For Kim and her family in Cedar Rapids, the main bathroom had stopped fitting the way they actually live over the years.
There was a tub and a separate shower taking up the space, an aging vanity, dated lighting, and a room that had simply started to feel tired. What Kim wanted wasn’t complicated: a bathroom that felt comfortable, updated, and easier to use every single day.
Today, that’s exactly what she has.
We took the room down to the studs and rebuilt it. Out went the old tub, shower, vanity, flooring, toilet, lighting, and mirror. In came a sleek, standing Bath Planet shower, plus new flooring, a new vanity, a new toilet, an updated light fixture, and a new medicine-cabinet mirror.
The finished space is brighter, more inviting, and built around how Kim’s household really lives. Here’s how it came together.
A Bathroom That No Longer Fit the Lifestyle
When we first sat down with Kim, the story was a familiar one. She knew what she didn’t love about her bathroom, but like a lot of homeowners, she wasn’t quite sure how to change it, or where to even begin.
“Before the remodel, I knew what I didn’t like about the bathroom, but I wasn’t exactly sure how I wanted to change it and where to start. It was important to us that the new space fit the rest of our home while still feeling fresh. Now that it’s finished, I appreciate the little details just as much as the overall transformation. It finally feels like a space that works for us.” ~ Kim
That’s honestly one of our favorite places to start, because it’s where we can help the most.
Kim and her family weren’t chasing a gut renovation for its own sake. They wanted a bathroom that fit the rest of their home while still feeling fresh, and that would be easier and more comfortable to live with for years to come. From the first walkthrough, our job was to take the pressure off the decisions and help them picture what the room could be.
Why a Bath Planet Shower Was the Right Fit
The standing Bath Planet shower is the centerpiece of the new room, and for good reason.
- Instead of covering up what was already there, we removed the old wet area completely and installed a custom-fit acrylic shower built for Kim’s exact space.
- The acrylic wall panels are non-porous, so there’s no grout to scrub and far less worry about mold and mildew through Iowa’s humid summers.
- A triple-lock seal keeps water where it belongs, and the whole system is backed by Bath Planet’s lifetime manufacturer’s warranty plus our own lifetime workmanship guarantee.
Here’s where working with us feels different. A lot of companies that install this kind of shower stop at the wet area and leave the rest of your bathroom to you. We’re a full-service remodeler, so we handled the whole room in one project. The new flooring, vanity, toilet, lighting, and mirror all came together as one cohesive space instead of a patchwork of separate jobs, which is a big part of why the finished bathroom feels so pulled-together. If you want the full rundown on the shower system itself, our Bath Planet bathroom remodel guide walks through the product and process, and our bathroom cost guide breaks down pricing.
What Can Hide Behind an Old Tub or Shower
Here’s something a lot of homeowners never think about. A tub or shower is one of the few places in a home where water and daily use hit the same spot for decades. So when we take an old wet space out down to the studs, we get a full look at what’s behind it.
Sometimes everything is in great shape. On Kim’s project, the structure underneath was solid, which is exactly what you hope to find.
But that isn’t always the case, and there’s no way to know until you open it up.
Behind an old tub or shower, we sometimes find a soft subfloor, slow leaks, mildew, or subpar plumbing that’s been hidden from view for years. None of it shows up from inside the bathroom. The only way to be sure, and to fix it if it’s there, is to remove the old surfaces completely instead of building over them.
That’s why we replace the entire wet space rather than dressing it up. If something needs attention, we take care of it before the new shower goes in. If everything’s solid, you get the same peace of mind Kim did. Either way, nothing gets sealed up and “hoped” away.
More Than a Cover-Up: Why We Don’t Do Tub Liners
If you’ve shopped around for a quick bathroom update, you’ve probably seen tub liners advertised. A tub liner is a thin acrylic or PVC shell that gets set right over your existing tub, with matching panels installed over your existing walls. Nothing underneath comes out. On the surface, it looks like a brand-new bathroom in an afternoon.
Here it is for you, straight (and it’s a fact we learned firsthand): we used to install tub liners too. We stopped, and we don’t offer them anymore.
When you line over an old tub and walls, you seal in whatever’s already back there, including any hidden water damage, rot, or mildew. A liner doesn’t fix those problems. It hides them, and it can trap moisture between the old surface and the new shell, giving them a warm, damp place to keep growing.
For you, any money you may save by installing a tub liner is likely going to be spent in servicing or required fixes in the years after installation. That’s not fair to a homeowner, and it’s not the kind of work we want our name on.
“When you take the old walls down, that’s when you see the truth. Decay, mold, leaks. A liner just covers all of that up. We’d rather pull it out, fix what’s wrong, and give you something that actually lasts.” ~ Dave Wilslef, Hometown Restyling Marketing Director
So instead of lining over the problem, we remove the old wet area, repair what needs repairing, and install a system built to last. It takes a little more work up front. It saves you from the headaches a shortcut leaves behind.
Is Your Bathroom Hiding the Same Thing?
You don’t have to wait for a leak to find out something’s wrong behind your shower walls. A few signs are worth paying attention to:
- A musty or damp smell that lingers no matter how much you clean
- Grout or sealant that won’t stay sealed, or keeps cracking
- Soft or spongy spots on the floor near the tub or shower
- Discoloration or staining creeping up the wall or along the base
And if your tub feels oddly shallow, or you heard about a fast “one-day” bath job from a previous owner, you may already have a liner covering the original fixture. If any of that sounds familiar, it’s worth having someone take a look before small problems become big ones.
Ready for a Bathroom That Works for You?
Kim got exactly what she set out for: a bathroom that feels comfortable, updated, and easier to enjoy every day, put together by a local team that treated her home like our own. Here’s how she described it once everything was finished:
“What I wanted most was a bathroom that felt comfortable, updated, and easier to use every day. There were so many decisions to make, from the tile to the fixtures, but seeing everything come together made it worthwhile. The finished space feels brighter and more inviting, and it’s something we enjoy more now.” ~ Kim
That’s the kind of everyday comfort we love helping our neighbors find. We’ve approached remodels in Cedar Rapids, Marion, Iowa City, and across Eastern Iowa the same way for nearly 40 years, as an employee-owned company that treats every home like our own.
If your bathroom’s ready for the same kind of transformation, we’d love to help. Reach out for a free consultation and we’ll walk through your space, your goals, and your options, with no pressure and no cover-ups. You can also browse more of our work in the bathroom gallery.