October 1, 2024
Call me crazy, but I love working within tight budgets. It thrills me when a client says, “I have this amount of money I’d like to spend, what can you do?” It’s such a great exercise in creative thinking putting a plan together to get the most out of a smaller investment without compromising the quality of the work.
Back in April of this year, a client for whom I had pretty much skim coated and painted every wall in her house in addition to a lot of other handy work, asked me about redoing her bathroom. Well, my expertise is not in bathroom remodeling but seeing that I have remodeled bathrooms for myself and I’ve set many toilets and vanity sinks, along with tiling backsplashes and a few tub surrounds, I figured I could pull all that experience together and remodel her bathroom.
I had many other clients who had commissioned general contractors for their bathrooms over the past couple of years and the pricing always came in between $13,000-$20,000. One of my clients had actually spent $25,000 on her bathroom and honestly, I just couldn’t figure out where the money went. The work was good for the most part, but that just seems a little high to me.
After discussing the average price with my client, I told her I felt we could come in well below with some strategic planning. After all, she just wanted a nice, simple, clean and modern update so I told her I wanted to use her bathroom as a test of my abilities to see if I could get the job done at half that price, setting the price target somewhere between $6,500-$10,000. Those numbers were far more attractive so we got work on a plan.
We started by deciding what my client liked about her bathroom. She really liked her floor because it was still in excellent shape after a hundred years and had a lot of character and she liked her tub, although the bottom was dingy and stained. Her toilet was also relatively new and in great shape so that could stay also. She didn’t like the dated bright yellow tile and the little sink that was mounted on the wall and the fact that there was no storage anywhere in the bathroom. The light fixture was very cheap looking and the old medicine cabinet had to go.
With all that information, I now had to decide the extensiveness of the demo; tearing out old bathrooms is on “my least favorite list” of things to do. As much as I love the satisfaction of tearing out tile, carrying it down 2 flights of steps along with heavy plaster was not something I was looking forward to. I had 2 scenarios in mind: a) I could do a full tear out of tile and plaster down to the studs which would definitely run up the cost or b) I could carefully remove the tile, keeping the plaster in tact and drywall over it. I personally was hoping plan B was in the cards.
The tile came off surprisingly easy in most areas except for some places around the tub so it was looking like Plan B was in motion. My debris would be easier to manage and I wouldn’t need a dumpster. I simply boxed up the tile in about 15 boxes and called someone to haul it away for $150. I saved money on not getting a dumpster which was a bonus, which I didn’t want anyway due to how my clients driveway is positioned. A dumpster would have caused a huge inconvenience to my client so it ended up being a WIN WIN for both of us. It’s important to me that my clients deal which the least amount of mess possible.
Once the tear out was done, the fun began. Green board went up over the plaster and was trimmed out with some smooth finish boards to resemble a very simple wainscote. I spiced it up with a little wood ledge on the top. My client found a vanity online that only came in white so I painted it with Sherwin Williams Emerald Urethane Trim Semi-gloss finish. The color was Pussywillow. She chose a simple faucet fixture by Moen to pair with it. And then she ordered a very simple, white mirrored medicine cabinet from Wayfair. After all that was installed, I painted the wainscoting, repaired all the flaws in the walls, primed and painted. The last thing to do was tile the tub surround and reglaze the tub, but before I could start I had to tie in some cement board where I had pulled chunks of tile off the wall and then it was time to call a licensed plumber to help me install the new shower fixtures as it was more than a matter of switching out the fixtures. Pipes needed to be cut and soldered and I know my limits. Unfortunately, I didn’t know of a good plumber, but I got a super referral from another tradesman. I hit gold with Gavin and Sons Plumbing. I had a great experience with Delvin Gavin and highly recommend him if you live in the Cincinnati area.
Okay, now it was time to tile. I had shown my client several different gray tiles but we both were on the same page and chose this one as our favorite. I grouted it with alabaster grout to minimize the grout lines as I really didn’t want them standing out. I held off on caulking the tub until I could get Bath Refinishing Solutions over to reglaze it. I will always recommend refinishing an old bathtub before I recommend anything else. Totally worth $695 and it’s one large thing less ending up in a landfill.
In the end, my client was thrilled and we came in under $9000 so I was super pleased too.
