From the day I toured this house and first stepped foot into this primary bedroom, I knew that the whole situation would been to be addressed at some point. It was not giving me good vibes.

There was no door!

This late-90s era home took the concept of an ensuite too literally. There was no door separating the bedroom from the bathroom. Imagine being asleep, your partner gets up early for work, and you are suddenly jolted awake by the bathroom light! There was a door to the water closet - the space where the toilet and shower/bathtub existed. Thank goodness! But the vanity area was totally open to the bedroom, and I knew it had to change.

Over the first few years, I made some cosmetic updates. Painted walls, painted the vanity, changed the light fixtures, and added some floating shelves. But the time had finally come, and I started putting together a plan for the biggest project I’ve ever tackled - a total remodel of the primary bathroom (and closet!).

Before demo could begin, I needed a plan. I started with a mood board. I pulled together images for vanities, mirrors, tile, light fixtures….all the things that helped me visualize what my dream bathroom would look like.

From there, I started breaking the big project down into sub-projects like

• Demo

• Framing

• Shower

• Flooring

I then started itemizing and prioritizing the tasks I would need to accomplish these sub-projects. I even created tasks for the materials I would need to buy. (If you’d like to see the running project cost and source links, I’ve shared that spreadsheet here.)

I used Trello as my project management tool. I like the web and mobile interfaces, and was able to easily move things around as they were completed (or as I learned of new tasks I needed to complete).

At this point I had a vision (the mood board), a plan, and I was ready to start demo. I reserved a dumpster to be delivered right before Thanksgiving, and used that holiday break to kick this project off right - demo-day style!