Yesterday I had every intention of working on the porch. I gathered my tools, went outside and started working on the porch. I fully intend to remove the old, rotted siding boards, install the new siding boards, and then make some progress on the new porch baseboard. But about 30 minutes into my work it started spraying.
I am not a “Work in the rain“type of person, so I took my tools and went in. And then I sat at my desk for a few minutes and thought, “Now, what am I going to work on now?“I had three options, as I shared yesterday. I could start by clearing out the sunroom and preparing it for inexpensive conversion into our new (and hopefully temporary) home gym/living room combination. I could start work on the dining room. Or I could start by converting the bathroom into a storage room.
I didn’t feel mentally prepared to tackle the winter garden. The space used as storage (without any organization) seemed way too overwhelming at the moment. I need more time to mentally prepare for this space. So I ruled that out. I haven’t come up with a decorating plan for the dining room yet, so I’m not ready to work on it yet. So, with hammer and crowbar in hand, I went to the hallway bathroom and began demolishing that room.
I hadn’t planned to tackle this project yet. I was really hoping to finish some outdoor projects first before starting this project. But if the weather doesn’t cooperate, there’s not really much I can do about it. It looks like quite a bit of rain is forecast for the foreseeable future. With all other options off the table, it looks like the bathroom to closet project is now underway.
We can officially say goodbye to this bathroom. I really loved this bathroom. It was only the second complete remodel I’ve ever done in my life. It was a true remodel down to the smallest detail, and when I remodeled this bathroom, I had only done one other remodel down to the smallest detail before, and that was the kitchen in our house. So I was very proud of this bathroom remodel when I completed the main remodel over ten years ago (in 2015).
And then I liked it even more when I gave it this colorful makeover a few years later (in 2019).
But as the saying goes: all good things must come to an end. And yesterday was the official end of this room as a bathroom.
Since yesterday the room looks like this…
I thought it might be at least a little emotional for me to rip out this space. I put a lot of hard work into this room and aside from the plumbing, I did everything else myself – the drywall, the tiling, the walls and trim, and everything else.
But on the contrary, I felt no emotions other than excitement. This is the final area of our master bedroom suite that needs updating. And once this is done, we will have a complete bedroom suite that meets our specific needs.
I’m thrilled to have a dedicated storage area to store Matt’s equipment (power wheelchair, shower wheelchair, and Hoyer lift) when not in use. For 12.5 years, Matt’s Hoyer lift and power wheelchair have been a fixture in the main areas of our home, visible and out of the way when he’s not using them. And his shower wheelchair is in the corner of our shower. Luckily we have a huge shower with plenty of room for it, but I would prefer it not to be permanently installed in the shower. Once this is done, we will finally have a storage space to store all of these things, out of sight and out of the main traffic areas of our home when he doesn’t need them.
I was particularly curious about removing the panel I had installed on the side of the bathtub. I built this over ten years ago and attached it to the side of our very inexpensive bathtub, using MDF. Over the years I was warned by many people that the water would ruin it and over time it would become a complete disaster.
Well, it is in perfect condition. Because I sealed the spot where the panel meets the bathtub very well, you can see that no water ever got between the bathtub and the panel. And this was our master bathroom for years until I completed our large, accessible bathroom in December 2022. This was the only bathroom in our home that had a tub and shower, so it was used regularly from 2015 to 2022. And the bathtub panel perfectly withstood continuous use for seven years.
Want to know the best about this project? Last night, when I finished work for the day, I simply closed the doors to hide the mess.
I’ll do my best to keep all the demolition and construction stuff in the room so that every day when I’m done working I can close the doors and make sure our bedroom looks nice and tidy so no one ever knows what’s behind those doors.
As I worked, I thought about all the options for finishing this storage space. Matt’s gear doesn’t take up the entire room, leaving enough space for built-in storage for other household items. One thing I decided yesterday is that I am going to build the cabinets for this room from scratch. This is the best way to make the most of every available square centimeter. And here are my tentative plans.
As you stand in the doorway of the room, the wall on the left will be made up of cabinets from one end to the other. This wall is 93 inches wide, so I think I’ll divide it into three equal sections. Each section features drawers at the bottom and adjustable shelves at the top.
And then the wall on the right (where the bathtub is right now) looks something like this.
There will also be a narrower area with drawers at the bottom, but the rest of the floor space will remain open. This open space allows me to place Matt’s two wheelchairs against the wall. But then there is plenty of wall space above them for more shelf space.
I didn’t leave any wall space for the Hoyer elevator for two reasons. First, there is not enough space on the wall for all three items. But the Hoyer lift is also the one that Matt uses most often. It’s hard to explain without footage, but Matt essentially uses the Hoyer lift as a sort of hanging chair when he’s in bed. So he sits on the bed but leans back on the Hoyer sling. Since it’s adjustable, he can lean back as far as he wants or he can sit as far as he wants. It’s very comfortable for him, it’s fully adjustable and that’s the reason why we decided we don’t need our adjustable bed in the new bedroom. I never used the adjustable bed. If I want to sit in bed, I just put pillows against the headboard. And he never used the adjustable bed since he has his Hoyer adjustable hammock chair.
So when he’s not using his Hoyer lift, I just put it in the storage closet right in the middle of the room. It’s on wheels (obviously) so it’s very easy to slide it to one side or the other if I ever need to access the storage shelves or drawers while the Hoyer lift is in there. I think it will work perfectly. And since the wall on the right isn’t long enough for all three items, and the depth between the wall on the left and the doorway isn’t enough to accommodate the Hoyer elevator without it obscuring part of the doorway, that’s really the only option I have. I can work with that.
Anyway, it’s finally underway! If we have a nice weather day where I can go outside and work, I could take the time for this project to finish the fascia boards and baseboards on the porch. But for the foreseeable future, I’ll be focusing mostly on this storage room until it’s finished. I’m really excited to finally get started on this project!
