• September 12, 2024

Evanston Mansion Renovation – Primary Bath and Closet After Demo

We have entered the demolition stage of the renovation of this 128-year-old mansion in Evanston. Architect Amy Berka tours us through fully dismantled primary bathroom and connecting closet and shares plans for the flip-flopping of shower and toilet room to make the most of privacy and daylight. The mansard roof might provide the opportunity for some creative closet design as well as showing the mastery of the original build.

Follow along!

• Episode 1 – Exterior and Foyer
• Episode 2 – Library and Family Room
• Episode 3 – Dining Room and Porch
• Episode 4 – Kitchen and Pantry
• Episode 5 – Stairwell and Landing
• Episode 6 – Primary Bedroom and Bathroom
• Episode 7 – Porch and Third Floor
• Episode 8 – Lower Level
• Episode 9 – Laundry and Guest Bath
• Episode 10 – Kitchen and Pantry After Demo
• Episode 11 – Primary Bath and Closet After Demo
• Episode 12 – Laundry and Guest Bath After Demo
• Episode 13 – Third Floor After Demo
• Episode 14 – Temporary Primary Bedroom

Transcript

Welcome back to the Edison Mansion Renovation Series, where we are now in the demolition phase. Huge, huge change since we’ve last been in this bathroom. This is the primary bathroom.

You might remember it from the faux columns, all the mirrors, the tub that wasn’t centered on the window. Well, there is a little bit of the tub left. It was so big the guys had to cut it out in pieces.

There’s two things that we’re going to do that I think are going to transform this space. The first is that we are going to take the doorway from the bedroom to the bathroom, and we’re going to move it over. Everyone who watches these videos knows how much I love symmetry and things lining up.

There’s a fireplace in the bedroom on the opposite wall, and that’s going to line up with this new door opening also. So we’re going to have fireplace, bathroom door, this hallway, door to the closet, and window all lining up on the same axis. The other change that we’re going to be working on in here is flipping what used to be a really large toilet room that had a toilet and a bidet, and what was, proportionally speaking, a really small shower.

So we’re going to flip the tube. This shower is going to be bright all the time, which I think is a really nice feature. To make sure that we have a large enough feeling toilet room, because the shower was pretty small, we’re actually going to use a wall-hung toilet on this job.

So getting in and out of what’s, you know, a little bit of a tighter toilet room won’t feel quite as tight because we’re hiding the tank in the wall. We are going to be putting a tub back where the tub was because it makes sense to have a tub in front of the window. But rather than having, you know, like a wedding cake of stone and really ugly marble steps, we’re going to just use a very simple freestanding tub.

There’ll be plenty of circulation space around it, and then opposite the tub is where our new counter is going to be with cabinetry, sconces, and things like that. So, vanity over here, tub over there. We are now standing in what is going to be the future primary bedroom closet.

You can see we’ve taken out all of the closets that were here. We’ve taken down some soffit work to see if we can make some improvements in terms of ceiling height and duct work. This is kind of a fun, neat piece over here.

So, this is a big dormer on the front of the house, and that’s why we have full ceiling height. But as we come over here, again, old-growth wood, you know, original 2x, real 2×4 framing. And what we’re seeing now is the part of the mansard roof that’s sloping in.

And I always look at this and think it’s super, super interesting because, you know, this house has a slate roof on it. And when we do slate roofs now, you know, we do like 2x12s at 12 on center just because there’s so much weight. Yeah, maybe like a 2×8 here, you know, like not a lot.

So, it’s kind of fun to see this, and it’ll be something that we’ll either work into the design. Maybe there’s a window seat here or a bench or something like that because I think it would be fun to be able to have part of that expressed in the room. But we’ll see what happens.

If you’ve missed any episodes of this incredible journey, go back and watch from the beginning.