You don't have to take the mirror out. CHeck out this idea and there are lots of others like it:

http://www.hometalk.com/529173/revamp-that-large-bathroom-mirror

Mary, I would talk to a few tile guys to get an idea of how much they will charge. It will be your biggest cost. As for other fixtures, look on CL for vanities and places that have granite or marble remnants. EBay and overstock have some nice faucets and light fixtures.

I live in CA, and the bids for labor alone to put in a pan and tile my 5'x4.5' shower averaged $5,000. I agree- you should start with the bids for the tile and see what the going rate is in your area.

I have gotten one bid from a contractor, he wanted $6,400 for the shower, floor tile, replacing the counter with granite, drop-in sink, removing the bead board and painting. The allowance he gave me for the tile was pretty low, though ($1.50 sq. ft), so I'm sure it would be more than that. And I would have to buy the faucets. I'm hoping I can save some by not using a contractor, just hiring a plumber, painter and tile guy directly, and checking with a fabricator for a granite remnant. One of the fabricators in town charges $30 per square foot on remnants, and that's installed with one free cut-out and 6 edges free. I think that might be cheaper than most solid surfaces, if they have anything, I need to go by there. But I do need to get some additional estimates for the shower, that's going to be the biggest expense. I just have no idea what I want as far as material, tiles, solid surface. I'm going to a home show tomorrow for some ideas.

gmp3, I feel stupid, but I can't figure out what CL is, can you point me in the right direction? Thanks.

Very cool ideas for the bathroom mirror on that thread. I have a single, center sink, so the shelf in the middle wouldn't work for me, but I had thought about building a frame around the mirror. I did that in a small, half-bath, and it came out pretty well.

I tried to take a picture of the frame I built around the mirror in the small half bath, it's not a great picture, but I think you get the idea.

Marys235, CL means Craigs List.

enduring, lol, of course, can't believe I couldn't figure that out.

Marys...I was going to include some wise-acre remark with my posting, but my higher self recommended against it. Now I know I could have, and maybe even got a capital LOL from you. But, I can't remember what my "cute" remark was going to be.

Oh I remember:
Marys235, CL means Craigs List....I know ;)

I guess it isn't that funny. Clearly I have to get up and do the dishes.

I would suggest getting several bids. We renovated our whole home and bids varied wildly. I have had good luck using Service magic for tradespeople. A shower pan will be much cheaper, and in my area of the country, most homes except for very high end have them. I had good luck finding one one on Amazon.

I priced some Swanstone showerpans for about $300, which seems pretty reasonable. I was thinking if I did the white subway tiles in the shower, a solid shower pan would not be as noticeable. It would just all blend in. And I've seen some pictures of bathrooms with white subway tiles in the shower, and natural stone-look tiles in a beigey/cream/light brown color on the floor, and thought it was a very pretty look. I figure I need to check on the granite remnants first, and if I find something affordable that I like, use that to determine my colors for tile and paint.

lizb 1772 posted pictures of her master bath remodel on this site, I linked to one below, with a white subway tile shower and natural stone floor, I love the combination she used. Of course, she did a beautiful tile shower floor, but this is the general color scheme I'd like to shoot for.

Do consider tilling yourself . We did our hall bath which is 9x11' with tub shower combo. It looks great. Bigger tile also make tilling easer. You local tile place can provide classes for free.

liveinseattle, I wish I could, but with a combination of arthritis in my hands which makes diy projects difficult, and just lack of time due to demands at work, I really don't think I'll be able to. I've had to call too many professionals to fix my weekend projects, I've decided to just stay away from diy, I generally spend more than I would if I had just called the professional to begin with.

I like the color scheme marys posted - an alternative would be gray and white. White subway tile looks great with marble accents, which would not add that much.

30/sq ft for remnant pricing is wonderful! I would go look and see what you find - then choose your tile and accent from there. You have to start with one element to build from.

