I'm guessing here, but based on experience I'd say the thicker part of the wall is to accomodate a chunky cast iron vent and drain pipe system. If so, you can't push it back.

Personally, I wouldn't mess with this one too much. Repaint, take out the wallpaper in the linen closet, that type of thing. Repaint the vanity white, along with the trim. New towels, shower curtain, rug, window treatment.

If the tiles are in good shape, go with the flow, stay with the retro 50s vibe. Anything else, and you have code problems-- you don't want me to get started on that again... ;)

I know you don't love it, but it's actually in pretty good shape and someone might find it an asset someday. Check out savethepinkbathrooms.com for some inspiration.

Wow, I'm really surprised this bathroom has gotten positive feedback! I had no idea pink bathrooms were a "thing". Personally I prefer the more modern/contemporary-styled bathrooms... maybe cause I'm a millennial? :)

This bathroom is just.. SO pink! I wouldn't even know how to preserve the original and update the fixtures.. like what type of fixtures would look good? and what color walls? The black border tile is strange to me..

The rest of the house will be pretty modern so it may be weird to keep the bathroom retro/vintage. I'll start searching for photos of pink bathrooms though, maybe there's a way I can "modernize" the pink! :) I want at least granite counter tops and to replace the sink/vanity. I don't like the style of the current cabinets, even if they were repainted..

Also, I'm kind of a germaphobe so living in a bath that's been heavily used before me kind of grosses me out. That's why I was looking forward to a complete re-do... new everything. Is there a great way to clean the tiles/grout? Pour bleach every where? :)

scone911, yes! The cast iron vent/drain pipe sounds familiar and I think that's what my GC was explaining too. He said you couldn't move it - do you know if they're easy to replace?

They are not that easy to replace.

Honestly, if you strip out that bathroom and redo everything, you are probably looking at 10k and up. Add that to the other bathroom and the kitchen, plus all the miscellaneous fixing that will have to be done, and you're already getting into the 40k - 50k range, easily. Rebuilding this little bungalow as a modernist statement will set you back a lot more, into the six figure range without even breathing hard.

I think you are getting way ahead of yourself here. The house is not your ideal, which is fine, but fighting it and trying to turn it into something it is not will cost you far more money than it is worth.

The other thing that's very concerning is your lack of experience as a homeowner. Even if you do have a lot of money to spend, it would be better to get yourself a designer or an architect to guide you through the process. Your GC is not a designer. He can't build something you can't pay for, he can't build stuff that's not physically possible, and he can't build anything if you're not sure what you want.

There's an easy cure: you need to hit the books. Flailing around on the internet isn't enough, the topics you raise are too broad for a quick answer. To aid your education as a homeowner, sit down and read on design and building construction, so you have a basic understanding of how these things are put together. Doing this will serve you well throughout your life, saving you time and money. Just go to the library, explain your project, and ask for some guidance. HTH.

I too like the pink and black. It's very retro and fun.

There is no way you would be able to completely gut the bath and get all new plumbing, etc and do it for under $5000. $10,000 maybe, if you don't encounter all sorts of problems in the walls, etc. I would look online for all you are looking for and you'll see that all new tile, tub, sink, faucets, granite, flooring, etc will be much more expensive than you think.

I saw your thread on the kitchen forum too and I'm a bit worried you're in over your head at this point, although we all started with a first house. However, my advice would be to live in the house as it is for a while to see what really needs to be done and also to make sure you'll have the funds if anything goes wrong.

Best of luck for exciting times.

I am no expert, but have paid to have a few kitchens and bathrooms remodeled along the way and I think gutting that bathroom will be at least $15,000. Labor is pricey and plumbers and especially electricians are big bucks in my experience. I can be happy with a lot of inexpensive choices in materials, but haven't ever found truly cheap labor that was satisfactory. And whatever you put in probably won't suit the house as well and you never recover a hundred percent of remodeling costs. If everything works, I would suggest leaving it for at least a year. It might grow on you.

I understand the concern and appreciate the feedback. We've done a lot of shopping around and think we can update the bathroom with <$10k hopefully. We plan to do all the work ourselves, and not move any plumbing or electrical unless we have to.

The only install we will probably have help for is installing a bathroom fan.

