If you have the money and are planning to live in your home long enough to enjoy your new bathrooms I say GO FOR IT. Yes your bathrooms are objectively not as attractive as your aspirational photo. I just finished a gut remodel including two bathrooms and I am still enjoying my beautiful new bathroom. Mine is also functionally better as well. I do question what the exact scope of your work is and whether the budget is realistic for three bathrooms. Also will simply replacing the vanity and counter get you where you want to be - what does the shower or tub look like? What about flooring? Also consider the cost of faucets and new hardware for the bathroom - knobs, towel rings, sconces, lighting etc. So it's really more of an economic decision in terms of how you want to spend your discretionary income. Your current bathroom is functional and clean but a little sad looking. As others have posted, make sure that you are aware of TOTAL realistic costs for everything needed to finish it off into the bathroom you want and then assess.

I painted our old, dark wood vanity with left-over Swiss Coffee over the weekend and after 1 coat I'm not happy with it at all. Too much white against the tiles and floor. This is a rental, so I have to make the existing elements work, but I'm stuck on what color I should repaint it. The counter is a sage green granite, green and orange backsplash tiles, I think the walls are Swiss Coffee and 60's white tiles with an orange border around the rest of the bathroom. Cabinet hardware will be oil rubbed bronze like the mirror, and new chrome faucet on the way. Should I go with a neutral beige, a yellower cream, or a light green/grey? I got samples of Valspar's Bay Sands and Canvas Tan yesterday, but think BS is too dark and CT too pink. Any recommendations are welcome, thank you!

Thank you for the comments. I wasn't aware that 12" were needed on all sides of a freestanding tub, I was thinking 6" between the top lip (side) of the tub and the wall would be sufficient. Thank you for letting me know this (I am new to any sort of remodeling, so being sincere). The last picture was just to show the colors of the house and wood floor that are throughout. I saw another post where it was asked to see colors in other areas of the house. That bathroom is just a half bath, but it uses the same tile, vanity and countertop as the other bathrooms. I am not opposed to taken everything out and completely redoing it/re-arranging it. I would like to keep it on the cheaper end versus spending $30k+ on a bathroom remodel. I am hoping to keep it closer to $10k, but I also want to do it right. This bath tub has probably been used <10 times in the past 4 years, so I am thinking that it is either water coming in around the window or potentially not a good seal behind the insulation (the wall isn't finished under the tub surround). But, I definitely want to take things out and make sure it is fixed the first time. The tub hasn't been used in the past 6 months, and you can just feel the heat and humidity underneath it when removing the cellophane (I live in a very high humidity area). I am also attaching a picture that I put together showing the current dimensions of the bathroom. I am not sure on how it could be re-arranged with the window being centered on the wall, but I am open for any/every idea.

