The Revenge of the Guest Bathroom

Well, here we are again. Unfortunately, you are not experiencing deja vu. After months at a standstill, work in the guest bathroom resumes.

Before I launch into today’s post, I want to offer a quick introduction to new readers. I’m Stacy, writer of this blog and host of the True Tales From Old Houses podcast. In short, True Tales From Old Houses is a light-hearted, entertaining, and educational show for people who love old houses and DIY. As a side job, I offer window restoration education primarily on Instagram and YouTube.

Another thing to know is that I am much more delightful than today’s post implies, but I may need some of you long-time readers to vouch for me. Ha! I’m just trying to bring everyone up to speed.

Over the past eight years, I have participated in eleven rounds of the One Room Challenge. The challenge is always a wild ride, and nothing ever goes quite to plan. However, having a finished room at the end makes it all worthwhile. That’s why it was so frustrating to turn in an incomplete last spring. It was eight weeks of work and stress with very little to show for it. Even so, I’m an optimist by nature, and I know things will be different during this round. For starters, I’ve finally processed all of my anger over how we got here. As a very even-tempered person, that took much longer than I expected.

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What Happened

Note: Prior to the guest bathroom remodel, I had used this contractor for a couple of projects, and I was pleased with his work. That is why I hired him again.

I’ve always said that the contractor and I parted ways because that’s how we both agreed to frame it. On paper, that is what it looked like. In reality, I told him he didn’t need to come back. On his final day of work, this was the bathroom floor:

He did plan to clean off the thinset blobs, but he considered the floor to be level enough. It pitched back to the toilet in both directions.

It’s worth noting that this was his second attempt at laying the tile, and he had already pulled out the shower pan once because he did it incorrectly (his words) the first time. After his second attempt at the shower pan, he said, “I think that will work.” However, that mistake left us short on tile. So we ordered more, and he began to work on the floor in the interim.

During his first few mistakes, I honestly respected that he wanted to get it right. Recently, I had a revelation, and I see it differently. Almost every day that the contractor was here working, he was on the phone with someone. I now believe that he was talking to a person who was explaining how to complete each portion of my project as he was doing it. In other words, he had no real idea how to do floor prep, drywall, lay tile, pour a shower pan, etc… I believe he was operating as a “general contractor” (title only) under somebody else’s license and with their permission. He probably did come from a supervisor’s role, but he was much better at telling other people what to do than doing the work himself.

The ruse fell apart when he when he had nobody working under him. Thank god I hired my own subs for the plumbing and electrical work.

We both let it go on for several reasons, and nothing good will come from rehashing it all at this point. Respectfully, I don’t need advice about what is in the past. I’m moving forward with a positive mindset.

The Current Status of the Guest Bath

Although the guest bath is not quite back to square one, it’s close. I had to disconnect the plumbing and demo the entire floor and shower pan. Then, I leveled the floor with 2X4s (and 2X6s) attached to the joists because I didn’t want to rely on a heavy layer of cement floor leveler.

Recently, Andy was home. So, we cut the last new plywood floorboard. I haven’t installed it yet, but I will after I extend the drains for the toilet and the shower. Now that the floor is level, both drain pipes are too short.

I know I’ve written way too much about the daily grind of construction. So, I’ll leave you with something pretty today. Here is the mood board for the guest bathroom.

It hasn’t changed since the last round, but I’m excited about finally moving forward. The guest bath was always supposed to be a budget remodel. Unfortunately, we will have spent more than double what we planned, and the finishes will still be somewhat basic at the end. I keep reminding myself that form follows function, and It will be so nice to have a second working bathroom again.

Please take a look at all of the other One Room Challenge projects going on right now. I’m already in love with a few of them, and it’s only week one! I would also like to invite you to follow me on Instagram for all the updates in real time. Instagram is where I share more about my process.

Next week, I’ll have the plumbing fixed and the new subfloor installed. Anything else will be icing on the cake.

Thank you for being here!