We shouldn't need more than 2k in tile, can get granite slabs for $400 (includes install + cut out for sink), vanity $800, toilet $200, then whatever extra (e.g. glazing the tub, fixtures, etc). Am I missing some huge costs here? We're not going for a high end bathroom or anything.

What I'm really looking for with my post is how to layout this bathroom. More so what to do with that little inset of the wall.. I plan to extend the counter (like the way it is now) but not sure if I should add cabinets underneath or leave it empty, etc. Also I'd like to remove the closet door and turn it into open shelves, like this:

Fair enough. I doubt you can get rid of the bump out, especially not DIY. Maybe you could do a pedestal sink and then at the part that's wider, a cabinet of some kind?

You have a 2 x 6 wall for your plumbing and to save space the builder put it back to 2 x 4 after the plumbing. That usually also means that the wall is load bearing as he is trying to prevent the plumber from compromising the strength of the wall by cutting a 3 inch hole in a 3.5 stick of lumber. Personally I would reverse his decision and shim the wall out the rest of the way and make it flush. With a 6' wall cavity you can then recess a deep medicine cabinet into it and give yourself more storage.

You want a closet door or you will need to learn to hide things. Women stock up on female products and storing them in the open for guests to see isn't very classy. Nor is storing a variety of embarrassing drugs. The vanity of choice if large enough can store some of these things but I would still have a closet. As I am redoing my bathroom this is what I have been told.

Buy small is my other advice. I am dealing with a 6 ft wide bathroom as well. I have an 18" vanity and a 30" wide tub leaving me less then 2 ft of walk way. A lot of vanities are 20 to 24 wide and a lot of tubs are 32 wide. You don't notice them being narrow but you will notice a narrow walk way.

If you want space take out the closet and put in an 18 deep floor to ceiling cabinet. It will not intrude on the space as much and can add to any theme you are going for.

Your current bathroom is grandfathered as to meeting modern building codes. That will NOT be the case if you renovate. Your local permit office will require you to bring it up to current codes. And your bathroom cannot really meet current building codes without moving a wall and adding space. No way you can do that on 10 K. Not even 20K.

Betcha that tile is set in mud. That adds extra fun to the demo. Demo of beautiful pink'n'black tile...that vanity needs to go though.

Some diagrams and measurements for good design and code requirements.

So I don't know how much space you have between the tub and the opposite wall. If you have 72 inches total and a 30 inch wide tub, you are down to 46 inches. A fairly small toilet will apparently run you about 26 inches. Which leaves you with 20 inches, if my guesses and math are right. Which puts you at 20 inches of floor space, one inch short for meeting code apparently? I know in my area the inspectors will hold people to those measurements very, very strictly. There seemed to be toilets that will take less floor space, so you may find something that works with careful research and planning. But you will need to check where the rough in is. If you are diying this, you probably don't want to move the toilet rough in?

I also suggest you check into reviews of reglazing tubs. When I looked into it, diying it was a very messy and somewhat dangerous proposition from my research and hiring it done seemed to have very mixed results with a lot of negative experiences.

One thing to consider is whether a remodel would ultimately be better if you could move fixtures. If so, is it worth it to take some time to save the money and do it right? We recently remodeled our hall bath and moved every single fixture. The end result is substantially better than a neighboring house where they left everything in place and the layout just doesn't maximize the space.

Just one more thought. You may have to come up to code on electrical even if you are just replacing existing fixtures. And if you are adding a fan, you may run into needing a new circuit. Not enough power is a super common problem in old houses and even minor remodeling can trigger some expensive electrical work depending on the existing system. Your inspection from when you bought the place may hold some clues in this regard.

(We ran into this when we remodeled the kitchen in our second house--built in 1954. The electricians came to put in some lighting and new outlets and basically laughed at our existing wiring. We ended up pulling the kitchen all down to the studs because it was cheaper to pay our carpenter to put up new drywall than it was to pay electricians to spend their time fishing all new wiring for a whole kitchen back to the box. I have blocked the memory of the cost of that particular venture with electricians but it was not cheap.)

I think if you take out everything you can that's black or blotchy- the vanity,

wallpaper, flooring, and replace it with simple white it will look much more

modern. I have the same storage closet in my guest bath and thought the open

shelves was a good idea till I took the door off for a while and noticed how much

storage I really lost with trying to keep it neat so I ended up leaving it as a closet.

