We decided to remodel our guest bathroom, so in June of 2001 we ripped off the drywall and started from scratch, down at the studs. By March 2002 we were done.
We had Dave the plumber come in and install the Grohe shower and bath controls we bought. We started the remodel because the shower controls were too loud, and the Grohe controls advertised how quiet they were. Now that we are done and have listened to the shower noise, it's very quiet. The old shower sounded like a flood going through the house.
The insulation in the walls is for sound baffling, not for any heat requirements or anything.
The old sink was part of a cabinet which we removed because it was so old and ugly. Unfortunately, that left a big hole in the tile. We were fortunate to have the previous owners of the house leave a box of tile and grout in the garage, we which used to fill in the whole. Dave the plumber also raised the hot/cold lines for the sink, since we bought a wall mount.
RobFan helped us throughout the project, and here he's replacing the combo switch that's there with a 2-gang box.
In order to keep the sound of the water going through the pipes use the wood as a sounding board, we put felt fabric around the pipes where they contacted the wall.
We put up a combination of hardibacker board where the tile would go, and drywall where we were going to paint. Here you can see all the drywall has been mudded and sanded (three or four times, actually), and the bolts are coming out of the wall to hold the sink. The rag is in the outflow pipe for the sink. RobFan was a big help with the drywall mudding.
We got lucky buying the tile. The local Villeroy & Boch outlet was going out of business, and we got everything half-price. In the end it turned out we bought way too much white tile.
Naomi is laying in spacers between the fish tile. The design for the bathroom we saw in a house that was for sale. There is a line of fish tiles that come around from one side of the bathroom all the way to over the sink.
Once the fish tile was in place, Naomi started laying in all the white tiles.
RobFan laid in the last of the tile, and we were ready to start grouting (which was all RobFan as well).
Naomi is sealing the grout with a paint brush. It was really tedious sealing all that grout, and you have to do two or three coats with it. At this point, Naomi has primed the drywall as well.
Once we had the grout sealed, we installed the sink, toilet tank, shower controls, mirror, and finished grouting the floor. Here's the sink.
The final look:
And it only took 9 months!