Demo-licious

We had a water leak in the guest bathroom.  We also were not fans of the seashell wallpaper.  In order to solve our problems, we decided to demolish the guest bathroom.

First, a picture of what the bathroom looked like before we bought it:

The cleverly placed wastebasket to the left of the toilet is covering some wallpaper that had lost its adhesiveness.  That should have been a clue that there was water damage back there, but our home inspector didn't catch it.  We will be sure to research good inspectors next time.

I haven't been doing a great job with before and after pictures, so I decided to take a picture of the bench seat by the bathtub before I got too far into demolishing it.

 

If you look along the bottom right, the dark, discolored area was damp to the touch.  I thought we had an exterior water leak from the window or block.  We even had a general contractor who works for our homeowners' association come out.  He agreed.

 

This is what was lurking behind that waste basket.  I'd already cut out a section of drywall, but you can see the mold and water damage to the right of it.

 

Here it is after I removed the bench seat.

 

Our house is supported by metal beams rather than wooden two-by-fours.  Here are the rusted beams supporting the bench seat and the damp left bench seat wall.

See ya later bench seat!  After removing the toilet, I discovered the problem: the toilet flange and wax gasket that connect the toilet to the waste line were broken.  Every time you flushed the toilet, some of it would not go out, but would seep under the tile, bench seat, and vanity.  Gross. 

Here's the finished view of that wall.  The vanity, toilet, mirror, and bench seat are all gone.  The pink on the wall is insulation that I haven't finished removing yet.

 

The miracle of this whole project is that Justin was able to remove almost all of this while Hazel slept.  She never woke up, either at night or during her Saturday nap!

Now, the question is what to do with this space, particularly the bench seat area.  We're open to suggestions!