Gut Renovating Another Bathroom

February 20th, 2024
bathroom, house
After our long-term tenants bought a house and moved out, we had a few months free before we had new downstairs neighbors. A good time to gut renovate the first floor bathroom! It was a lot of work, stressful at times when I was under time pressure, but also, a lot of fun. It helped that this was my third time, after installing a new bathroom on the third floor and gut renovating the second floor bathroom.

Here's the timeline:

  • Sun 11/18: first day of demolition

  • Sat 11/19: second day of demolition. Overall demo went about as expected. Exhausting, but no surprises.

    You can see there's space for a few shelves in the corner behind those pipes. I was originally planning to put some in but ran out of time and boxed it in instead. I'd like to come back and open this up at some point.

  • Mon 12/9: floor framing and subfloor, with help from Chris

  • Sun 1/1: wall framing and nailers

  • Mon 1/2: more wall framing in the evening

  • Tue 1/3: electrician rough electric

  • Mon 1/8: plumber rough plumbing day 1

  • Tue 1/9: plumber rough plumbing day 2

    This took two days because they needed to completely redo the toilet and sink drains: the toilet drain was cast iron and falling apart, while the sink drain was illegally tied into the kitchen sink.

  • Wed 1/10: plumber rough inspection

  • Fri 1/12: electrician rough inspection

  • Tue 1/16: my rough inspection in the morning, vent piping in the evening

  • Sat 1/20: ceiling drywall in the morning with help from Peter

  • Sun 1/21: wall drywall in the morning with help from Peter, tub surround in the afternoon with help from Devan, wall drywall in the evening alone

    I caulked the edge of the tub surround here, which was too early: I used silicone caulk, which doesn't hold paint.

  • Tue 1/23: drywall touchups in the evening

  • Wed 1/24: screw inspection

  • Tue 1/30: mudding in the evening

  • Wed 1/31: mudding in the evening

  • Thr 2/1: mudding in the evening

  • Fri 2/2: mudding in the evening

  • Sat 2/3: sanding in the morning with help from Peter, Julia priming and painting in the afternoon

  • Sun 2/4: flooring and trim

  • Mon 2/5: spackle, caulk, cleaning in the evening

  • Fri 2/9: install vanity in the evening

  • Sat 2/10: install medicine cabinet, cleaning, tidying in the evening

  • Mon 2/12: plumber finish plumbing first day

    We tried to reuse the toilet, but the gasket leaked when they put it back together and they ran out of time to deal with it. We ended up needing to have them come back to install a new one.

  • Mon 2/12: towel racks and toilet paper holders in the evening

  • Wed 2/13: electrician finish electrical

  • Thr 2/15: plumber finish plumbing second day; final clean in the evening.

Estimated hours (not counting contractors and inspectors):

  • Jeff: 72hr
  • Friends: 22hr
  • Julia: 4hr
  • Total: 103hr

Material and fixture choices:

Costs, not counting the ~103hr of DIY labor:

  • Plumber: $6,360
  • Electrician: $3,813
  • Materials and fixtures: $2,638
  • Permits: $622
  • Total: $13,433
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