If you are considering relocating plumbing and/or walls, of course you are looking at much more labor and expense. In a small bathroom these are not usually on the agenda unless you are thinking of expanding the bathroom into a neighboring room or closet. In some instances a person will want to remove (or add) soffits, rearrange the lighting and exhaust fans which will call for some minor drywall work.

In the case of the two jobs pictured below, bath tubs were removed and a shower put in their place. Obviously, this calls for the removal of the tub, relocating the drain in the floor and recapitulating the diverter plumbing. If this were the only tub in the home, I would advise against it because, the day will come when you will wish you had a tub to soak in.

Each of these jobs required new ceilings due to the changing of ceiling exhaust fans and removing soffits and new lighting arrangments. Aside from that, the only other drywall work was to the walls due to removing those gigantic wall  mirrors, relocating outlets and switches, relocating the plumbing to accommodate for the larger vanities and the removal of the side wall medicine cabinets. All the tile in the bathrooms were replaced including the floor tiles and the marble window sill. The photos were taken prior to the frame-less glass door installations.

A final note of caution. A lot of people are getting rid of those old wall to wall mirrors and medicine cabinets and replacing them with ornamental mirrors and larger vanities with lots of drawers in lieu of a medicine cabinet. I just want to point out that if you decide to remove these large mirrors by yourself , it can be done. I remove them on my own all the time. Just know that they are extremely heavy (you may want to enlist a helper). Also know that they are not safety glass, when broken they turn into shards and can cause serious damage to you and your property, ie. flooring, counter tops and tubs, etc.

I have yet to do a ceiling job that didn’t turn into a major re-do. Often I get the paint, molding, tile, kitchen, bath, doors and all sorts of work and referrals from one ceiling job, done right. These photos show a recent job where the ceilings were 16 feet high in some areas and the skylight boxes as high as 20 feet. The home owner did not want a scaffold in the house so I did it all with ladders (this also sucks). The textured walls remain as they were. Each wall had a different texture. Due to the mold damage found in almost every room in the house, many areas of the drywall had to be removed and finished to match the existing. In spite of my misgivings about pulling this off, I surprised myself. Even I have a hard time seeing where the patch work was done. So I’m happy about that.

The happy eventuality of all this is a clean and updated look. In this home  3/4″ X 6-1/2″ square stock was used as base molding and 3/4″ X 3-1/2″ square stock became the casement around the doors and simple 4-5/8″ Colonial crown was used on the lower ceiligs and 6-1/4′ up high. Also on the exterior French doors I installed a wood valance right in the jamb to hide the window shade hardware. In the guest bedroom where there is a sliding glass door I built in a valance across the span of the room made of drywall and hand matched the texture of the existing walls. This way, the crown molding is installed directly on the valance, so that it looks like, it was always there as part of the walls and continues that clean look.

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