One Room Challenge Guest Bathroom Week 3
ORC logo One Room Challenge guest participant

Whew! Sometimes things get a little crazy with home remodels, and this little room was big on drama for a minute. Here is where we left off last week…demolition of the guest bathroom (you can see how it looked when we bought the house here). You can also find Week 2 here. Below you can see the ivory tile with the decorative pink border that was removed from the bathroom.

vintage bathroom remodel demolition broken tiles on floor br

After the tile came down, we also took down the wall that was at the end of the bathtub. That wall blocked a lot of the natural light and so it immediately opened up the room when the wall came down. Even in all of the mess there was literally light at the end of the tunnel, so to speak.

bathroom remodel cast iron tub tile removed from walls

The photo above shows the floor of the bathroom that was the top layer floor. The photo below shows the tile that we uncovered when we took up the top layer. The smaller tile is the original flooring that was put down 100 years ago. The original tile was placed directly into the cement floor. For us to be able to put in new tile, we will have to add leveler to the floor and put the tile on top of it. The original tile floor is pretty, but the floor is also sinking and so we need to redo it all. Speaking of sinking…that is where the drama came in. The very, very heavy cast iron tub had a small leak in it over the years (decades?) and the original floor joists were made of wood. The moisture + the wood attracted termites…and the termite damage caused the floor under the tub to become unstable. I am not sure if I have mentioned this yet, but we also had the house lifted in order to build an entirely new foundation and to add a basement. With the house lifted 6 feet, we were able to go in and repair and replace floor joists before the entire tub ended up, unintentionally, in the basement. That was slightly terrifying to know that at any time it could have fallen through. Needless to say, when I say “we” fixed this room, I really mean my husband and several excellent and brave subcontractors. I stayed far, far away and basically said lots of prayers for them all! 🙂

home remodel guest bathroom demolition phase dusty floor with tile on wall removed

With that stressful piece of the puzzle under control. one of the main goals at this stage of the remodel is rerouting the plumbing. We want to change the plumbing from one end of the bathtub to the other end so that the shower head and faucet will come from the wall that connects to the guest bedroom. This exciting photo below shows the very old mixture of galvanized and copper plumbing pipe from 100 years ago that we removed. 🙂

Old mixture of galavanized and copper plumbing pipe in wall of bathroom demolition

I don’t know a lot about the plumbing behind the walls, but I enjoy choosing the fixtures that go along with the plumbing. I want to maintain the historical nature of the house and carry it through with the vanity fixtures- while also adding in fresh, new details that will mix the old with the updated. My goal is a great balance of historical preservation and youthful liveliness. One of my favorite pieces that feels historical is this bridge lavatory faucet from Newport Brass- I love the shapes of all of the pieces…

I also love the porcelain taps on this brass faucet…

I found the flooring design that I also think will be a good fit for the room. I love the Greek key pattern and so it was easy to decide once I saw it at the tile shop. The pattern is classic and just pretty to look at each day. I really want to put 1918 in the tile somehow…

These are the details that I get excited about- deciding on the cosmetic touches- while my husband is thrilled with the fact that we survived the bathtub adventure and that the plumbing is all new. I am really thankful for his knowledge and experience during this renovation- he has said a million times that tearing it down and starting over would be a lot easier and smarter…but we made a promise to the previous owners to keep the house with its original facade and basic structure. I am actually really happy to be able to preserve an old home, and I am thankful my husband is willing! His basic uniform for this project- dirt with a side of more dirt. 🙂

And so, that concludes the Week 3 Update for the One Room Challenge- as you can see we took on an entire house at one time and I am focusing on the design of one of the rooms. The guest bathroom is actually one of my favorites- I think because I have known what I wanted it to look like since day one and I’ve enjoyed executing the design. For the next three weeks, I will focus more on the design and watching the parts and pieces come together. Cabinets, floor, paint, and lighting are next up on the list to share with you. Fingers crossed that I can get the fabric delivered in time to have the drapery made for the window. Thank you for checking in each week- and be sure to see all of the other rooms being transformed at the One Room Challenge. Thank you to Linda for hosting such a fun way to motivate us all to get one room completely finished!! Please check back each week and see the progress! Have a great week!

