Master Bath Beginnings

I have a backlog of things I need to post about.  A lot has happened in the Master Bedroom in the time passed.  The Master Closet is completed also.  But before I can get everything cleaned up and staged for taking a picture or two, I decided I wanted to do the ceiling in the master bathroom.  Then I got ambitious.

To scrape the ceiling, I would need to work in and around the light soffit over the dual sinks.  I began by removing the diffuser panels and inspected the florescent light fixture in place.  I wanted to swap that out with something LED, but wasn’t sure yet.  A longer-term project was to remove the soffit altogether and replace the light fixture with something more engaging.

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While I was up in there removing the bulbs, I noticed that the soffit was held in place with only 5 screws.  And just like that, my long-term plan became my current plan.  I’d seen too many DIY videos glamorizing the process of “demo”.  The soffit is coming out.

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I removed the florescent fixture and noted the mess that was made when it was installed.  I was sure I’d be making a bigger mess by yanking this box out, and my immediate intention is to get rid of the tile toilet paper holder and towel rack, so drywall repair is already in the plans.

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I started to work the screws out.  They were 4” ,monsters and had odd heads that really battled with my driver bit.  With a little manual and a lot of power driving, all but one screw was out.  The soffit was still firmly in place.  I retrieved a utility knife and sliced the caulk seams around the edges.  Then it started to move, just barely.

I didn’t need the thing crashing down and possibly breaking the full wall mirror underneath it, so I climbed up on the vanity, supported the soffit with my shoulders and started working it free.  It was fit in there really tight.  And it was probably installed before the orange peel texture was on the wall.

After a lot of effort, I was able to free it from the wall with only some moderate drywall gouging.  Now I have a new problem.  How am I going to light this area?  The vanity is 70” wide.  Quality LED vanity lights in the 40” range are $400 and up.  I know I’m insisting on quality with my remodel, but that’s really a lot for a light.

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Further, I have to consider the Alico lights I’ve chosen for the closet and bathroom.  They are square in shape, and I should continue that design.  There is 24” between the sinks.  Maybe a 24” fixture dead center will illuminate the area well enough.  Maybe I’ll have to route wiring to have two lights, one over each sink.  Or, even another option is to have an overhead light fixture.  Plenty of choices to mull over.

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I will probably have to do some wiring anyway.  There’s no light box in the wall.  Just wires.  I’ll need to install something there.  It’s not the only electrical work I have to do in that room, either.  I have to upgrade an electrical box from a two gang to a three gang.

Next up is the scraping of the ceiling.