apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

Do you live in my building? I have the same crappy set-up.

ugggh... i cant believe that sink drain works well. thats a long way up from the p-trap. so ya, to use a peg leg, your talking major moves of feed lines and maybe drain at the minimum. the other issue is that you have copper (trap) to galvanized (elbows) to probably cast iron in the wall. over the years, this stuff does some neat chemical changes to each other that make it a HUGE pain in the ass to play with, especially in the wall.

sadly, i have no real solutions for you other than to start dating a plumber for a while and maybe a tile setter after LOL

How funny--I was also going to say that that bathroom looks like one of our bathrooms before we renovated it. I guess it must have been all the rage at the time! I think changing the sink and using the hex floor tiles will do a lot for the bathroom. As for the beige wall tiles. Is it possible to paint them white and change them later when you have more money or remove the wall tile altogether and add tiles at a later time?

Set off a bomb and call the insurance company?

Seriously, you can't go wrong w/ white tiles - and subway tiles are not that expensive: It's the labor and waste disposal that will cost you the most. I'd go to Home Depot and take some tile-laying seminars (or watch video's on Hometime.com or Thisoldhouse.com) and rent the tools to accomplish it.

forget the cosmetics-- I think that PVC pipe you have is not code-compliant in NYC.

You might want to forget tearing out the tile for now and just make sure your plumbing situation is OK.

You'll be responsible for any damage that occurs from a leak if the pipes outside your walls break. And that will cost a bundle. When I moved into my place, I switched out the tub and found that the lousy 80's patch job someone did on the shower drain was completely corroded. I shudder to think what would have happened when it gave way into my neighbors ceiling....

Have you thought about putting up a bead-board wainscoting panel over the wall tile? 4 x 8 fake panels start under $15 trim and paint. Just a thought...

Oh god, you have my sympathies. I've been "in the middle of" a bathroom renovation for TWO YEARS now, and it just completely sucks.

There's a second bathroom in my house that looks very much like yours. Renovation is impending. I'm not looking forward to it!

Honestly, if you're going to be changing out the sink, toilet, and floor tile, it's probably worth it to just save up so you can do the wall tiles (subway tiles are cheap, as long as you use the standard ones from HD or Lowes) and fix that plumbing up a bit. Trust me, the wall tile will look WAY worse once it's next to shiny new white hex tiles!

That toilet is seriously messed up, yikes...

I will put in a plug for those octagon Home Depot tiles (the black and white ones that you can buy in pre-arranged sheets) -- we put them into a tiny bathroom with white wainscot trim (as proposed by kibitzknitz) and they looked awesome. Just make sure that your floor is pretty level -- ours was not and we had to some crazy adjustments with tile nippers. At 2am. When we always do our tiling.

Replacing a P-trap is something you can do. I've replaced a couple, and it isn't too hard (unless there is something in the photo I'm not seeing). Make friends with the Home-Depot plumber and they could walk you through it. Or goggle "replace P-trap".

Does the toilet wobble? If so, it can be shimmed pretty easily.

Holy crap, that toilet! I think if you're going to go to the time and expense of changing the floor tiles you'd want to replace the sink and either replace or straighten the toilet first. That's not something I'd dare tackle, personally, and I think if moving/replacing plumbing is involved I'd bite the bullet and hire a pro.

I think if you covered the wall tiles with something as bright white as the toilet and sink the peach floor tiles would look way less awful. Someone mentioned beadboard - I like that idea - painted gloss white, and with a not-too-intrusive moulding strip around the top. If you have a little carpentry experience perhaps you could build out a little false wall of beadboard behind the toilet and top it with a small shelf. Done right it could cover the pipe (while leaving the flush handle accessible) and that would make the toilet less obviously wonky. That leaves you the option of ripping the beadboard off down the road if you marry a plumber. Then maybe a little white and peach (?) bath mat in front of the sink to further tone down the general peachiness?

My mom's small half bath was not remodeled since we moved into a 1920's house in 1963. She had some handymen repaint the outdated colored tiles to bright white using special tile epoxy and the transformation was fantastic. It was well worth the expense (might have been between $500-800 in CT).

We updated my dad's bathroom, which looked shockingly like the one in the pic, with standard stuff form Home Depot. Tore everything out, found a huge rotting area of wood floor, took that out, replaced with strong composite particle board (cheap), laid backerbaord, tiled w/ leftover free tiles. Then reinstalled new toilet with NEW wax ring, which apparently had corroded causing the floor to get wet and rot. New pedestal sink and faucet. Took one day and about $100. And 3 trips to Home Depot.

Oh yeah, I want to add to please think about the materials you buy for any remodel, especially if you have children. Kibitzknits mentioned beadboard, and many such wood composites eek formaldehyde and its *very* unhealthy.

cover the walls with truly reprehensible flea market art IN FRAMES, floor to ceiling every surface, nothing you mind having steam settle on, make it a LAFF RIOT... it works