Memorial Weekend Project: Half Bath Reno

The last major project on our to-do list before we sell was to update the half bath on the first floor.  Everything about that bathroom was gross but the worst part was the tile.  It was white with pink veins, cracked in several places and the grout was eroded around ~half the tiles.  There was a musty smell in there all the time which was disturbing as well.

Picture from when we purchased the home in 2012.  We changed the toilet seat after move-in but that was about it.  (It's okay, we thought it was gross too!).  The end of a bar you can see on the right is a full sized towel bar.  What were they thinking?

I don't have any "during renovation" pictures to prove it, but we found some disturbing/gross stuff during tear out.

First, the pedestal sink must have been relatively new and replaced a cabinet-style sink.  When we tore-out the tile, the pieces under the sink were laid on top of linoleum (so were uneven with the rest of the floor) and the trim was pieced together behind the sink (very poorly).

Second, it was clear the toilet had either overflown or been installed improperly (so was leaking badly at the flange for quite some time).  My vote is the latter.  The sub-floor was in decent condition, but the piece of plywood above the subfloor (that the tile was adhered to) was black, rotted and had a very unfortunate smell.  Not surprising the room always smelled musty.  The trim around the toilet was also rotted at the bottom (but not noticeable w/ the quarter round).

Bryce and I were a good team on this project.  He did most of the labor intensive work while I did the more tedious measuring/layout of tile and trim work.  We were only able to work on it in the evenings when the kids were asleep (and we mostly finished it that weekend) so it wasn't overly time consuming.

Finished product below.  New tile, new toilet, new trim, new paint, new toilet paper holder/hand towel ring, new faucet.  So much better for a million reasons and thankfully there is no longer a musty smell!  My pictures appear darker than in person, but I would like to add to brighter wall decor...