Remodeling Already?

Choosing a tub was important to me because Rob and I had decided to save space and money by not putting a bathtub upstairs in the master bath.  I do like a good soaking bath several times a year so I wanted a tub in the house that I could really fill up and settle into for a nice warm soak. 

We looked at a couple of tubs at Ferguson's in Salt Lake that we really liked the size and style of but they were so expensive (even with the adjusted price) that once it was time to actually order the tub I settled for a basic American Standard.  It was oval, and had arm rests which I didn't really want but the price was right. 

For some reason, the tub was ordered incorrectly and came in as a 5' tub instead of 5'6" so we had to make a quick trip down to Peterson's to reorder.  Linette said we'd have a hard time getting an American Standard tub in quickly enough and suggested we look at a Maxx tub.  She had pulled one up that was 5'6" and had the nice straight lines we were initially looking for.  The only issue is that it was 36" wide instead of 32" wide.  But the price was right and we could get it delivered in time so we decided to go for it.

Amusingly, we showed up at the house one day and the American Standard tub (the one that was too small) was sitting in the garage.  It sat there for almost a week and then one day, the cardboard was still there, but the bathtub itself was gone.  We hope Peterson's actually came and took it.

Here is the tub, sitting in the family room, waiting to be installed. 

Once it was installed we wondered if the layout was going to be to tight, but once the sheetrock went up we knew for sure it was.  Adding the extra four inches to the width of the tub just made the wet room feel too tight and too crowded.  We measured and the center of the toilet was easily 15" from the side of the tub (which is minimum to meet code), but the tub just overpowered the little room. 

We thought it would be nice to have two separate rooms.  Our thinking was that someone could be showering and still leave the other room open for handwashing or toothbrushing.  But we decided it was more important to have the bathroom feel more open and welcoming.

We talked to Jesse about it and he said we could save a couple hundred dollars if we took the wall down ourselves.

So, Saturday morning, we headed up the hill and started dismantling the little wall.  The subs had only gotten one layer of tape and mud up, so it was pretty easy to find the screws, unscrew them and pull the sheetrock off. 

Rob was a little worried about getting the bottom plate off the concrete, but he used his two hammers and was able to pop it off fairly easily.

It wasn't a big pile of trash, but it was rewarding to know we did it ourselves.

Already, the room feels better.  We decided not to move the toilet.  That would have cost a lot more money and been a lot more complicated. 

Here is the room all patched up, with the first "wholly smooth" finish coat up. 

This is as far as Visionary is going to take this room.  It's up to us to take it from this to a finished bathroom.