How the Need for a Hair Dryer Outlet Turned Into a Bathroom Renovation!

We have one bathroom in our farmhouse, plus a toilet in the laundry room.  The main bathroom is upstairs along with the three bedrooms in this house.  It is also right beside the master bedroom.

As you may recall, we moved in here last November and are gradually renovating the house.  I had a problem with the bathroom, in that I have long hair and need to use a hair dryer after my showers, but there were no outlets.  Nowhere to plug in the hair dryer, so that led me to sit on my bed and dry my hair.  Now, that is not so bad except my husband is very good at electrical repairs and I thought he could "easily" put in some outlets for me, near the sink.

This is what we were working with.  A small vanity with a "belly" sink which has no real counter top area.  A slanted wall, and along with no outlet, no lights over or near the mirror, just one light in the middle of the ceiling.


So, when I asked dear husband Eric if he could find a way to wire a spot for me to plug in my hair dryer, we began to look into what this would entail. It seemed the best and only place would be to the right of the mirror (near the hummingbirds which came with the house).  At the same time, it seemed logical to put in a light switch for some type of light to go over the mirror.

Here is a photo of the area to the left of the vanity, where the entry door is:



Now, how to get the electrical wiring over to that area?  This was not easy because of the slanted ceiling, so Eric went in to the attic over the bathroom to see just what was up there.

Remember this photo of the mystery suitcase left in the attic?
Well on the left is Eric bent over, looking at the wiring for the bathroom ceiling light and seeing if he could tap into it for my new outlet and switch.

It seemed he could find a way to wire the new parts we needed so he proceeded to take down the mirror and the door molding.



The wall covering was a thin board (not sure what you call it, like a panelling), that had been wallpapered a few times and painted over. So first Eric scraped off what he could and then he cut a small section on the right where my outlet would go, just to see what was under there.


Aha!  Lathe and plaster.

Now at this point I suppose you can see where this was leading (or maybe the title of this post gave it away?).  We decided that we might as well take the whole panelling off, replace with drywall and repaint.  Then, well, while all that was apart, we might as well...

replace the lower portion of the wall and then...

since the sink was in the way and also too small...

get a new sink and vanity...

and since the vanity sits on the floor...

put in a new floor...

and since the baseboards would have to come off to put in a new floor...

put in new baseboards...

and since everything was pretty much going to look new...

paint all the trim and mouldings!


... to be continued...
see part 2 here
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