A bathroom for a queen.

Or just a bathroom that is usable. Our upstairs bathroom was awful. If you haven't seen the before pics take a look. We gutted it. Took it down to the bare bones of studs. It was a process. It had an old cast iron tub which we were stumped on how to get out. It was larger then the door. Preston decided to beat it with a sledge hammer. All while we stood under in the kitchen ready to warn him if he was about to fall through. I really didn't need my step-dad falling to his death because of a tub.

Once that was out we had to figure out how to tackle the floor. It still had the original one-inch hexagon tile on top of cement. Nick spent an evening hitting the tile with a pick ax and then the next night Preston cut out the cement with a saw, knocked out chunks with a hammer while I piled them in five gallon buckets and brought them to the dumpster. So I made multiple trips up and down a flight of stairs all the way outside with two 5 gallon buckets filled with concrete. I ended up with multiple bruises and I think my fitbit said I burned around 3000 calories. The only upside to the demo project of this house was that I ended up with muscles I hadn't had since high school sports (and then I got pregnant and ate a donut every day).

Guys pro tip here: If you get a dumpster double check that it says no masonry. We rented a big roll out dumpster from Town and Country and NO WHERE did it say that we couldn't use masonry. Well, the dumpster was empty, we filled it with concrete and then filled it with plaster and lath and then filled it with other demo stuff including insulation etc. It rained a bunch, we called them to have them pick it up when they called us and told us that we had to dig out all the concrete. That was under everything else. Or that we could get a bigger dumpster, pay another deposit and two emptying fees, I don't think so. Luckily, we had the bigger dumpster as Colton was doing our roof and he used his lift he had to get on the roof to lift up the concrete dumpster and dump it in the bigger one. Problem solved, we were so mad we had them pick up the empty dumpster, strongly discourage doing business with Town and Country. We looked over that contract multiple times, no where does it say no masonry.(If you love T&C, awesome! Just our bad experience)

Back to the bathroom. We exposed the chimney in the bathroom. Nick cleaned it with an oscillator with a wire brush, cleaned it with muriatic acid, gave it a fresh coat of mortar and a clear coat and it is GORGEOUS! We will be doing the same with the chimney in the kitchen. We took out all the old cast iron plumbing. Put in new wiring with outlets in new spots, new light switch that is in the bathroom instead of the hallway and completely changed the layout of the bathroom. Moved the radiator, tub, shower etc.

Nicks dad took all the window wood work, trim and door and stripped it and re-stained it. We acquired two old cabinets that we put together, sanded and stained to match.

Our tub comes from my Aunt Sue. She recently built a fabulous house and had ordered claw foot tubs for her house, one came slightly damaged with a scratch on the side and they sent her a new one free of charge which means we got a FREE brand new Slip Back claw foot tub. The tub of every womans dreams. I can sit in the bubble bath and have the water cover both my knees and my boobs at the same time. YAS! I seriously think about just sitting in there with one of those tub trays, a glass of red wine and just relaxing. But in all honesty I have a 7 month old who loves his mama so this probably won't happen.

With a tub that holds 300 gallons of water, we had to reinforce the floors. Preston installed new floor joists. Put down two layers of sub-floor before putting down the tile backer and tile.

Nick doesn't care too much about the design of our house, he really only cares about the bar room. But one thing he did care about was the floor in the bathroom. He really wanted the same kind that his grandparents had in their house. Which is the same tile we tore out of the bathroom. It is small one-inch white hexagon tile with a black tile in the middle. I really wasn't a fan of it, but I decided to make the best of it and work my design around it.

We are almost finished with the bathroom. We had a little setback as we got our windows around the same time we were ready to finish and that took a big chunk of our time. For full details on every pic check out the progress of what we've done here. Or for a quick skim through, click through below!