Need your words of advice - major rethink of bathroom remodel

14 years ago

Background: we have two constraints with our remodel, money and time. For our neighborhood, it just doesn't make sense to spend loads of money on the bathroom. And we have only managed to squeeze out two weeks of help watching our two small children, but after that, we'll only have one or two days a month.

We're redoing everything - new tub, toilet, flooring, vanity, mirror. We're not changing the layout except to expand the back of the shower into an odd-shaped closet. This involves tearing down the shower and starting almost completely from scratch (reframing, etc.). But I'm starting to get very nervous. We can't afford to hire it out and we can't take the time to do it ourselves slowly. (Note that we ARE hiring a plumber to replumb the shower.)

We had a long discussion tonight and are thinking about doing the rest of the bathroom BESIDES the shower now, and do the shower later this year or next year.The front part of the shower won't change, so I don't think it will affect the flooring in the bathroom. Although there is a shower curb to think about - are we going to be able to run the tile flooring up to the shower curb now, and then later knock out the curb when we re-tile the shower?

I suppose we could put the whole project off, but part of our bathroom is missing flooring (just the slab) and the sink faucets are both broken.

Basically, this is a huge shift in thinking from what we had planned. I just wanted to check with y'all to see what you thought?

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Comments (6)

aggietexan
14 years ago
I'm no expert, but we just finished a bathroom remodel that included completely rebuilding the shower as well as replacing the flooring. My hesitation would be that the shower is a fairly involved and messy job if it's done correctly. It sounds like you are on a slab...so am I. In order to replace my shower pan and do the drain correctly there was quite a bit of demo/jackhammering that had to be done. I would hate to have to do that demo with new stuff everywhere else in the bathroom.
User
14 years ago
In my honest opinion, 2 weeks is in NO way enough time to do what your doing. I would not undertake a project of that magnitue with a 2 week limit especially when you're doing it DIY. Also, I would advise that if your going to do it, do it all NOW or wait until you can afford to do it all later. Small children may slow you down, but people update their homes while caring for their kids all the time. Doing it the way you are proposing will only cost you money in the end.
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@k Sissy, I dry all my shower walls, caulking at the floor junction, and corners at the floor. Info this every time. I have not had to "clean" my shower in 3 years. I have only cleaned the cast iron floor as needed, because I don't wipe that down daily. Love the microfiber towel. Mines very thick and is 20x40". It is so absorbent it could dry 2 showers before I'd have to wring it out. It's hard/slow for me to hold the squeegee just right to make the perfect swipe on walls and glass. The towel is a breeze. I've asked people if they had to wipe down a nice car, would they squeegee it? No, they'd use a towel. No connection to this company. I've read that Korean microfiber is the best. I wash mine in very warm water, 120f. http://www.theragcompany.com/edgeless-avalanche-20-x-40-super-plush-drying-microfiber-towel/
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We are just getting prices from contractors in NYC for our 35 sq ft (actually a little less since it's not quite 7 x 5) and prices are $7,500 - $20,000 from 4 different places. The bathroom is over 50 years old and we have just been living with it for a while. It's all contractor work, no DIY. We cannot move plumbing so the layout won't change. I'm not really sure what the $7,500 price includes since the contractor would really not elaborate beyond "a basic bathroom" that includes wall to wall new tile (what we have now). One vendor who did not do a site visit (only looked at photos) came in around $15K. I am waiting on formal proposals from 2 contractors that visited this week and I gave them the wish list below that does not include any fixtures choices or finish choices but they are steering us toward custom and semi custom. One vendor said not to spend too much since we could price out the market for resale (we are not selling anytime soon, if at all) so he came down to $20K from $25K. There is one more contractor on the list that we plan to call for an estimate. A neighbor spent $40K on her bathroom. I have not seen it but just heard the price this week so I will make it a point to visit to have a look. replace bathtub/drain & replace fixtures, adjustable rain shower with separate handheld replace medicine cabinet make laundry hamper area into storage (framed with shelving) demo wall to wall tile, replace tile add recessed storage on rear shower wall install new lighting paint entire room (replace bathroom and bedroom doors - only two doors in the apartment so they should match) replace metal towel bar in shower replace storage cabinets (towels & other products) install vessel sink and fixtures add handheld sprayer for toilet (may get washlet seat if elongated toilet will fit) cover and tile over pipes; add mesh venting remove shower door (install curved shower rod) replace ceramic towel bar (8 hooks?) & switch plate add vertical toilet paper holder upgrade & add electric outlets (2 x 2); not on same circuit as lights Labor only estimates so far: $12,650 $13,200 Materials $3,355 (low) - $7,355 (high) One GC sources and stores the materials which seem to be at least 25% -50% higher for some items than I've seen locally. This post was edited by kdnyc on Tue, Jun 3, 14 at 15:24
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Thank you all for your input! From a cost & speed stand point, I think a pre-formed shower pan is probably what we would prefer. Our shower is a pretty standard size 36"x36" so I don't anticipate running into a lot of trouble in finding a pan that will work. live_wire_oak thank you for your suggestions on other materials for the shower pan, I will look into them. I agree with you that if we had plenty of time, we could probably figure out how to do the shower pan & tile the walls. Our timing may not have been the best for this project as we have a fairly hard deadline of end of March for getting this done. As a result we're trying to do what we feel confident doing and farm out that which we could probably do, but would be massively slower at. Calling individual trades might be another way to go. Hadn't considered that option. I'm willing to GC it myself if that's what it takes.
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Ok, so in order of the pics, we're looking at flooring, acrylic tub surround and marble (granite?) top? Are these all bought? Did you take a picture of these three elements in the same lighting? I ask because lighting is everything in how we perceive colour and on my monitor (which might not render the colours true), these elements aren't cohesive. The surround looks like a cool grey on my screen while the other two skew warm. All three have a pattern as well which usually makes a small space look busy. That said, you have two horizontal applications (counter and floor) and one vertical (surround) so that will affect how we perceive the colours as well. Will you have a glass shower door or a curtain? If a glass shower door, I'd be tempted to find a colour that relates to the surround (I'd pick the lightest of the swirls). If you'll have a curtain and won't see the surround, I'd pick the lightest colour in your countertop. Bringing a sample to the paint store and having them match your element is one easy way to find that colour. (Both Sherwin-Williams and Benjamin Moore have phone apps that can help you identify their closest match colour to a hard surface.) A greige colour is a chameleon colour that skews both warm and cool grey depending on the light and I'd be tempted to look at those. Benjamin Moore's Silver Satin might be a good one to try. Hope this helps.
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kgsd
Original Author
14 years ago
Thanks for the replies. Haha, lukki Â maybe my children are more high-maintenance than others (although I think theyÂre probably normal). I donÂt know how *anyone* does remodeling with small children. I canÂt imagine trying to do projects that require a great deal of concentration/attention while also having my 3 yr old and 8 month old need to eat / need diaper changes / want to color / misbehave/etc. I can barely paint a room while caring for the kids!

