Can a DIY Bathroom Remodel bring simplicity and organization to your life? Absolutely. You don’t have to have a large space to do it. I’m going to show you how we remodel our very small bathroom. Doing this has brought so much peace and order to my life.
Our house is a modest 1225 square feet. It came to us with one and a half bathrooms. The full bathroom is in the main hall and the half bathroom connects to the master bedroom.
This took a lot of pre-planning, measuring, saving and a little bit of moving some walls and adding some doors. I will be the first to admit that doing home improvement projects take five times longer than it would to hire a professional. Why? Because I am not an expert in what ever field it is (plumbing, electrical, drywall), and I have 10 other things that need my attention, like my full-time job.
The Before
For me, I consider a full bathroom to be a space that has a sink, toilet, and a way to wash my body, i.e. a shower or bathtub. The master bathroom only had a toilet and a sink. The last house owners had replaced the the sink vanity and the replacement was tiny and had no storage.
I needed a bathroom that has more storage, and had a shower. In order to make room for a shower we had to move the linen closet that was on the other side of the bathroom. We were able to take some space from one of the bedrooms closet to create a linen closet at the end of the hall so that we still had that precious storage space.
Storage space is important to me. Have you caught that yet?
The Plan
I broke down the project into these steps:
- Move linen closet
- Remove toilet and vanity
- Demolish wall between the bathroom and former closet and remove drywall
- Unplanned detour to have electrical moved (Opps)
- Replace former closet door with wall, texture and paint
- Remove the flooring, studs between closet and bathroom and drywall
- Add new floor underlayment
- Hire plumber to rework and add plumbing
- Hire shower pan man and have shower pan poured
- Remove ceiling drywall and save insulation for reinstall (opps)
- Install new wall drywall
- Tile floor
- Install ceiling drywall and ceiling fan
- Install shower cubbies and the remaining tile backer board
- Repair the wall where the backer board slipped and punched through the wall (opps)
- Tape, prime, texture and paint wall
- Install lighting, toilet, vanity and mirror
- Plan tile, tile shower, and grout
- Install fixtures
- Enjoy a full bathroom without leaving my bedroom!
I know, that is quite the list. This is not going to be a post about what we did step-by-step. I am going to show you what we did, and some things we learned along the way. Usually the hard way. And how in the end, all the work was 100% worth it and today makes my life so much easier and simpler.
Getting to Work
After we moved the linen closet (that I did not document), we had to demo the bathroom. #demoday
First we removed the toilet, vanity and the drywall. Then we removed the awful floor. 
The flooring was a cheap adhesive vinyl tile. To get it off I had to use a putty knife and hammer. Once that was removed, the underlayment had to be removed. 
After we removed the drywall, we learned that electrical was running through the wall between the bathroom and the closet. So we had to have that re-run before we could remove the studs. 
You can see how the electrical was re-worked.
Tearing out walls is a little nerve racking, but it also fells good to be able to envision what the final product will look like.
Starting to Take Shape
Having to re-work the electrical took more time that we thought. But once it was done we could remove the studs and have the plumbing work done. The plumbing work was the single most expensive part of the project.
Removing the wall headers and studs. 
A clean view without wall studs. 
Shower plumbing. 
Wall plumbing. We did swap the location of the toilet and vanity so that when you open the door the first thing you don’t see is “the john.” 
This meant we had to have some floor plumbing done and install new underlayment.
The Shower Pan
Having the plumbing completed felt so rewarding. It felt like the bones were in place and we could move on to adding other party to the body. Next, the installation of the shower pan. Because the space was a unique size, we could not go to our local hardware store and pickup a fiberglass pan. No, a custom pan was the only option. This meant finding a person who specializes in shower pans to come do the work. I found one, O-N-E, person in my area who only did shower pans.
Rubber liner installed along with additional supporting studs. 
Another view of the rubber liner and shower framing. 
Installed vapor barrier, base backer board and cement poured. 
Cement is installed so it gradually slopes to the drain. 
Once it was set and we were ready to move on, we knew we needed to replace the ceiling. We started pulling it down and OPPS! the insulation fell out. 
Another picture of the mess I created by pulling down the ceiling drywall.
Installing Drywall and Tile
Oh drywall. I feel like I have a bit of a love-hate relationship with drywall. It always seems like it is going to be so easy to install and is always seems to be a bit harder than I imagined.
A hard learned lesson we learned when we moved the linen closest was that the thickness of the drywall is very important. Drywall thickness is 3/8, 1/2 or 5/8 inch. The difference looks so small on paper, but will create a ton of work, if you are matching it up to existing drywall and don’t get it right.
We used mold resistant drywall, also called green board. Being in a bathroom there is going to be moisture so it is always recommended to use this type of drywall. 
We measured the wall space and calculated to use the lease amount of drywall for simpler installation. 
Once the drywall was installed, we installed the floor tile backer board. 
Always lay out your tile ahead of time to plan so you don’t end up having to cut super tiny pieces. 
Starting at the farthest corner from the door allowed us to work our way out, so we did not get trapped. 
Marking which side of a tile your’e are going to use after a cut helps save time and confusion. 
We made sure to install a transition strip at the door way because we knew that carpet was going to be installed in the bedroom and we wanted a clean edge. 
Tile all done, but without grout.
If you can do a puzzle and frost a cake, you can do simple tiling. My husband and I had both done a little bit of tile work in the past, but we still took some steeps to prepare ourselves.
- We took a DIY tiling class at Home Depot. Most of the information we knew, but some of the tips and tricks they taught made the process a lot easier. Like stacking tiles to measure your exact cut.