I was in a similar situation... Except my tile was brown with flowers. Yuck. All this was DIY by the way. I used Rustoleum Tub and Tile refinishing over the tub, and surrounding tile. It came out beautiful! Looks like pure white glazed tile and grout and it is strong stuff! No chips, ect. We replaced the brown toilet with a white one, changed the light fixtures, painted the vanity and added 4" "legs" to raise it up to this decades height. New sink and quartz top. Oh, new penny round floor tile. I love it and we didn't touch anything structural. Will it last 30 years? Probably not, but at that point, I'll want a remodel then anyway. I'll try and post a before and after. Good luck!

I haven't read your other threads, so can't comment on what you are getting into overall. I agree though to just take time and live with things first. In an older house, you might need to go off of what the house needs to come next (eg some structural/mechanical repair). And also check out code in your situation - in ours, we can do a fixture swap of like fixtures without having to get a permit. May be an option.

I did what the previous posters suggested, but I never had the guts to paint the vanity (it would have made the countertop look bad, and lead to quite the unravelling) But this is just what stripping wallpaper and a coat of white paint does to a vintage bathroom.

completely before:

I can't find a better pic with it scrubbed and staged, but you can see just what painting did. We lived with this for 7 years before doing a final remodel. (Yeah, at the end we stopped buying the $$$$ fluorescent bulbs)

crl_, there is already a pretty good sized closet behind the door next to the shower, so I don't think I want a cabinet in the wider part of the bathroom. I'm trying to make it feel as open as possible.. but also have a good amount of counter space. I always want counter space! Also thanks for the link to the bathroom design rules - I'll definitely keep that in handy once I start measuring stuff out! When the GC measured the wall at the back of the tub, to the opposite wall, he said it was 6'6" so I might have a bit more room to spare. But I'll definitely double check once I get into the house. I wasn't planning on moving the toilet, just replacing it. If my current tub is too wide though maybe I'll consider replacing it for a narrower tub. I'm also considering having an inspector and/or electrician coming in and scoping out the bathroom first and figuring out how much work might be needed to bring it all up to code.

D G, your input was all very helpful, thank you! What do you mean by "shim the wall out the rest of the way", you mean bring the inset forward so it's flush with the toilet wall and the whole bath is 6' wide? You make a GREAT point about the need to hide things in the bathroom. I plan on hiding the uglies (e.g. feminine products, cleaning supplies) in the vanity, but I've also started looking into half open/half closed cabinets. They still look nice. I was planning on leaving the existing tub (I think it's cast iron or something so my agent said it's deeper/bigger than most tubs nowadays), but I'll have to measure the width cause I'm not sure how wide it is. Thanks for the tip on shopping small - my main goal is to "open" it up and feel bigger.

GreenDesigns, why do you think my bathroom can't meet codes without moving a wall and adding space?

smouse77, wow great work! I think the new vanity looks fantastic and I like the open shelf on the bottom. Thanks so much for sharing your experience, it's motivating!!

kats737, yeah I won't be getting into this bathroom remodel for awhile (probably won't start for another few months) but wanted to start planning it at least. Thanks for sharing your before photos! Will you be showing the After? :)

By shim the wall out yes I mean flush it to the rest of the wall so you would be adding 2 inches roughly to your wall.

To the code question you presented. What he was saying is that there are codes dictating space between fixtures. Not all areas adhere to the codes and some areas are very strict on them. Your bathroom being small won't meet those requirements most likely. It is up to your local region to determine if they will grant you a variance. I live in an area that doesn't care so it isn't an issue I have had to deal with. For you it may be different. Your bathroom definitely isn't handicap accessible which in some municipalities is also a requirement. Start with an anonymous call to the building department and see what you can get away with. I say anonymous because once you start inquiring in some areas you will get on there "watch" list especially if your in a historical area or in a HOA.

My parents had a company paint there tub and warranty it for around 500 which is the cost of good new tub so if you don't like the tub there are options.

I would go along with some of the others in urging you to wait a while on this and trying to learn to like what you have before you jump into making changes.

heather, heather, heather:

You have come here (and to kitchens) with some specific questions. Some people have answered questions that you haven't asked, and you're a little frustrated with that. We're doing this because we've all been there, and you haven't. You don't know what you don't know. So we're asking the questions that you need to ask. We don't want you to spend a bunch of money and be unhappy with the result. We don't want you to start your project and not be able to finish it because you run out of money. We all want you to succeed and be happy.

