talk to me about bathroom remodeling

thisismynickname2

Hi!

My new year's resolution is to remodel my gawd-awful vintage (as in old, not cute) bathroom. I knew when I got the condo over 4 years ago that I wanted to do it eventually, but I had visions of HGTV dancing in my head and got scared off the project thinking about everything that could go wrong (and everything that could blow the budget). 

I have a guy coming next Tuesday to consult. There are quite a few restrictions for my building- I can't rip out the bathtub (noooo! boo!) or mess with the mixer system. 

I'm going to keep the b&w vintage floor tile and am thinking about a dark vanity with white or faux-granite or marble rectangle sink. I'm thinking white subway tiles for the bath/shower with black tile trim. I already have one accent wall painted charcoal and will have to re-do it in some form, anticipating that the remodel will involve removing these gross recessed holder-thingies. 

Anywho! Have you been through this? Success stories? Horror stories? Best practices? 

Thanks! 

plainjane0415

FI lives in a historic home that was built in the 1930's.  He completely gutted the downstairs bathroom, and is now turning one of the bedrooms upstairs into a bathroom.

The best advice I can give is to work with what you have the best you can.  The bathroom in FI (and soon to be my) home was very narrow and small. There is a bedroom right next to the current bathroom, so to make the bathroom slightly larer he knocked out the closet of the adjoining bedroom and that made the bathroom about 6ft longer.  He kept the layout of the bathroom, and upgraded the tub/shower combo, and did new tile floors and built a vanity with a granite slab and a bowl sink. This made it much easier on him because he didn't have to worry about repositioning plumbing, or a toilet, or anything like that.  He pretty much just gutted it and gave it a face lift.

The bathroom he is installing upstairs has been more of a challenge because he is starting from scratch and doesn't have an existing footprint of a bathroom to go by.  Running and repositioning duct work has pretty much been the death of him the past few months, but now he is really making progress and we are so excited.

I don't know if that helps any, but it sounds like you are thinking you want to keep the "charm" with the b&w tiles, but just make it more modern, and I think that's the best way to go.  Just upgrade and replace and I think you will be happy.  Good luck!

debbeau

We redid our 1965 bathroom over this year. New Sheetrock, tub, floor tile, wall tile, 48" vanity with granite top (you can get a decent deal when you buy them together)' installed bath fan, toilet. We tried to keep everything except plumbing fixtures in the middle price range. In the end it was about 10,000. This is in the Chicago area. Good luck.

thisismynickname2

debbeau said:

We redid our 1965 bathroom over this year. New Sheetrock, tub, floor tile, wall tile, 48" vanity with granite top (you can get a decent deal when you buy them together)' installed bath fan, toilet. We tried to keep everything except plumbing fixtures in the middle price range. In the end it was about 10,000. This is in the Chicago area. Good luck.

That's more than I need, so it's encouraging to hear you did all that for $10k. If I can't do what I want for $4-$5k I have to scrap plans entirely and just go for my bottom-line desperation- bath tile and vanity....

debbeau

You should be able to do it. I see you are in Chicago too. We bought everything ourselves and had a contractor put them in. If I can help with suggested places to look for things, please pm me.

labro

We redid our bathroom this year...it sucked. It took freaking FOREVER to tear down the wallpaper. In the end...we couldn't get the glue off because they glued DIRECTLY to the stupid drywall. Honestly, we would've saved time just tearing out the drywall and replacing it rather than sweating over the wallpaper.

We repainted, replaced the toilet because the original sucked, put in an open shelving unit...more for decor than real purpose and replaced all the fixtures. We also got a shower curtain rod that's curved instead of straight and I love it! It increased the feeling of space in our tub by a ton. We left the floor tile alone because it's in good shape and looked nice with the new paint and shower curtain. I still want to replace the vanity though but it won't be more than a few hundred dollars since it's just a single sink.

jenna8984

HERE is my AW post about my bathroom remodel that we just finished a few weeks ago.

It was similar sounding to yours 1950's mint green tiling. We had a contractor come in and quote us JUST for the shower surround and nothing else $4,000. We said go fuck yourself and my father in law did the whole thing himself. We didn't even want tile, just this basic white plastic. So you're probably looking at $4-5,000 just to tile a shower.

The vanity we got at Home Depot for $450 plus $100 for the faucet fixtures. FIL installed that. The white paneling along the walls was only $20 per sheet and we used about 5 sheets, plus the wood for the trim.

Do you have old doors? We had all old wood stained doors with glass knobs. We switched out the entire house for white 6 panel doors with nickel knobs and it has made SUCH a difference.

thisismynickname2

jenna8984 said:

HERE is my AW post about my bathroom remodel that we just finished a few weeks ago.

It was similar sounding to yours 1950's mint green tiling. We had a contractor come in and quote us JUST for the shower surround and nothing else $4,000. We said go fuck yourself and my father in law did the whole thing himself. We didn't even want tile, just this basic white plastic. So you're probably looking at $4-5,000 just to tile a shower.

The vanity we got at Home Depot for $450 plus $100 for the faucet fixtures. FIL installed that. The white paneling along the walls was only $20 per sheet and we used about 5 sheets, plus the wood for the trim.

Do you have old doors? We had all old wood stained doors with glass knobs. We switched out the entire house for white 6 panel doors with nickel knobs and it has made SUCH a difference.

To the bolded-- holy crap. 

My dad is awesome with home remodel, but he's in his mid-60s and I just don't want to even ask. He did my light fixtures though, and helped me with some patching. I've learned a few things, at least!

