To say that I am ready to get this renovation underway is a bit of an understatement. This is one project that we’ve had planned since just after we moved into our home. When I was asked to be a part of the Jeffrey Court All-Star Renovation Challenge, I thought this was the perfect project! I have anticipated this project for a while and can’t wait to get started! Oh, and I need to get it done soon because we are expecting our third child! That’s right…I’m just a little crazy and will be doing this renovation while very pregnant (with the help of my husband, of course).
So let’s get started! This is the half bathroom that we will be expanding into a full bath. It is rather small to start with, so any expansion is going to be great!
After exploring all of my options, I decided it was best to expand our bathroom into the laundry room. I had space near the washer and dryer that felt like wasted space. Instead of re-configuring my entire laundry room to make a huge bathroom, I decided to take the practical route and simply remove one wall to expand into the laundry room and use the wasted space.
In an attempt to not have two rooms in complete disarray, I decided it would be best to build the new wall and finish it off as soon as possible. This would allow me to finish off the laundry room and focus on the bathroom expansion.
Laundry Room Demo
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I started with demo on the laundry room side…which was fairly simple. I had to remove one base cabinet and a few wall cabinets. Once the cabinets were out, we were able to remove the sheetrock.
We have luxury vinyl plank flooring throughout our home. It certainly makes for an easy demo! If you aren’t familiar with LVP, it is installed directly on the subfloor and is only secured at the perimeter of the room. I was able to pull up all of the flooring in a matter of minutes.
Wall Build Part I
Once the floor was removed, my husband and I began building the new wall. We started by installing the header and footer and then installed the studs along the wall with the washer and dryer.
Bathroom Demo
Before I fully enclosed the wall on the laundry room side, I wanted to demo the sheetrock in the bathroom. I recently installed shiplap in this bathroom. I have installed my fair share of shiplap, but have never demoed it. I was pleasantly surprised by how easy it was to remove the shiplap in the bathroom!
Once the shiplap was down, it was time to remove the sheetrock!
The purpose of this bathroom expansion is not to provide an additional large bathroom, but to create a practical space. With the bathroom wall removed, it was easy to see the new space and location of the new shower.
Wall Build Part II
If you followed along with my mudroom renovation, that was the first time I had ever built a wall…and it was so easy! This wall was also easy and was up in two days.
While everyone else is busy making open concept homes, I might just start randomly building walls throughout our home.
After the wall was framed, I jumped back onto the laundry room renovation. I installed shiplap to finish off the wall in the laundry room.
Electrical and Plumbing
As soon as the bathroom sheetrock was removed, we were able to see the electrical and plumbing. My husband has done his fair share of electrical and plumbing work on previous homes, so he decided to tackle the few changes necessary on his own.
He started with the electrical, which consisted of relocating outlets and the light fixture. Once the electrical was complete, it was on to the plumbing…and into the crawl space.
I felt just a little bit bad about him having to work in the crawl space…until I looked down there. Our crawl space is encapsulated and is actually really clean. He had it all decked out with lights and it looked pretty cozy. He even joked about making it his man cave with a couch and big screen TV. I think he secretly liked hiding from me and the kids for a few hours..
Once the plumbing was complete, I was able to patch the floor. This is another first for me. It’s funny how easy tasks like this are once you break it down. I started by adding cross support between the joists.
After the supports were in, I cut a piece of subfloor and secured it to the supports.
With the walls gone and the electrical and plumbing relocated, this bathroom is actually starting to look like a real room!
Want a little sneak peak of what is to come?! Here you go!
Be sure to check back next week for some shiplap (of course there will be shiplap) and tile fun! You can see what the other Jeffrey Court All-Star Renovation competitors are working on here.
Special thanks to all of my sponsors for this project:
- Jeffrey Court
- Behr
- FrogTape
- Pfister Faucets
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