Cheers xo,

Lydia

ORC logo One Room Challenge guest participant
One Room Challenge Guest Bathroom Remodel
ORC logo One Room Challenge guest participant

Welcome to our home! We recently purchased a 100-year-old house to restore and rehab. I am excited to participate in the One Room Challenge as I also begin sharing our home renovation. If you are not familiar with the One Room Challenge, it is a wonderful idea put together by Linda Weinstein (of the blog, Calling it Home) that encourages participants to transform one room at a time in their home and share the process along the way. The ORC celebrates creativity, inspiration, and originality. In addition, Better Homes and Gardens partners with the One Room Challenge as the official media partner of the ORC. For my very first time as a guest participant, I am going to show you the transformation of our guest bathroom over the next 5 weeks. Take a look at these photos of the bathroom that I took when we first bought the house (we were living in another house while we began this DIY project)…

vintage bathroom with wallpaper on half wall and wood trim on bottom half of wall

This bathroom served as the only bathroom in the house when we purchased the house. The home was built in 1918 and was a 2 bedroom and one bath residence. This bathroom was between the master bedroom and the child’s bedroom and was originally shared by the occupants. I love reminding my children that having a bathroom inside of a home was a luxury back then! You can see the bathtub in the photo below. ..

retro bathroom with dusty pink tile in shower bath

The bathtub is one of the items that I immediately wanted to update. It’s a beast of a bathtub because it is cast iron! It weighs a ton and we knew it would be a bit of a challenge! And, you can see that the color scheme was ivory, beige, and dusty pink…

You can see in the photos above and below, the bathroom opens to each adjacent room. Below, you can also see the linen closet that is in the bathroom on the left wall as you look into the connecting bedroom- it is surprisingly large for the era that it was built. We would like to keep it intact and in keeping with the home’s history.

vintage bathroom linen closet with viewer looking into connecting bedroom

Needless to say, we committed to quite an extensive renovation and redesign while also wanting to maintain the history of the home. My husband headed the huge project of bringing this little gem of a home back to life. It has great bones, wonderful ceiling height, genteel history, beautiful natural light, and an excellent location. Really all it needed was a little (okay, a lot) of love and attention. We are happy we could restore this little lady and we love how she continues to come together. These are our intentions for her one original bathroom and bringing it up to date…

  1. Redesign the layout of the bathroom
  2. Replace the flooring
  3. Replace the tub with a shower only
  4. Remove wallpaper and repaint room
  5. Add more cabinet space

Everywhere I go, I take photos of flooring that I love. I really like the timeless look of black and white tile and knew right when I first saw this bathroom that I wanted to replace the original all white with black and white. My camera roll looks a lot like this (see below) because whenever I see flooring that piques my interest, I snap it and try to visualize what will be best. Here are a few photos that I took for floor inspiration while out and about in Atlanta…

black and white retro tile floor with repeating t pattern
black and white tile flooring with retro feel and diamond pattern
black and white tile floor in checkerboard pattern

For paint color, tile, and cabinetry, I really want to give the room a clean, white canvas and a fresh start. I love an old feel with some glamorous touches. I would love for the personality of the room to shine through with the accessories and art while the foundation of the room stands firm through trends that come and go. I also would like to keep a touch of pink as a slight nod to the original colors (not to mention that I just really like pink).

I am excited to get this entire room completed and shared with you! Please check back each week to see the progress of this restoration, remodel, redesign! I will also add more of our home restoration, in the coming months if you would like to read more about it! Here is what the exterior of the house looked like when we started!

front of house with green lawn and trees

Thank you for stopping by to see the first week of photos in the room transformation. I will add more of the project each week, and I hope you will follow along! Remember to check out all of the rooms that are being designed in the One Room Challenge- it’s like a virtual home tour reaching all across the country (and maybe globe?)!

I look forward to seeing you back again soon!

Cheers xo,

Lydia