I'm sorry this post is long, but here's my advice. I have had the same frustrations that you detailed in your post. The ONLY times I have had serious problems on a project are the two times that I really felt I needed to hire a GC bc the projects were big. We had some serious problems with a kitchen remodel that can all be attributed to the GC hiring cheap unqualified subs, one of whom didn't know water likes to go down, not up. So when it came time for me to redo the 3 upstairs bathrooms, I was facing the same dilemma as you are now. Over the years, because of other projects, I had met a meticulous painter and a very skilled custom cabinet maker whom I really respect. I had a good plumber and electrician I trusted for small jobs and repairs we had done, and the painters crew had a good handyman on board for tying up loose ends such as installing hardware, lights, etc. BUT I didn't know any skilled tile professionals yet at that point, so I was worried that it would be impossible to find a truly skilled tile pro who was knowledgeable and meticulous about waterproofing. This was about 4 years ago. I decided to do a "semi" remodel at that time where we didn't touch the bath/tub combos bc I hadn't found a tile pro yet. We have the cabinet builder reface the vanities, make new doors and drawers, put the modern soft-closed and full glides. The electrician moved some rough ins; the plumber installed the new toilets and faucets, rejigging the plumbing a bit; a local glass company replaced the mirrors, painters repainted everything and I made pretty new shower curtains. We left the floor tile and the tub/shower combos alone at that time. A couple years later, because of another project I had final found a tile professional who was meticulous about waterproofing. So I had him come and do just the 3 upstairs bathroom floors and tub/showers, one of which he made into a shower only and expanded into the attic to make it bigger. He was able to do all that without messing up the vanities, walls, etc bc he was careful to cover everything. I only had to do a little touch up paint which was easy. Soooo, I did CG the 3 upstairs bathrooms myself, but because of the time lapse, it didn't all happen at the same time. If you do a little thinking about the order of tasks, I don't see why you can't handle the project yourself. I swear, it was actually relaxing, believe it or not, because I didn't spend the whole time afraid of what might go wrong. I trusted the people because I had already had them do some other work for me, and they knew I recognized quality work and was a reasonable customer to work with. I think the order of tasks for me was: - demo (I did some of this, but the cabinet builder sent his younger brother/helped to finish up what I couldn't get out myself. We didn't not demo the vanities, they were on the subfloor with the tile coming up and stopping at the edge. - refacing, making new drawers/doors - electrical rough in which a few needed to be moved a little bit - painting, install lights, hardware, towel bars, etc - install toilet So if you are going to do the bath/shower demo, framing, waterproofing and tile installation as part of this project, you would need to first, find someone qualified and then determine where that work fits into the order of tasks. Also, you'd need to determine who will demo the current bath/shower. In my case, I think if I had asked the painters handyman or my cabinet makers brother to do that they would have done it and just charged me for the day. People always say that having a GC ensures that the project moves along, scheduling is smoother, etc, but that wasn't my experience AT ALL when I had to hire a GC. It was terrible. In theory, it should go smoother with a GC, and I hope it does with other people. It's important that they all have insurance and you should definitely be sure you verify it. In my case the people I hired weren't just random guys. They run their own small businesses and are professionals so they had no problem showing me their insurance info and it was easily verified. IMO the tile professional is the most important person on the job. You can go to https://www.tile-assn.com, and click on "find a contractor" to help you locate someone. Also there's https://www.ceramictilefoundation.org. There's lots of good information on those sites. Also, if you're a nerd like me, buy a downloadable version of this handbook: https://www.tcnatile.com/products-and-services/publications.html It's a handbook explaining industry standards for tile installation. It's only about $40 for a downloadable version It's about 600 pages, but you don't have to read the whole thing. Read the introduction (about 50 pages) and then read the bath/shower or shower only chapters that are relevant to your project. For example bath/shower combo, or shower stall only, steam shower, etc. You can also check out DIY books from the library and read about waterproofing and tile installation on this forum and on the John Bridge forum. Also, now I say this with caution...you can look at Sal Diblasi's YouTube channel to watch his videos all about waterproofing and tiling. Stop there though because you can very easily go down a rabbit hole of misinformation on the internet. You can also of course ask friends, neighbors and colleagues if they know a tile professional, but I bet they don't. They probably all know a tile "dude." Doing all those things I just listed helped me ask the right questions and find a terrific tile professional who I hired directly to handle anything related to framing, waterproofing, and tiling. He did bring in a 2-man demo crew to hack up and take out the 3 bathtubs, and I'm sure if there had been anything else he wanted to sub out he would have, such as if there was electrical or AC equipment in the way when we expanded into the attic. There wasn't, but I trusted him to take ownership of the whole shebang and if he had wanted to get a sub for anything he would have. He and his colleague rebuilt 2 bath/tub combos, and converted and enlarged 1 shower, and they re-tiled all the bathroom floors. Even though there was a gap between the "semi" remodel and getting it all done, I'm glad we waited bc I just had to find someone qualified for the waterproofing and tile work. If you can find your team, you can do it all at the same time, but space the people out so that they aren't trying to work at the same time. Bathrooms are small and cramped placed to work with tools, etc, so you'll just have to try to schedule the people smartly. Best of luck with your project!