DIY Attic Small Half Bathroom Renovation 1. From Demolition To Painting

This time, I'd like to share my half bathroom renovation process. 

I have 2 bed rooms, 1 half bathroom, and 1 extra closet on the second floor. Out of all the second floor projects, I finished the bathroom first.

 

This is the picture of the original bathroom when we first moved in this house.

Since it's on the attic floor, we have sloped/slanted ceilings.

You can also see the small sink(The width & length are both 17.25 inches) and toilet(the width of the tank was 15 inches).

 

This bathroom is not extremely small for a regular attic half bathroom, but it's not big enough to have a tub or shower either. Also, the built-in cabinet next to the toilet was ugly and not efficient because of the attic access in the middle.

 

I hated the brown bead board all around the sink and toilet. In my opinion, there should always be tile backsplash around the sink in the bathroom. Definitely!

Anyway, there was nothing I liked about this bathroom. So the first thing I had to do for the renovation was to gut out everything. 

 

I removed the vanity(including the water line and drain pipe), toilet, wall mounted light fixture, built-in cabinet, hand towel bar, bead board, base board and floor tiles.

Then I had to patch everywhere. Seriously... it was a lot to patch.

 

I also patched the attic access completely. I was planning to replace the original wood access board with plastic panel, but I couldn't find the right size and material access panel that I wanted. Since I heard Cape Cod house attic are impossible to fully insulate from an energy company, I wanted to make sure that the new access panel was insulated well and could freely open and close at the same time. But it wasn't easy to find a solution. I was considering make an access door myself, but it was too much for me to do. I just ended up patching the access with drywall and decided to just open up the wall next time we need to. I think it's going to be fine for a while since we weatherlized the attic a few months ago. 

 

After patching everything, I primed the whole surface with KILZ 2. I love KILZ 2 primer since it's waster-based and easy to use. It's especially good for woodworking. However, it doesn't cover the original strong color perfectly when it comes to wall painting.

The picture above is after I primed 2 coats of KILZ 2. As you can see, the original paint can still be seen through. If you are changing the wall color from light to dark, it wouldn't really matter. But I, personally, think changing from a dark to light color is kind of challenging with KILZ 2 primer.

 

As a result, I had to paint 3 coats of Duration from Sherwin Williams. The color is Timeless White(HGSW 4055) which I used for my kitchen renovation. 

 

2023.02.08 - [DIY projects] - 부엌 페인트 Sherwin Williams Duration Paint Timeless White for Kitchen

부엌 페인트 Sherwin Williams Duration Paint Timeless White for Kitchen

 

I didn't do the flooring and baseboard myself. I had to hire someone because the whole second floor needed new flooring and I wasn't confident to do it myself. I do have some experience installing vinly plank, but it was really hard for me even though it was small area.

 

Anyway, the flooring guy installed the floors and baseboard together. All I had to do was patch the nail holes and paint the baseboard. After that, the bathroom was ready for everything. (vanity, toilet, storage cabinet, backsplash and so on...)

 

I will share more in the next post!