A rental property of mine that I purchased several years ago was in rough shape! I’ve purchased a lot of fixer uppers over the years, but this one was in pretty dire condition. I found the bathrooms in this property particularly unpleasant! They were dirty, stained and let’s say they had probably not been cleaned in years.

In the lower two-bedroom unit, there was a small bathroom, but I could see it had potential – high ceilings and a large window. But in addition to the gross factor, the room was badly laid out and really didn’t function. The bathroom door didn’t open because it hit the large claw foot tub and almost hit the toilet. Because of the door swing (inward), you would have to get in the room and close the door to even access the tub and toilet. The sink was small, broken and didn’t have any storage, there were odd exposed pipes running through the space. The fixtures were all formerly white and were dirty and stained. There was a 12x12 ceramic tile on the floor that was grimy and had dirty grout.

Here are some of the before pictures:

BEFORE: Small white sink - no storage!

The shower on the tub was suspended from the ceiling, the vent had seen better days and the door wouldn’t open!

BEFORE: The shower was duct taped on to the faucet

I knew the entire bathroom needed to be gutted and I felt I could come up with a much better lay out. After reviewing the floor plan and dimensions, I knew a tub really couldn’t work in the space. Instead I opted for a nice shower with a glass door and a sink/vanity that did offer some storage below. In most cases I would not remove a tub from a bathroom, but in this tight space there was no other option. I redid the floors in a new black hex tile, put in all new plumbing fixtures, moved exposed pipes to the interior walls, installed new water resistant drywall, added new electrical including a small baseboard heater, new vanity, faucets, towel bars, lighting, fan, subway tiles, mirror over vanity with storage, custom window treatments, etc.

The space was transformed into a small but functional white bathroom. The glass shower door really helped to keep the space feeling open and didn’t give you a closed in shower feeling. The white subway tile on the shower walls helped to brighten and lighten the room too.

Overall I was very happy with the results!

A few more of the After photos.