Master Bathroom Before and After

I promised you a new master bathroom reveal and I’m a gal who keeps her promises. But, I’m also a gal who has been building, creating, coaxing and cussing at the new master bathroom for over a year. Yes that’s right folks, this bathroom is over a year in the making. So I’m going to take a moment to tell you about this journey to New Master Bathroomdom. This is a tale that traverses the emotions, leaping from terror and hatred to relief and joyfulness and finally settling on pride. Well, pride mixed in with a healthy dose of apprehension.

This is the story of how the bluest bedroom in all the world became home to a bathroom that totally kicks ass.

It begins in what used to be one of our guest bedrooms…


This is the corner where we decided to build a new master bathroom. So basically this is the ‘Before’ picture of the master bath. The very blue ‘before’ picture of the master bath. That funky wall paper in the closet actually grew on me.

But then we got rid of it, along with all those blue walls…

We ripped them off with a hammer. Which was kinda messy, but incredibly easy to do. This is what it looks like behind plaster walls. That’s called lath – it’s thin pieces of wood that provide a frame to press the wet plaster onto.

Here’s what a room looks like without any lath…

You can see the plumbing from The Ugly Bathroom in the wall. We decided it would be easiest to install the master bath on the other side of The Ugly Bathroom, since all the pipes were sitting right there.

Then it was time to get rid of the ancient knob-and-tube wiring…

My dad ran all the new electrical on the second floor, helping to update our home from 1913 to 2008.

Then we had to fill in this window…

Frame the bathroom…

Build the shower…

We built the shower pan ourselves. You certainly don’t have to do this. You can buy plastic-like shower pans that are ready for use, or you can buy premade shower pans that are ready for tiling. But, our shower is an unusual size (not purposely. Here’s a word of advice-research what is considered to be a standard shower size before you just go ahead and build a bathroom), so we had to make our own. We relied on The Tile Shop, which is a nation-wide chain, to provide us with materials and pointers. They saved our butts. You can read more about building your own shower pan here.

Then we drywalled and mudded…

And tiled the floor and shower…


This was our very first tiling project and I was petrified until I realized that tiling really isn’t that bad.

Grouted…

And…it’s time for the big moment…the big reveal…the finished project…It was near impossible for me to fit the entire room into the frame, so you’ll get it in pieces…

Drum roll please.

Really, I mean it. I expect you to make drum roll noises to yourself right now…or out loud if you’re one of those people who likes to make your co-workers wonder about you.

Dddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddd (that’s my drumroll noise)

Ddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddd

DDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD

Oh my god, here it comes…

TA DA!!!!!!!

And here’s a view from the floor because I’ve decided I’m going to eat and sleep in this room.

We built that! Those walls didn’t exist. There wasn’t electricity there. We didn’t just slap in new fixtures and tile, we built that room from scratch. It didn’t exist before. Joey and I. Built that room. From scratch. One year ago, we didn’t even know the difference between drywall, green board and cement board. And now we can build bathrooms.

It’s f&%#ing crazy!

BUT!!! We haven’t used it yet. We’re too scared! Under all our excitement stirs a quiet fear that we’ll turn the shower on and water will leak down to the first floor or the entire shower will just cave in and leave Joey flailing naked on the floor below, covered in water and broken tiles.

I think we’ll be testing the shower tonight though. If you never hear from me again, know that it’s because the shower did not work and I am laying crumpled on the floor mourning it, while awaiting a complete mental breakdown which leaves me so destroyed, I am never able to look at a shower again.

Well…there you have it. The shower that took two novice home remodelers a year to build. Not because of it’s complexity, but because we’re clueless, slow and remodeling 5 other rooms at the same time.

Thank you for your support, advice and encouragement as we struggled through it! And thank you to our fathers and mothers and Chris for all your help! Hope you’re all ready to go through it again because The Ugly Bathroom is next!

• ← The Caulk Solution…Maybe
• E! and The Shower →