We started the bathroom project in February 2016, little after initiating the kitchen project. While the kitchen renovation was only partial, we wanted the bathroom completely redone.

The old bathroom had a wash basin and both a bath tub and a shower, and very bad lighting. The toilet seat was in a separate room with the washing machine. We wanted to get rid of the bath tub, move the toilet to the bathroom, and make the other room a laundry/housekeeping room. This all required a complete reorganization, regarding plumbing, electricity, lighting, and the walls. Pictures of the old bathroom:

We visited a retailer specializing in bathrooms, and especially Italian showers, and scheduled an onsite visit. We expected one or two guys to show up, but there were altogether six of them: the designer, plumber, electrician, the guy to lay tiles, the guy to take down and put up walls, and then one who was coordinating everything. After a couple of more visits to their shop to choose the furniture and materials, we were ready to sign the contract. We were promised that the installation could start in September — this was in April or so. As soon as we paid the first 40% of the bill, we were told that the works will start on October 11th. And they did.

The first surprise came after a couple of days, when they had taken down the walls and the bathroom floor tiles: the floor was not even, so they needed a few days to level it. They also found some problems with the electrical connection of the water heater. These two setbacks delayed the whole project for an additional week.

When everything should have been almost finished, we found out that we could move in only the following Saturday, the very same day we were planning to leave for a two-week Interrail trip. We pushed the trip one day forward, and returned to a very messy apartment with quite a few things still unfinished.

We made a list and sent it to the responsible parties who promised to take care of the issues when we were away.

Two weeks later we returned to equally messy apartment, with a number of things still missing, but at least we could live in there.

We really love the design and the quality of work. We are a bit sad that we have found quite a few items damaged or scratched, such as the mirror, the faucet, and the system to flush the toilet. All those will be replaced.

We also have a small issue of water leakage under the triangular bench in the Italian shower, but that will be fixed tomorrow. In general, I don’t want to be too negative or critical, since the response from the team has been very good, timely and cooperative.

In general, the new bathroom represents a huge improvement in usability over the old one, and is much more elegant. Especially the ‘buanderie’, laundry room, with its small sink is lovely.