How to Redo your Bathroom when its your only One

Well, its week 4 of our bathroom remodel. As a quick recap, I am redoing my bathroom over 6 weeks and am sharing the progress here, in real time, as part of the One Room Challenge. Here are the past weeks if you need to catch-up: week 1, week 2, and week 3.

When we last left off, we had put the vanity in place. We may have jumped the gun a little, but we had a friend who could help lift it up the stairs and that way we could park in our garage again:

vanity

The issues is that we didn’t have the cement board down or the new floor, so those items would go over the base of the vanity- not good. We decided to raise the vanity up on blocks to account for the new floor and because the current base isn’t tall enough for the vent we have right there.

raising the vanity

vanity

Over the top of the legs, we attached wood pieces that I painted for a clean look. The truth with remodels is that sometimes these small projects take a long time without a huge visual payoff. But progress is progress!

how to update your bathroom when you only have one

Before starting our remodel, my biggest concern was how do you live without a bathroom? This is our only one, so we needed to be smart with it! Here’s my best tips:

don’t demo all at once

Demo your bathroom in sections. If we had multiple bathrooms, we (let’s be honest- mostly my husband) would have ripped everything out and started with a blank start. Instead, we tore out our vanity and sink first, and then tiled and grouted just behind the faucet. That way, we protect the wall from water and we don’t have to tile awkwardly behind the faucet later.

vanity / subway tiles

It was such a happy day around here when the new faucet (this one is from Overstock) was in!

faucet / subway tiles / soap dish / soap

preparation is key

Make sure you are prepared and have done everything possible so that when you tear out a key item, you can quickly put it back in. For the toilet, we tore all most the old floor out first (except right around the toilet) and had the cement board pretty much ready to go. Side note, the cement board is what goes between your sub-floor and tile to protect your home from water damage.

Next, the toilet came out. We completed the cement board and patched the sheet rock where there was damage from demo. Again, we only tiled where we absolutely had to- on the floor around the toilet and the wall behind the toilet.

floor tile / subway tiles

As I’m writing this, we don’t have the new toilet in yet (we needed to give the grout time to dry), but our hope is to go less than 24 hours without a toilet.

be flexible

Even if you do everything possible, you will still have to live without a sink, toilet, and shower for a little bit. Be flexible- we brushed our teeth in the kitchen. I ran to the grocery store by our house, bought a few things and used the restroom. When we redo the shower we’ll borrow my sister’s for a few days. It’s doable!

So that is where we are at right this second. It is so fun to see the tile on the floor and get a glimpse at how pretty it will be! I wanted to say thank you to Overstock for sending over the tile, faucet, and vanity for this project. Who knew you could get everything you need for a bathroom update from Overstock and have it be exactly my style?!

Update- here is a link to week 5 of my bathroom renovation.

Shop the bathroom: 

 

Thanks to Overstock for sending over product for this post (faucet, vanity, and tile)! This post contains some affiliate links for your convenience. Click here to read my full disclosure policy.