Back To The Storage Room (And Two Costly Lessons I’ve Learned From Past Room Remodels)

For those who’re new round right here, right here’s a fast recap to get you up to the mark. That is the lavatory I’m engaged on. It was once our principal visitor lavatory, however then I did some transforming and turned our three-bedroom home right into a one-bedroom home with all three authentic bedrooms subsumed into one massive master suite suite. That left this authentic visitor lavatory inside our bed room suite, which is a really awkward format, to say the least. So I’m turning this lavatory right into a much-needed storage room.

The left wall that had the self-importance and bathroom within the lavatory can have cupboards that look one thing like this…

And the other wall that now has the bath can have cupboards that look one thing like this…

Anyway, it has shocked me a bit to seek out that tearing out this lavatory, which was the second room rework that I tackled after we purchased this home, hasn’t been troublesome for me in any respect. I form of anticipated to really feel some kind of unhappiness at tearing out all of my laborious work, but it surely’s been a decade since I did this lavatory, so I really feel nothing however pleasure concerning the future storage room.

The primary factor I obtained performed yesterday was tearing out this cupboards/shelf space that was simply inside the lavatory door to the appropriate.

All of that’s gone now.

I used to be grateful that I used to be capable of get all of that out with minimal harm to the drywall. I’m actually making an attempt my finest to get this demolition performed with out having to start out from scratch on the entire drywall.

However that brings me to the primary of the 2 large (and expensive) classes I’ve discovered over my years of doing room remodels. Primary…

Building adhesive will not be wanted on trim!

In my early years of DIYing and transforming rooms, I used building adhesive very liberally. Any time I added a bit of trim to the wall, I’d use building adhesive earlier than nailing the trim to the wall. I used it on each single piece.

I finished doing this a number of years again once I realized that it’s simply not wanted. Once you set up trim, you usually comply with the set up with caulking across the trim and the priming and portray the trim. The nails, caulk, primer, and paint are loads to carry that trim in place. Building adhesive is sort of at all times overkill. However I used to apply it to the whole lot.

Not solely is it an unneeded added value to the mission, but when and whenever you resolve to take away the trim, that building adhesive is nothing however a nightmare and it’ll destroy the drywall as you attempt to pull that trim off of the wall.

With out the development adhesive, all of this wainscoting may have been pulled off of the partitions with very minimal harm to the partitions. I merely would have needed to rating the caulked lined with a utility knife, pull the trim off of the partitions, do a little bit of sanding, after which the partitions may have been painted (or textured and painted if wall texture is your factor). However due to that building adhesive, I’m left with a a lot greater job.

The identical goes for mirror mastic. I’m not saying that mirror mastic isn’t wanted in some conditions. It was undoubtedly wanted on this mirror with this design that didn’t enable for mirror clips that screw into the wall. However only a dollop of mirror mastic in every nook is sufficient. I can virtually assure you that I put mirror mastic on your entire again of this mirror, which can make it a nightmare to take away and can most likely depart me with fully destroyed drywall as soon as it’s off.

I’ve discovered rather a lot in my years of DIYing, and considered one of my principal classes is that this sort of overkill will at all times come again to chunk you. It’s simply not wanted, and it provides further expense to a mission.

And lesson quantity two…

All the time set up flooring first (and buy further to maintain readily available)

I do know this isn’t at all times potential, however I certain want I had put in the flooring first, all the best way beneath the bath, after which put in the bath on prime of the flooring.

Once you don’t set up flooring first and also you don’t take all of it the best way throughout the room, wall to wall, however as an alternative, you place the flooring round fastened gadgets within the room (like vanities, bathtubs, kitchen cupboards, and many others.), it’s going to at all times trigger issues in case you resolve to transform and rearrange a room.

I’ll be left with this big space that doesn’t have flooring, so now I’ve to resolve what to do with this flooring. Since I can’t discover tile to match this decade-old tile, do I fill in with tile that’s “shut sufficient”? Do I redo your entire flooring? I may have saved myself an enormous headache and further value had I not solely put the tile in first, wall to wall, earlier than putting in the bathtub and different fixtures. However I’ve additionally discovered that it’s at all times a good suggestion to buy a few further bins of tile to have readily available for this actual purpose.

However sadly, I’m left with no tile beneath the bathtub, and no further bins of tile. So now I’ve to determine what I’m going to do about this flooring. I may have saved myself money and time had I spent the additional bit of cash again then and tiled the entire flooring and bought a few further bins of tile to maintain readily available. However that’s the DIY life, proper? We stay and be taught from our errors.