Water Damage Spawns a Space-Saving Bathroom Remodel

Liz Weingart knew something was wrong when the man on the other end of the telephone addressed her as Elizabeth, her full first name. Weingart, then an investment banker and marketer, was on a business trip in California at the time. Her upstairs neighbor’s toilet had overflowed, said the superintendent of the New York City co-op building where Weingart had lived for two decades. The damage was extensive.

Because nobody was home in either unit, and because the toilet was an older, tankless model that connected directly to the main plumbing, water poured through Weingart’s walls for 10 hours, destroying her compact 5- by 7-foot bathroom and spaces in several units below hers. She cut her trip short, immediately hopped a flight back to New York and several hours later opened the door to her apartment to find the stench of water saturation overwhelming.

She had to race the clock to prevent mold and mildew. She hired a restoration company to punch silver-dollar-sized holes in the walls, which they then blasted with massive heaters. “My wall looked like Swiss cheese,” she says. The company also brought in devices that read the water content of plaster. The readouts showed 100 percent saturation.

BEFORE: Once things were dried out, Weingart hired a contractor to come in and temporarily seal everything up so she could at least use the bathroom while she planned her next move.

Weingart got insurance money for the damage, but the money would replace only to the standard of her previous bathroom, shown here. The building was built in 1938 and became a co-op in 1990. The sponsors at the time renovated some of the apartments to sell quickly, so things were cheaply done. Beige tiles on the floor and walls made the room look bigger but not better. “I could have not spent any of my money and replaced everything with the same 50-cent tile,” she says. “But no one wants to do that.”


AFTER: Weingart used to be the president of her co-op building and says she had time to think about her small space. She knew what would be permitted and what wouldn’t. Her plumbing could not move. And after measuring the vanity, toilet and other pieces in her original bathroom, she knew what she had room for.

She decided to design her new bathroom herself, sourcing all the tile, fixtures and finishes, a task that proved immensely challenging. She scoured local showrooms in search of small sinks, vanities, toilets and more. She played a game of inches, mapping out every decision carefully to get the most storage and counter space in her bathroom.

Weingart even showed up at toilet showrooms with a tissue box in hand in search of a flat-topped toilet tank she could put the box on. The dozens of toilets she looked at had either curved tanks or dual-flush buttons in the center. She eventually found a one-piece flat-top model by DXV called the Seagram that supported a tissue box just fine.

Bathtub: Byrdcliffe, DXV; light fixture: Ginger Kubic; medicine cabinet: Verdera, Kohler; frameless shower doors: Century


Weingart says the hardest decision to make was which vanity to choose. Her previous vanity was 22 inches wide, so she knew she didn’t want to go any wider than that or she wouldn’t be able to fit in the sliding shower door with towel bar that she wanted.

The industry standard these days is 24 inches wide for vanities, so she had trouble finding anything smaller than that in her price range. She eventually found a 21-inch Daytona vanity with a 20-inch Tribeca sink from Empire Industries. She put a larger recessed mirror in to make up for any lost countertop space below. The recessed medicine cabinet by Kohler has a sliding interior magnifying mirror that’s adjustable, so Weingart can use it to do her makeup.

For the floor tile, she wanted minimal grout lines for easier cleaning. She selected a style with stripes for a personal reason. “When you have long, dark hair, all we do all day long is wipe up our dark hair,” she says. “On the old beige floor, all I’d see was my hair. I found something with more interest so it wouldn’t be popping up as a feature attraction.”

Tribeca sink and Daytona vanity: Empire Industries; faucet: Metris S, Hansgrohe


Apart from the tissue box placement, Weingart had additional trouble selecting a toilet because she found that the whites differed from brand to brand. Some brands are more a cottony white while others are a creamier white, and she didn’t want her tub, sink and toilet to all be different whites. “You think white is white, but it’s not,” she says.

She eventually found a showroom carrying a new line by American Standard called DXV that matched the white she was going for.



Another challenge: Weingart is 5-foot-2 and had read a lot about people making mistakes on how high to hang things like the mirror, lights and showerhead. She made a point to be present during installation so she could make sure everything was hung at a comfortable height for her.

A clear liner that Weingart trimmed and secured to a tension rod repels water away from the window area. “I’d prefer that water not get down into the wall again,” she says.

Showerhead: Delta 2-in-1; tub faucet: Ecostat Diverter



For design inspiration, Weingart looked to the art deco hotels of South Beach Miami, particularly the Delano, Tropics, Shelborne, Breakwater and National. When it came time to add artwork, she found black and white photography of the actual hotels to hang on the wall.

For the wall paint, she first picked Silver Fox, a taupey gray by Benjamin Moore, that looked perfect during the day. But at night she walked in and thought, “Why is my room avocado?” A staffer at the paint store suggested she change her lightbulbs, and when that didn’t help she repainted in a lighter gray with blue undertones, Nimbus, also by Benjamin Moore.


Weingart says this space-saving double niche with white quartz shelves in the shower was the best decision she made. “Neighbors come over and stare at that niche with envy,” she says.

All told, Weingart says she spent about $22,000 for the remodel, including labor, materials, electrical, plumbing, fees and permits, including $1,100 for an expediter to fast-track the permit process.

Here’s some of the breakdown:

Wall and floor tile: $2,000
Vanity and sink: $1,300
Toilet: $895
Bathtub: $640
Faucet: $200
Tub faucet: $500
Showerhead: $250
Light fixture: $400
Towel bar, toilet paper holder and towel hook: $250
Medicine cabinet: $250
Shower doors: $600
Painting: $500
Restoration company to dry walls: $2,000
Window installation: $1,000

While the renovation took just eight days to complete, Weingart spent months sourcing all the products and materials herself. “It’s like a menu at a big diner,” she says. “You think it’s so simple, but a toilet paper holder can be inside the wall, external, stand on the floor, vertical, horizontal, flip open — there are so many choices, you don’t know where to begin. In retrospect, hiring a designer would have made things easier.”

More:
Key Measurements to Make the Most of Your Bathroom
Bathroom Workbook: How Much Does a Bathroom Remodel Cost?

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