Day Two: The Massive Bathroom Project

I love the internet.  The problem with the internet, though, is that I have every possible remodel project at the palms of my hands!  And I have learned over the years that if there is one thing that I know, it's that if someone else can do something, then so can I.  (Be careful:  This can get you into BIG trouble on some projects!).  But it sure is fun for me to get ideas, test them through other's mistakes/successes on the internet, and then try them myself.

This bathroom project was to be no exception.  So here's the deal.  I have NEVER worked with tile before.  I have really had no reason to work with tile.  But now I have a bathroom that is covered in hundreds of salmon-colored tiles.  And after some hard thinking, I have decided that I am going to KEEP THEM!  Yup, you read that right...not only am I going to go with refinishing my tub, but I am going to go ahead and refinish my entire bathroom, as well!!!  Agh, it sounds downright crazy.  But the more I read, the more I am convinced that this could work!  It's not the cheapest project, but it will save me thousands over a full bathroom tear-out and remodel.

The problem is that I have to get the bathroom ready to be painted.  Basically, the tub refinishers come in and prep and paint the tubs and tiles.  But that's it.  That's their job.  It's like taking an old car and having it redone.  The painters do the sanding and painting.  But first there needed to be some "body work" done.  That was my job.

The first order of business was removing two Christopher Columbus ship tiles IN my tub!  I didn't want them, and they needed to go.  I had NO idea just how difficult that would be.  The internet videos and blogs all told me it was going to be easy.  I went to Lowe's and bought the necessary tools, and I started grinding down the grout.

One of the two colorful ships in my tub.  The tiles were actually raised grooves, so I couldn't just paint over them.

Inside the bathtub.

Well, I grinded and grinded and grinded.  This stuff was (like?) concrete.  I'm learning that this house is structurally sound.  All of the videos that I watched were from homes built in the last 20-30 years.  If someone wanted to tear out a tub, they just took a hammer to it, and it broke into large pieces.  Well mine, not so much.

I would literally spend an hour on EACH tile!  I would grind down the grout with a special tool and then start chipping away the tile, trying to break it.  The problem was that the mastic on the back was so strong that the tile wouldn't budge.  It would literally break into a MILLION pieces!!!  I had to wear eye and hand protection as these pieces were flying off like bullets in every direction.  Every smash of the hammer would send pieces flying.  But the pieces were so tiny!!!

I was getting nowhere fast.  So it took me two hours for two tiles.  Sigh.

The two tiles now removed after hours of work.

They did NOT break up into large pieces at all like others said!  Millions of tiny fragments.

What work this is!  It's tiring swinging a hammer that many times!  And it's just downright amazing at how little progress I make.  I decided to go ahead and remove the glass shower doors, too.  I didn't care for them, as they seemed too 1980's for me, so I had no problem taking those off. And it was very simple. I just removed some screws from the tile walls and pulled the rest off. It was caulked something fierce onto the tub liner, but that liner was going to go anyway. I didn't care.  I was amazed at how much bigger the bathtub area appeared, though!  It was like its only little enclave now!

Before removing the shower doors...

After removing the shower doors!

The large amount of caulk and sealant below the old glass shower doors.

Now for the rest of the story.  I had originally planned on removing only the two ship tiles, but after removing the shower doors, I noticed that a previous owner had simply just chipped away at an old tile towel bar rack in order to get the doors in.  Some people!!!  Agh, just do a project right, please!!!

Where the shower door used to rest.  The previous owner just simply cut away the tile to make it fit.  Sigh.

So I was now stuck with replacing a towel rack tile piece.  I searched high and low for one and actually found hundreds at a local Cleveland ReStore but none in my style.  But the more I thought about it, the more I was ok with just getting those tiles out of there.  I didn't need a towel rack IN the tub.  I already had to remove one of the tiles...so why not just remove both...

Oh, boy, what had I just decided.  That project would have to wait until another day...I didn't have enough arm strength left.