Try and get a prefabricated granite top. It will be a lot cheaper than getting one made. Also look for tile on Craigslist. Just remember, whatever your budget is you will go over. Leave at least 10% margin for this. You will not know until you open up some walls and see if their is water damage, bad pipes, etc. Best of luck.

can you do tiling yourself? You local tile store may have free class to teach how to tile, that can save you a lot of money. Tiling is not very difficult, just have to be patient, we did that in 2 weekends, and another weekend for sealing. it tuned out much better than some of my friends' bathroom where tiled by "professionals". I have to say bigger tile is better to deal with when DIY. We used 18X18 tile, and we will use 24X24 or bigger for our master bath. And if you have any thing to remove, do it yourself, that can also save money. you can deposit the waste youself too, your county will charge a lot less if you dump that to the waste station

Well, I've picked out tile and found a granite remnant I really love, a Giallo Ornamental that will be $460 installed with a white rectangular sink, no backsplash, since I want to use my accent tile for the backsplash. I've picked out an Interceramic porcelain tile, Plateau in Mossdale, and want to do a 20 by 20 tile on the bathroom floors, and 13 x 13 tile on the shower walls, in a diamond patters. I found a pretty glass mosaic tile, I want to run about 4" wide just above eye-level on the shower walls, and use as the backsplash on the vanity. I want to do a white Swanstone solid surface shower floor. I going to use Moen Voss 2 handle faucet in brushed nickel, and a Delta In2ition 2-1 shower head in stainless. I'm up to $1700 on the vanity and all the other materials, now I just have to get estimates on labor for the tile and plumbing. This is a photo of the accent tile (ignore the tile behind it, I decided not to use it), I'll do a separate post with a picture of the granite and tile I picked out. Any opinions on whether this will all work together?

Here is the granite and tile I picked out. I got a great deal on the granite vanity top, $30 s.f., and that includes installation, sink cut-out, and choice of several different edges.

Oh, and my vanity and woodwork are all painted white. I think the tile bring out the white in the granite, and will pull everything together. Maybe. Here's a before picture of my awful cultured marble vanity top. I also priced one of those mirrormate mirror frames to put around the mirror, that will run about $250, so let's just say $2,000 for materials and vanity top for now.

I think removing the knobs in the middle of your vanity doors, if possible, and putting some updated handles on the edge would do a lot to also give it an updated look. I would paint the cabinet a white that had cream in it, like perhaps benjamin moore ivory white. It's white, but is a bit cream to tie in with the warmth of your granite and floor.

Yes, I plan to change out all the knobs and handles. I had not thought about putting handles on the edge of the cabinet doors, that would like nice.

I think I would go a little less gold on the floor tile. It can look a little dated.

When you said you were going to use a drop-in sink, did you mean an undermount sink?

I think new knobs and handles for the vanity and a slightly warmer white paint will look great and tie the granite in nicely too.

I also agree with may-flowers about the gold tones in the floor tile possibly looking dated. Maybe pull a slightly greyer or creamier tone from the granite? At least it looks like there is some grey in it on my screen..

I agree with swedishchicken and may_flowers for going with a slightly grayer or creamier tone from the granite on the floor.

Yes, Mayflowers, I did mean undermount. I keep getting those terms backwards. It may be my cameraphone, but the tile I am looking at really doesn't seem to have any gold in it irl. The color may not be accurate in the picture.

Here is a link to the tile on a tile store website, it looks quite a bit different from the picture I took with my camerphone.

Here is a link that might be useful: Interceramic Plateau Mossdale

I have no idea what colors will look dated, but I like the colors in your photos. They go together well. In my monitor, the color on the tile website looks a pinky beige that does not match as well with your granite and not at all with your accent tile. I am going to assume that the real color is somewhere in between the two.

It sounds like you will have a nice, clean look. I like that you have porcelain that looks like stone, and not real stone. It is harder than simple ceramic and will not have the voids that stone can have. I have always wondered if those spaces hold water and grow moldy.

I remember reading on another thread that there is a way of telling how many different patterns there are with the tiles - so that you do not have the same tile patterns showing up constantly and reminding you of the fact that it is man-made and not a natural stone. I don't remember the name of the measure, but it ranges from 1 (low amount of variation) to 4 (highest variation). Does anybody know the name?

Here it is, Raehelen posted it on a thread here in Bathrooms:
"look for the shade rating system called the STV (Shade Tone Variance or for short the âÂÂVâ rating) which is now being used as a way to signify how much shade variance you should expect from one tile to another, within the same item / color. V1 would have no variance, V4- the maximim amount of variance."