We demoed our bathroom today, with the awesome help of two good friends, Laura and John. They arrived at 9a and we called it a night at 5p (with still a little cleanup to do, but the demo completed). Pics will be on flickr shortly. We kept all the fixtures (since the sink and toilet are new and a bathtub replacement is a pain in the @$$ (and since it's white, why replace it?)) but took down the tile and the wallboard up to the ceiling.

I knew there was some plaster in the bathroom, and so expected that we wouldn't be able to just make a cut above the tile and match the new wallboard to the old wallboard above. In essence I was right. There was a skim-coat of plaster above two (yes two) layers of 3/8" drywall (in at least one section, it was a 3/8" or 1/4" drywall above 5/8" or something). The first layer was nailed in (not screwed, which isn't correct but certainly made demo easier) and the second was apparently glued to the first layer. Go figure. They also didn't use greenboard. What WERE the standards in 1962? No idea.

Around the tub they hadn't used cement board; it's possible they used greenboard, or there was a green mesh backing behind the complex tilework at the back. Not sure. There was also no plastic water barrier behind the wallboard. There was certainly water damage below the faucet handles, spilling over the edge of the tub (we fixed the floor's water damage when we did the floor) and also going a little ways across the back of the tub. The wallboard basically disintegrated as Greg pulled the tile off, which makes sense because tile was bulging out or otherwise acting like no self-respecting shower tile should. There was some mold, but it all came off with the "dry"wall and tile. We'll spray it with bleach anyway, but it doesn't look like any mitigation needs to be done. Also, no structural damage, for which we are very grateful. We replaced the insulation on the outside wall and filled a tiny hole that had been used by wasps (or more likely made by carpenter bees). The long-dead nest was about the size of a silver dollar, so wasn't used long.

We've put plastic up around the tub/shower and will schedule a plumber next week to replace the fixtures (going from a 2-handle to a 1-handle temperature-regulated fixture) and to check that there won't be continuing water damage when we wall it up. While we're waiting for that to happen, we'll put up greenboard (water-resistant wallboard meant for kitchens and baths) and can even paint it. After the plumber is finished, we'll do the cement board around the tub and then tile. We're using 6"x8" white tiles, 2"x6" white bullnose tile edging, and a stripe of blue iridescent tiles (with gold and a little green) around the shower. The accent tiles will be three rows of 1"x1" tiles, handily placed on a mesh backing. I think it'll look sharp. The paint will be a VERY light blue. We probably won't tile all the way to the ceiling, but high enough so water doesn't splash when showering.

While we're working on this, we'll be able to use the toilet, sink, and bathtub, and maybe even the shower since we'll have the area sealed with plastic sheeting which we'll tape to the tub for a seal.

Cleanup is mostly done (I still need to clean the tub, and wipe down the toilet and sink one more time), but it'll be a little while before we get the dust up in the rest of the house. Probably not until drywalling and sanding is done.