  

Part of my beef with the current tile is that the caulk job is so incredibly sloppy. Doing it myself for the first time would not be an improvement! Home Depot has a whole installation service and that's who my first consultation is with. If their price is high, I'll try another couple companies to see if I can do better. 

Another thing that makes me nervous with DIY is the fact that this is a small condo in a 1950s high rise. Arranging deliveries, storage of tools and supplies-- just a nightmare to consider. Plus, if I screw up royally, I have liability to my neighbors and the building and no place to clean myself.  This is just a time where I need to suck it up and pay for pros, I think! 

thisismynickname2

@jenna8984 I checked your pics-- I dig the b&w shower tile! That's more or less what I have in mind too. 

jenna8984

thisismynickname said:

@jenna8984 I checked your pics-- I dig the b&w shower tile! That's more or less what I have in mind too. 

Those tiles were the "before" they all got ripped out for the plain white plastic shower surround. I definitely wouldn't mess with it yourself. Anything like a shower needs to be super ultra water tight, otherwise you risk getting mold and leaking down and affecting other units with mold. So yea, your plan to hire people is good but like I said tilework does not come cheap.

AguaEau

We remodeled a bathroom last winter - new tub, toilet, cabinets, countertops, tile, fixtures - basically everything except changing the layout.  It cost about $7,000.  We found a contractor that a friend had used and he came with us to Home Depot to help pick out what would work in our space.

We ended up getting a new tub, but if you can't do that (and your tub is old) look at getting it reglazed.  It can make it look a lot nicer, especially if you have chips or rust stains.

I found myself freaking out about which of the 500 different shades of beige was the BEST because I didn't want to make a mistake that I would regret.  My boyfriend constantly stressed about money.  So one of us was always a stressed out mess about some aspect of it.  We have one other bathroom to remodel and even though I like how our first one turned out I am not looking forward to going through the process again.

Good luck!

plainjane0415

AguaEau said:

We remodeled a bathroom last winter - new tub, toilet, cabinets, countertops, tile, fixtures - basically everything except changing the layout.  It cost about $7,000.  We found a contractor that a friend had used and he came with us to Home Depot to help pick out what would work in our space.

We ended up getting a new tub, but if you can't do that (and your tub is old) look at getting it reglazed.  It can make it look a lot nicer, especially if you have chips or rust stains.

I found myself freaking out about which of the 500 different shades of beige was the BEST because I didn't want to make a mistake that I would regret.  My boyfriend constantly stressed about money.  So one of us was always a stressed out mess about some aspect of it.  We have one other bathroom to remodel and even though I like how our first one turned out I am not looking forward to going through the process again.

Good luck!

I agree with you @AguaEau it's very stressful!  But if you have the right help, it's worth it   You'll have to keep us updated @thisismynickname

NYCMercedes

My husband says everyone of my projects takes twice as long and costs twice as much. He's not too far off. I recommend you ask around until you find someone who raves about their contractor. No one ever raves about the Home Depot contractors.

thisismynickname2

jenna8984 said:

thisismynickname said:

@jenna8984 I checked your pics-- I dig the b&w shower tile! That's more or less what I have in mind too. 

Those tiles were the "before" they all got ripped out for the plain white plastic shower surround. I definitely wouldn't mess with it yourself. Anything like a shower needs to be super ultra water tight, otherwise you risk getting mold and leaking down and affecting other units with mold. So yea, your plan to hire people is good but like I said tilework does not come cheap.

Oh, my mistake, lol.  My parents got one of the plastic surrounds, and my mom's complaint is that they have very hard water. Getting to the plumbing is near impossible, so in retrospect, she would have gone with tile. 

But absolutely- cannot do mold, must be water tight... There have been horror stories in this building.  My nightmare is taking down the existing tile to find mold. 

When all is ultimately said and done in a month or two (hopefully) I'll post an AW PIP update

SBmini

Any photos of your bathroom for us to see? I have a friend who renoed her 1940s bathroom and it was awful! She was dealing with old tiles on plaster walls and nothing was coming off smoothly. And it was her only bathroom in her place! After a few days of trying to do it herself while showering at the Y, she called someone out to do the work. Now it looks fantastic and was well worth the struggle. She also opted to just refinish her tub instead of replacing it- looks great. Here's her bathroom as some inspiration because I think it is soo cute. She also has harringbone marble in her kitchen. I want to kill her. 

thisismynickname2

I do have pics on my phone but not this computer.  That's the b&w floor tile I have, pretty much!  

It's just plain tiny. 24 in vanity, toilet right next to that, shower/tub right next to that. 

And yup, I agree with the 2x as long, 2x as expensive!  The condo association gave me the name of a guy that other unit owners have been pleased with. I have to contact him as well. 

This just has to get done. DH and I will probably sell my place in 2016 (still trying to sell his...) and in gossiping with a neighbor, sale prices lately are just stagnant for the building. This needs to be an investment- I'm sure selling will be far more difficult with the place looking at shitty as it does. 

I gave it a bit of a facelift a couple years back- new paint, new light fixture, new glass shelves. I can't fix the shoddy, discolored caulk and tile and busted old vanity.  

SBmini

Your plan sounds good, I would paint your charcoal walls a lighter gray. If your bathroom is small, this will help it look bigger. The caulk shouldn't be hard to cut out and redo. Vanity installs are easy. The tile is the only complicated part. I got a quote of $600 to retile one of our bathrooms. We were going to do 18x9 rectangle tiles all the way up to our 8 foot ceilings. I hope that helps give you an idea of what to expect for a shower retile. Refinishing tubs can be expensive. If the tub is in good shape, you can get a kit to paint it which would save you a few hundred bucks. I really need to get mine redone, they've worn down all the way to the metal.