indoors
RENOVATION
CENTER OF ATTENTION
Though a decent size, the original
vanity lacked the style and symmetry
the Wengers desired. They swapped
it for a narrower, furniture-style piece
they found at Lowe’s. Teamed with
a matching mirror, the dark wood
cabinet offers drawers for toiletries
and a shelf for towels.
randy and Julie
Wenger didn’t
realize they had
saved the worst for
last. But after years
of updating other
parts of their
Overland Park, Kansas, house, they
finally focused on the 5 ×12-foot hall
bath and discovered they had their
work cut out for them.
“When we tore out the cabinet
and flooring, I knew that the floor
had rotted,” Randy says. Water was
also the reason the window above
the tub was in disrepair—the frame
was speckled with rust and trimmed
with wood so moisture-ridden it
wouldn’t accept paint.
To launch the new, drier bath,
Randy and Julie chose mosaic stone
tile for the floor. They repaired the
original subfloor, then installed
cement board before tiling to avoid
future water damage and eliminate
any shifts that could cause cracks.
White ceramic tile protects the
shower walls, while vinyl wainscoting that mimics the look of
beaded board provides a waterproof
surface on the remaining walls. “I’ve
joked that if you shut the door you
can fill the whole room with water
clear up to your waist,” Randy says.
He found a dry solution for the
window, too: The replacement is a
vinyl-clad unit. Randy tiled up to it,
installed the trim on top of the tile,
and caulked well.
“Once it was done,” says Randy,
“we loved it so much we thought,
why didn’t we do it years ago?”
