Bathroom Renovation!

We have been in this house since about 1991 and it was built in 1979 - its a brick high-set house and very solid with all hardwood frame and an original owner who was rather particular about what went into his house as it was built - I think he was away the day they did the tiling though as that is just so badly done but more about that soon. 

When we moved in we loved the house - but knew we needed to replace the kitchen and a few other things. The kitchen was redone in 2000 and I still love my black and white kitchen. The bathroom at the time was functional and suited us fine. But as time has gone on, its showing its age and just falling apart! The bath hasnt been used since my sons were little (they are almost 18 and 20 now!) the vanity unit is almost fallen apart - made from chipboard - seriously what were they thinking making a wet area unit from a type of wood that swells up and disintegrates when wet!!! Did they even think that one through? (the original kitchen was also made of chipboard!) The shower screen has a crack in the glass and the sliding door keeps falling off the runners and plastic bits are breaking off all over the place. A few of us have got stuck in there when the door jammed! We have had leaks from the shower and tiles have fallen off the walls - we realised how shoddy the tiling was when this happened as the tiles were only stuck on with a small amount of adhesive and the grout was all that was holding them all together on the wall in most places! 

So over the years we have re-stuck and grouted the tiles and changed the taps many times as well as the shower head but eventually its got to the stage that 4 adults just cant use it anymore as there is no storage, the mirror is set so high I can barely see myself in it and its just dark and depressing. So finally we have decided to get it pulled out completely and start again. I got a couple of quotes - that was an adventure in itself with waiting 3 weeks for one quote! But Im happy with the company chosen and they promise they can do it in one week and redo the toilet at the same time with tiling and a new loo!

So that brought up another thing - we need somewhere to use while the bathroom upstairs is being pulled out and refitted. 
Luckily we have a shower and toilet downstairs in the garage (put in for use with the pool) but although the loo gets used a fair bit (4 adults in the house remember?) the shower hadnt been used in years and years and again our lovely original tiler had done his magic and the tiles were all falling off the wall in the shower. One had smashed and I had removed a few more to save them from the same fate.

So I bought some tile adhesive and white grout and got a tile to replace the broken one (thanks Bunnings!) and set about redoing the wall in the shower - had to remove quite a few and that kept getting more and more as I tested and found most were only hanging by some very dry grout and nothing more. 

so a bit more was removed 

the tiles just fell off as this was the way they were fixed on! 1979 was not a good year for tiling?

The base looks damp but it isnt luckily so after a good clean the re-tiling began.

Starting to put them all back now 


















and now all done - just grouting to be done. 









Finished with a new shower head and a shower curtain - as it never had a rail or curtain - not sure why - in fact there wasnt even toilet roll holder when we moved in too! 

Today I bought a mirror and some hooks for the back of the door so we can do our hair and hang up our towels and its pretty much ready. 

Next job is to clear the bathroom upstairs of all our stuff and take out anything we want to keep and then leave it to the bathroom guys to strip out and give us a new bathroom.
For a soapmaker its pretty exciting getting a new place to test my soaps! 

2 weeks today till the new one is started! Cant wait!