#54 | taskrabbit
This is the only way the bathroom renovation was going to get finished
If you followed me on Instagram last winter (or if you’ve already heard me mention this repeatedly in my what i bought series), you may know that I decided to renovate our downstairs guest bathroom.
All by myself.
Without ever having done anything remotely close to this before.
I didn’t go into it completely blind; I took a few classes at Even Made which is one of the best things to exist in this city — hands-on DIY classes on every topic under the sun. I took a couple classes on drywall, a class on tiling, and an electrical 101 class. I figured that would cover the basics of a bathroom renovation & I watched a lot of YouTube for the rest of it.
It was extremely fun and extremely hard. I thought I would love demolition; turns out I do not! Getting rid of the tile on the floor was a feat of sheer determination. I borrowed a rotary hammer from the Chicago Tool Library because whoever installed this tile in 2005 did a great job; it was glued down hard.
Then I used a self-leveling concrete to smooth out the floor, followed by a crack prevention membrane. True to my nature, the tile I picked out was absolutely the most difficult to install — a marble mosaic. If you’ve never tiled before, trust me when I say it was really hard 😂
Once the floor was in, I put the toilet back in,1 installed the vanity, hung the new mirror… and stopped.
By this time it was spring, & we had so many visitors scheduled to come stay with us who needed to be able to use that bathroom. So there it sat, partially painted with new floor tile but no baseboards & a shower that still had the old ugly tile. It was functional, but it was a mess.
Fast forward to December & we’re getting quotes from contractors to renovate our kitchen & my husband makes a valid point: we should finish one project before we start another.
I was overwhelmed at the thought of tackling this again, especially since I didn’t think I was capable of the next step. As I was expressing this anxiety to my friend Alyssa (noted founder of The Mahjong Society & an overall delightful human), she reminded me that TaskRabbit existed & might be a good way to outsource the shower demo I couldn’t do.
The way my head exploded & the heavens opened up — it was the perfect solution!
What started as a simple project — please demo these walls — has now turned into this TaskRabbit doing the entire rest of the project. He’s demoed, he’s hung the new drywall, he’s waterproofed, and now he’s tiling. (And tiling & tiling & tiling… there’s a lot!)
So far, he’s worked on this project for 27 hours & I think there are a few more to go. His labor is more expensive than mine is (free) but it’s getting done & it’s getting done really well.
If you also have a project around the house that’s just been lingering, look into TaskRabbit — they offer dozens of services at a wide range of prices. This link will give you $10 off your first project so you can start the new year right.2
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I did have help on this step. Brad helped me take it out, but we hired a friend who is a licensed plumber to put it back in which was 100% the right call
Yes I am using this as an excuse to rack up some credit of my own for my next project, can you blame me?!