The budget is more for reasons of not overimproving, rather than a matter of not having the money. We have enough money now to do almost whatever we want to do. But IÂve thought more about it and I think a bigger shower is something that, if we do it, will need to be for ourselves rather than for resale. I do appreciate the points you both bring up and we will think about this more. IÂd still love to hear from others!
suzienj
14 years ago
Hey- i'm always a believer of "do it all"-- if you piece meal it, you will probably regret it.... you will look at the beauty of everything else and wonder why you didn't do it all. I can tell you we redid our bathroom - major reno - a year before we sold our house. I truly believe our bathroom SOLD our house-- the couple fell in love with my bathroom- and we gutted it! Do it for yourself, but i'm a believer that Bathrooms and Kitchens sell a house! good luck!
ashleysf
14 years ago
I have a toddler too and am hoping to DIY most of my bathroom. But, I have learnt some lessons from my DIY kitchen reno. Some things can take way longer than estimated when you DIY. For example, we needed to move a water line and it took 6 days in reality (including buying a new faucet of my liking, running around to buy specific tools and parts, figuring out how to do it etc and I had planned on just half a day for it). So, take your estimated time and triple it. And be very sure of what you need, buy them before hand - including tools. Do not change any requirements on-the-fly. And like others said, do it all at once. Piece meal does not work in my opinion. And since you have little ones, you need to be concerned about all the dust remodeling creates if you do it over a period of time.
User
14 years ago
kgsd, yeah it amazes me too when I look back at when I was raising my kids while working two jobs as a single mother and no family to help out. How in the world did I manage to clean, do my house projects, while tired and taking care of my family? It wasn't easy or ideal, but it always seemed to work out.

Need your words of advice - major rethink of bathroom remodel

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aggietexan

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Need your words of advice - major rethink of bathroom remodel

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aggietexan

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