- We watched a lot of Youtube videos on tiling, specifically a bathroom. Our favorites were videos by the TileMasterGA
Ceiling Work
If I thought that wall drywall was tough to install, I was wrong. Ceiling drywall was the tougher. Drywall is not light. My husband had to hold up the drywall, while I screwed it in as fast as I could.
Matching up new drywall with existing along with texture is a big task and something I was not up for.
We added 1/2 of the ceiling drywall at a time, hoping it would prevent the insulation falling again. We also cut the hole for the ceiling fan before installing it. 
Our attempt to prevent the insulation from falling failed. 
But without the insulation it made installing the fan a lot easier. Venting it out the roof is essential.
Shower Cubbies
Installing shower cubbies are probably one of the smartest things we did. Having a storage space for shampoo and soap not on the floor or a wire rack of some kind is so nice. It looks so clean and is easy to access.
Two things I would have done differently is :
- Install the cubbies before the shower pan. I worried what the height would be after the pan was installed instead of just installing them.
- Installed a niche for my foot when I shave my legs. It would be nice since shaving my legs is a little tricky without it. But the new shower is still valuable with or without it.
If we had more time before the shower pan was installed, we would have installed the shower cubbies ahead of time. But instead we did it after had to cut into the vapor barrier. It did not affect the integrity. 
The second cubby was a little trickier because it had two cubbies, so a 2×4 had to be installed in just the right place. 
Two installed cubbies create great storage of shower products without something hanging off the shower head or a tension rod I would have to clean around.
Installing Tile Backer
Wall tile backboard is a beast in weight. There were some “opps” along the way, but it all ended well.
Because the tile backer and the drywall needed to match up evenly, the shower pan contractor used spacers on the stud. 
The installation of the upper section of tile backer bought a couple of lessons 
The tile backer is very heavy and slipped once and ripped the vapor barrier. 
When we attached it at the top the cracked as well, but it was not noticeable once the wall was textured and painted. 
The slip of the tile backer ripped more than the vapor barrier we later realized.
The product that the shower pan contractor used looked like strips of RAM board. I searched and could not find the strips, so we ended up buying a small roll of RAM board and cutting it into strips. Months later while waiting for a rental at Home Depot, I ran across this product: Drywall Shim
Walls
When I see contractors taping and mudding walls on TV, it looks so easy. I can frost a cake. I can spread mayo on some bread. How hard can taping and mudding be? A little harder than it looks. It is totally possible to do it yourself. But it definitely takes some practice and patience.
There is also the waiting for it to dry part that can be frustrating as you want to mice on to the next part of the project.
Once all the backer and drywall was up, we taped and mudded that joints. 
We also mudded over any screws. 
When we had done some previous drywall work, we learned it is very important to prime paint fresh drywall. If you don’t, the drywall will absorb any texture and paint. 
Before we textured the wall, we taped the edge of where the tile will be. 
To protect the tile backer, we taped up plastic, so it did not get texturized. 
After the texture we primed the wall again, and then painted it.
Texturizing a wall is a special skill in my opinion. On another wall we made the mistake of using an aerosol texture spray. This is not a great product for two reasons: 1) it is expensive for what you get 2) it did not give us the end result we wanted. (see the photo below with bubbly end product that did not match the other texture). After doing all the extra work to fix it, we invested in a sprayer and air compressor. Doing some practice on cardboard before you spray your wall will help getting the final results you want.
Back to the Start
Happy Birthday to my Husband! We installed the toilet and vanity on his birthday. (hence the celebratory drink on the vanity).
Installing the light on the wall before installing the vanity so we were not working over the vanity and could get closer to the wall.
Seeing the toilet, light, vanity and mirror it was like we were back to the start. But it was so much better. The vanity is bigger, and the quality is better. Making for a happier place.
Shower Tile
At the start, tiling sounded like fun. By the end, I never wanted to see tile again. This definitely took more planning and time, then the floor tile. The end result was worth it.
If we could do it differently, we would have used a standard grout. The one we chose here stated it was antimicrobial and inhibited stains from mold and mildew. Sounds great! Less cleaning! Or so I thought. I have not seen the product live up to these statements. Cleaning regularly to get rid of the pink funk is still necessary. It was also more difficult to install, so in the end it was more work than it was worth.
We took an extra step and painted a waterproof membrane on. 
Because you can’t plan the tile the same way as you can with floor tile, I used measured painters tape to plan the tile placement. 
I planned it the same way with the bullnose tile. 
Next we installed, leveled, tile ledger board so that all the tiles start right. 
The start of tile was so exciting. 
Tiling definitely took the longest. Especially with the cubbies. 
See how nicely the bottom tile fits? No, sliver cuts here. 
We used an epoxy grout, which we would not use this product again.
The Finished Remodel
The final touches are to install the shower fixtures, hang a shower rod, install a small storage cabinet over the toilet and a towel rack.
While the space is small, it is absolutely glorious to have a shower connected to the bedroom.
The new vanity through the doorway. So much more pleasant to look at rather than a toilet. 
The bathroom from just inside the doorway. No more dark space and “creative” storage using a shower tension rod. 
The finished shower and towel rack. The towel hooks fold in so you can have a smidge more room when it is not in use. 
Vanity and window view when standing in the shower. I love having drawers in a vanity so I can separate my stuff from my Husbands. 
The storage cabinet add just a little more space to store the essential bathroom items.
A remodel is time consuming work, but in the end it is worth it to have easy access to what I need close by.