Now, I do think it's important to stay in your rental property at least once per year so you can get an idea of what is good and not so good. Otherwise, it's hard to know if the showered is lame (ours was!) or the pillows need replacing (ditto). We rent a lot of houses for vacations and we are always happy to give owners feedback on what they should consider updating, getting or replacing. I am happy when our tenants do the same!
Of course, besides relaxing, I had high hopes for replacing the master bathroom floor which my mother had
told me was pealing and generally looking pretty gross. It was 20 year old linoleum and it was permanently yellowed so it certainly had seen its day. I had originally thought we would just tear out the old bathroom but reality set in and other priorities came first so we decided to just replace the floor and keep everything else until a bigger reno down the road.
At our local Home Depot, I had checked out the new peal and stick vinyl floors everyone is excited about. The wood-look was nice but I really wanted tile in the bathroom. I was really attracted to the Travertine look because it's beachy and won't show sand or hair. Bonus. I sent the specs to my dad and he picked some up at the Sarasota store along with some grout.
Friday morning brought cooler temps and light winds so the kids were happy to lounge around. My dad and I got to work on the bathroom floor!!
Here's the up close "before" picture. We pulled out the toilet and baseboard. The toilet was in good condition and fairly new so it stayed but the baseboard was total junk so my dad replaced it.
Here's the master handyman figuring out how we're going to handle the tile near the toilet. Right after this I told my dad that I think we should just try to pull out the whole floor. It came out in a couple of big sheets - it wasn't even really glued down. Amazing. Unfortunately I didn't take a picture of the bare floor.
Nice '80s wallpaper behind the toilet.
The process from there was very fast. We scraped the minor glue residue and then cleaned the floor with some cleaner my dad had on hand. There were some hairline cracks that we probably would have filled if we were using ceramic or porcelain tile but we decided the floor would flex enough to withstand cracking. Then we laid the tiles down for a dry fit up to the point that you see below. Then we pealed and stuck them down.
We used some books with paint cans on top to hold them down in spots where we thought they might lift a little or just on some of the corners that would see a lot of traffic.
We went for an afternoon swim and then I grouted it before dinner. We used a bag of grout although I don't have the color (it's at the condo!). It looked really great when it was done. It goes on just like tile but it's even easier to clean it off the vinyl.
My dad subsequently installed the baseboards behind the toilet and on the other two short walls. (no joke - it's probably 6 feet of baseboard total!!). We actually bought enough vinyl tile to cover the area under the vanity too when the time comes. I'd love to rip that vanity and medicine cabinet out next October. Not sure that will happen or not but it would really finish this bathroom for the next 15 years. The tub tile is actually in great condition.
We have a lot of weeks available this summer in case you are interested! It's Unit 706 in White Sands Village, Sarasota, Florida. Send me an email (houseography / at / gmail.ccom) if you are interested.
So, that's the story of the quick bathroom reno!