I'm a huge DIY-er and love transforming homes. I love hanging out here and helping other people do the same. I'm the one who's always telling the "you can't build that for under $100K!" people that they're full of it. So I'm all about encouraging people.

But I'm with the crowd that says "slow down a bit." Here are the red flags I see:

• You don't know much about construction (don't know what a soffit or plumbing vents are), but you're planning to mostly DIY. I'm a hard-core DIY-er and a believer that you can learn to do anything. So I don't mock your ignorance by a long shot. You can learn. But don't dive in until you're fully schooled or you will either screw things up or get ripped off by a contractor.

• Your budget is incomplete. You can't just price the visible materials and call that a budget. You priced tile, but did you include the underlayment, the thinset, and the grout? What about the tools you'll need? I just tiled a 5'x5' powder room with $10/sf tile. Total materials cost was $400, not $250. And I already own a tile saw, a thinset mixer, a notched trowel and a grout float.

The only people that are well-advised to dive full-force into a huge renovation are those with either significant experience or significant financial reserves. You don't have either of these yet. I'm not saying $50K isn't a lot. It is. But it's not likely enough to gut your whole house and rearrange everything. The transformations you've seen on HGTV are not real life, either from a time or a cost standpoint.

I would echo what others have said and start more slowly. Live in the place and start to plan/design. Take one room at a time. Come here for good advice on design and on execution. You've already seen that there are incredible resources here. DIY some easy stuff and build up to learn the harder stuff. You'll be glad you did.

Do check with your local code before you start remodeling. A new layout might make it a "remodel" instead of an "update" requiring you to meet all sorts of new codes.

weedyacres, thanks for all the advice! :) I don't know why everybody thinks I'm jumping into this tomorrow but this is something I don't plan on doing for another 3+ months, maybe not even for another year. Who knows. But by nature I'm very proactive and like to start planning so I can prepare. The kitchen is a different story because I am literally moving into a house with ZERO appliances - I don't want to live off take-out every night, and not even be able to take home leftovers!

I appreciate everybody looking out for me in terms of budget and experience, I really do, but there's a lot of (personal) details I haven't added in my original posts.

• My mom updated her bathroom all by herself, and has done MANY other bathrooms for other people. This bathroom is much bigger than mine (the photo doesn't show it all). All new flooring, wall tile, mirror, faucet, shower fixtures, etc. She did this bathroom for $600, so I think my 2k tile budget is conservative. Oh and she is a house wife (no job), so she just spends all day doing this type of stuff.

• My budget outlined above was meant to include everything that is required (additional materials and tools if I don't have them already - I also haven't mentioned that I worked for SB&Decker for 3 years and have literally a closet FULL of Dewalt hand and power tools).
• I also have other friends who have just completely renovated their entire home by themselves (and were in my shoes less than a year ago). They had help from their plumber uncle but other than that they basically gutted and re-did their whole house themselves. We're all Engineers too, so we have a sense of structures. I might not understand house terms but I have a good sense of math and physics and have done a lot of research, calculations, and budgeting that I'm confident in.
• My GC is also a great guy, and has even offered to lend me his tools if I want to DIY things myself.

I don't get into these details though in my original posts because I'm just looking for design guidance, not necessarily how-to's.

You're right about my lack of knowledge with home DIY and construction, I'm a total newb! But I've been reading, researching, and watching a lot, so I'm learning every day. Houzz has just been another great outlet for me to learn, especially coming from people with firsthand experience!

Fori is not pleased, I definitely plan to now. That's great advice. I'll look into what current code is and how my bathroom (now) meets it, and what would need to bring it up to code. My GC called out a few things during the initial walk-thru and he seems very familiar with the codes in the area, so he can help. I'll do all this before I start any renovating. When I say "new layout" I don't necessarily mean moving stuff around. Maybe I should re-phrase and ask how to design the bathroom. Mostly I just don't know what to do with the inset wall. Do I put cabinets all the way from the (current) sink to the door or do I leave empty space underneath and put a bench? What's practical? What would look nice? etc etc.

What if you treated that wall difference as a feature wall with a fun mirror? Ship lap? Chalkboard paint? Fun graphic wallpaper? Distressed wood? It could look really cool! I would also paint the pink and black tile bright white like I did with mine to give you a fresh palate to work with. Just a thought.