Here Comes the Pry Bar

Now we're getting down to the "real" demo work. I started destroying the vanity by chipping off the bullnosed backsplash tiles. The mortar bed underneath held pretty tight, even though the grout crumbled, so I would rarely get a tile up in one piece.

The more I had to chip away, the uglier this vanity got. How is pinkish-red grout attractive? And why did someone paint the walls sea foam green if this is how the vanity looked?

After the border was removed, I peeled off the backsplash with a pry bar. I say "peeled" because they did come off easily considering the inch of mortar and mesh behind them.

We thought that once the backsplash was off, we could unscrew the vanity and it would pull away from the wall. That was wishful thinking. Ryan worked on it a bit, but realized that the same foam gap filler that had been used to install drywall patches was also holding firm to the back of the vanity. Again, the plumbing was replaced and since the vanity didn't have a back, the owner patched the drywall as best she knew how.

We scraped along the inside of the vanity until enough of the foam was off, and Ryan and my dad moved the vanity out. I then had to sit on the floor and scrape the foam off the walls and drywall patches--they can be reused--for what seemed like hours. Definitely something I didn't anticipate.