I picked.) Finally you can pick from tons of high quality hardware.

This is WoodWorkLIFE, so I had to incorporate a little bit of wood, and for that I went with the designer series faux wood porcelain tile floor.  This was the first time I have ever laid tile and there was a lot of learning to put it down and to correct the previous remodelers mistakes (mischief, laziness, debauchery…who knows?)

I am really happy with how the bathroom turned out, check out the video along with the full step by step at Home Depot’s blog in the link…BELOWWWWWW…

Keep your tools sharp, and keep your mind sharper,

Rick

WoodWorkLIFE

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