Hidden Tile: A Bathroom Story

This past weekend, Eddie and I decided to do a small update in the master bathroom. We decided that we were going to replace the sink/base cabinet. Here is what we were working with...

The previous owners renovated this bathroom by adding the sink/cabinet, tiling the shower and floors.
we've always hated the color scheme of the tile, which is one reason we decided to take out the sink/cabinet in hope that it would tone down the color scheme- making it more tolerable!
secondly, this bathroom is very small for being a master bathroom, so saving space is necessary! 

we are working with a small budget- we priced out a beautiful sink/base cabinet at Ikea:

Shown: Lillangen Sink/Cabinet/2-end units- Appox. $200
By adding this sink/cabinet combo, we would be saving 6 inches in depth!
Plus it looks more modern....

After going to Ikea (kill me) we came back and took out the old sink/cabinet

then to our surprise...we found TILE
THE original tile from 1920's

Whomever renovated this bathroom, decided to take an easy way out. 

In stead of gutting the bathroom, and taking it down to the studs, they put glue on the tile, then plastered over all the tile. So all the most recent renovations are sitting on layers of glue, plaster and tile. No drywall here!

No wonder the walls are so thick!

Our plans changed a little with this discovery:

We're thinking of exposing the tile on the one wall to see what type of damage is there. I am not confident that all the tile is intact around the entire bathroom, however, it would be nice to explore and see where it stops. 

I will update our progress as we figure this out!