Dream Bathroom

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In 1997 we purchased a 1970's house with a bathroom which contained only a bath with an overhead shower plus a vanity unit. The wife wanted a separate bath and shower cabinet, heated towel-rail plus a wall heater but this would have left very little standing room. My only option was to extend into the built-in wardrobe of the adjoining bedroom and so I drew up a plan on graph paper incorporating all the items we wanted to install. Tearing out a wall into which was built a large and heavy cabinet/mirror turned out to be a difficult and dusty demolition job as the wood was very hard and the nails very long. In some cases I could not pull these out so had to resort to a hacksaw.
The floor was sagging in places so had to be reinforced with slate. The total ceiling was replaced with pinex tiles and the walls relined. A new bath (running in a different direction), a handbasin and a second-hand corner shower were then installed by a plumber after I had hunted down the door hinge fittings he had misplaced. I used stained timber pre-cut flooring around the bath frame, made several trips to the Tile Depot for dozens of tile cuts, grouted the gaps between the wall panels and tiles, painted the ceiling, window and door frames, fitted 3 glass shelves and fixed a new shaving cabinet to the wall.
The need to observe electrical safety requirements in a damp area meant that I did not attempt to wire up the recessed lights, heater, shaving point etc. Even though we had exceeded our budget I agreed to a PDL device.
We now have a modern and warm bathroom. My wife was so pleased with my DIY effort that she has spent the last 10 years finding me more jobs to do but that is another story!

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