Three bathrooms in one Carlsbad house, each given a different treatment, six weeks for all of them.
The master
A freestanding tub, a separate tiled shower, a custom vanity and a lighted mirror.
The tub stands clear of the walls, which means the supply and drain come up through the floor at points fixed before the tile went down — not adjustable afterwards without opening the finished floor. The framing underneath was checked for the load of a filled tub rather than assumed to carry it.
Separating the tub from the shower is what makes a master bathroom feel like one. A combination unit compromises both: the tub is shallow enough to stand in and the shower is only as wide as the tub. Given their own space, each can be sized for what it is actually for.
The mirror is lit from its own perimeter, which is an early decision — the electrical box has to be located behind it before the wall closes and tiles.
The second bathroom: shower to tub, in wavy tile
The shower here came out and a tub went in. That is the less common direction, and it is usually the right call in a house where the other bathrooms are showers and there is nowhere left to bathe a small child.
The drain moves to the end of the alcove where a tub drains rather than the centre point a shower slopes toward, the alcove is framed to the tub's exact dimensions, and the valve drops to tub height with a diverter added.
What makes this room is the tile: a custom wavy, textured tile on the tub walls.
Dimensional tile is considerably harder to set than flat tile. Every piece has relief, so the setting bed has to be consistent or the surface reads uneven across a wall — and a wavy tile shows that immediately, because the light travelling across it is exactly what you are meant to be looking at.
It also has to be lit to work. A textured wall under flat overhead light is just a wall. Lit from an angle, the relief throws its own shadow and the surface moves.
The third bathroom
A shower-to-shower remodel with tile walls. The fixture stayed put; everything around it came out to the studs and went back over a new waterproofing assembly.
In a house where two other bathrooms are being rebuilt at the same time, this is the sensible treatment for the one whose layout already works. Nothing is gained by moving a shower that is in the right place.
Doing three at once
Six weeks total, which is faster than three separate projects because the trades overlap: one demolition phase, one plumbing rough, one tile crew moving room to room, one inspection cycle.
It is more disruptive in the moment — the whole house is a job site rather than one room — but it is a considerably shorter total disruption than three bathrooms done one after another.
The result
Three bathrooms with distinct characters, built as one project.
