This morning we did MORE thinking and re-thinking about the bathroom: planning, drawing, measuring and agonising over how we could overcome our furniture problem... then finally we had a breakthrough.

We are now abandoning the idea of using furniture to conceal the sink pipes and cistern and will instead conceal them by fully tiling that area. We had become hung-up on using furniture because of the storage, but in considering alternatives, we realised that the pain wasn't worth the gain, as we wouldn't actually achieve much useful storage space.

As well as the tiled toilet and basin area, the new plan involves boxing out the length of the wall above the sink and toilet and behind the shower. At one end this will conceal the shower pipes, then in the middle over the sink and loo we will put a large mirror (with room behind for heating if desired), and at the other end we will build a flush door in the mirror to give a cabinet just deep enough to house all our bathroom utensils.

Once we had this plan clear, it was as if we had pushed the big red start button. Dom could now get on and do some of these jobs straight away, so it was time to get cracking (literally).

First it was off to B&Q to buy plasterboard, board adhesive, wood for batoning the boxed out wall, a dust mask, protective clothing, buckets, plaster stirrer and as we saw it, a combined shower extractor and light.

Then it was back home to destroy the evil peach room.

Dom put on his protective gear, armed himself with his mini angle grinder, shut the door and went in for the kill.

A few hours later and the toilet is gone, the carpet is out, the sink and bath are loosened and the necessary tiles have been sawn off from the wall complete with their plasterboard backing. It is now pretty much a blank canvas, ready for us to make progress in the evenings this week.

Labels: d.i.y.