• April 3, 2025

Evanston Mansion Renovation – Primary Bath

We have modernized the primary bath of this 100+-year-old mansion in Evanston, Illinois by flipping and opening up the formerly closed shower and toilet spaces, adding a freestanding tub and the modern luxury of heated floors.

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
• Episode 15 – Entry Hall & Library
• Episode 16 – Primary Bath
• Episode 17 – Exterior Sconces
• Episode 18 – Powder Room
• Episode 19 – Kitchen

Transcript

Welcome back to the Evanston Mansion renovation series.

Welcome to the new and improved primary bath. I think it looks a lot different since the last time we’ve been here, and it certainly looks a lot different from where we started.

There’s not a single light on in the place, and it’s bright as all get-out. I would say the biggest change that we’ve made here in this room is to flip the shower and the toilet. Shower used to be here. Toilet used to be here. They were both in very, very dark rooms, and the shower was very, very small. As you can see, this is a quite generously-sized shower. And because we’ve only built a knee wall, it allows us to make this surface and this surface glass so that when you’re in the shower, you’re always going to feel like it’s really, really bright.

We have a new freestanding tub that we’ve ordered previously. There was a giant tub with a tub deck and steps into it. So we’re going to have a freestanding tub here. You can see the drain for that. We have Schluter down. We have our heat mat.

This floor is going to have an electric resistance coil. We’ve done all of our plumbing, so we’ll have two vanities here.

Something that we did which actually became a benefit to both the shower and the toilet room. So we shifted these walls over so the toilet room got wider, the shower got bigger, and now, magically, the tub is going to be centered on this window.

Toilets. During demo, we learned that there was no way we could get the plumbing to work, so we needed to resort to an in-wall tank. Here, the bowl is going to be mounted to the wall. The tank is in the wall. It’s going to make this toilet room feel even larger.

The previous door was here, which meant you’d be coming in and out when someone might be at their sink. So by shifting that door to the bedroom over, we get all this extra space to make it sort of feel like vanity zone. Then we have tub zone and this circulation space.

Center of door, center of door, center of fireplace, center of window.

I gotta tell you, it’s totally awesome in here.