The owner had already tried to pull the cabinet out himself and given up. It was built tight to the wall with the water heater sitting inside it. Nothing to inspect, nothing to service, and a unit downstairs that would find out first if anything ever let go.
That's the actual reason this bathroom got remodeled. The tile was dated, sure. But what he was really buying was not lying awake about it.
What went in
The water heater moved somewhere it can be reached. New shower-tub combination, large-format porcelain on the surround — 12x24, so there's very little grout line and the room reads bigger than it measures.
Black porcelain on the floor with epoxy grout, which is the part nobody sees and everybody should ask about: epoxy doesn't absorb, so it doesn't stain and it doesn't harbour anything. A waterproofed niche framed in between the studs for everything that used to sit on the tub edge.
The things that make a small bathroom livable
Not just newer — livable. A slimmer vanity with a mirror cabinet, so the storage went up instead of out. New toilet, new faucet. A quiet Energy Star fan with a light in it, ducted properly — because a bathroom this size with a bad fan is a mold problem waiting on a schedule.
"It looked like you guys were really organized and communicative." — the homeowner
Under two weeks, start to finish.
Built by Emerald City Repairs — completed as a subcontractor for DuetRight, Seattle.