Low Cost Bathroom Renovation

Finally the long-awaited post about my bathroom renovation, which was actually completed in August 2016. It was a multi-year event, mostly because we waited until August 2016 to settle on the shower enclosure.

Here's what our hall bathroom looked like when we moved it. It was hideous and the shower was like a cramped cave. We never ever used it and kept the door shut all the time.

 Yup, that's peel and stick tile just visible in the bottom left hand corner, covering up the original pink floor. The bathroom tile was baby pink on the floor and hideous peach on the walls.

 For some reason there was no medicine cabinet.

 There was also a window that led to a hallway (unresolved after a garage conversion).

The tile in the shower was cracked and the water damage wasn't fully revealed until we demo-ed.

Nearly all of the 2x4's that framed the shower had been decaying after years of water leaks. Some no longer touched the ground at all and the result is that the ceiling was being pulled down. We decided not to do a tiled enclosure and were planning on a glass surround, so only two walls needed to be repaired, the third was going away. The only part of this bathroom renovation that was hired out was the plumbing. We had a plumber come in and re-route the pipes to be along the bathroom's exterior wall, move the shower head plumbing to be overhead for a waterfall shower, and build a new shower pan. In retrospect, I do wish I'd bought one of those Schulter kits I think we'd have had slightly better results with the shower floor tiling, but hey it all worked out in the end.

Post-plumber pic. You can also see where we've reframed the wall to get rid of the rotted supports. Then it was time to start with concrete and build up the shower pan. Which was stressful because I had to take care not to puncture the rubber liner and work quickly since it's concrete.

By this time the new purple drywall and concrete backer board for the shower had also been installed.

We also had to patch part of the floor. Originally the built in vanity was sunk about 3 inches into the ground, so the slab had to be leveled for a new floor. Now came the fun part. We had 4 x 8 marble subway tiles leftover from the cooktop surround in the kitchen, 1/2 inch marble mosaic leftover from the master bath renovation, and I purchased new basketweave Carrara tile for Lowes. I decided to make a custom design with the larger tile around the outside, a double line of the mosaic (which was also used on the shower floor) and then inset the basketweave.  

I laid everything out and look at it from multiple angles since there was a lot of variation in the natural stone. When I started, I realized pretty quickly that I started in the wrong place and wasn't going to have the edges line up properly and quickly had to rip everything out, run it outside and start hosing off the thinset. STRESS.

But it all worked out in the end! Ringo liked it!

Tiling the shower was another big job. I went with alternating bands of 2 x 4 subway tile and 4 x 4 tiles, the cheap stuff from Home Depot. And installed a shower nook, again using leftover tiles from the floor. 

For further savings and recycling, my husband made the vanity using the leftover cut-out granite from our cooktop installation. He built the vanity base using some old steel square tubing and added a piece of copper for the towel bar. We bought an inexpensive ceramic sink and faucet off of eBay. The chair to the left is from Ikea.

One slight splurge was spending $300 on a toilet that has smooth sides. I DETEST cleaning the sides of regular toilets and all the dust that settles there.

I LOVE THIS TOILET. And I installed it MYSELF.

The final step that ended up taking FOREVER was the shower surround. We new that a glass surround would be about $1500 and because of a couple different financial uncertainties I never wanted to take the plunge and have that professionally installed. I was also worried that the bathroom would now be cramped with a big glass wall taking up a lot of space. Then this past summer we went over to visit the new home of a colleague who renovated an old warehouse into the most stunning home ever. And her guest bath was an INSPIRATION. Instead of a fixed surround, she had a 90 degree angle, double shower rod hanging from the ceiling. I knew that was what we had to have. 

The double rod is suspended from the ceiling and I got fabric from Ikea to make a custom outer curtain (it needed to be extra long). Boomer helped.

I realize that I need to upload one more photograph of the finished vanity and custom mirror that my husband made from an old Model-A Ford windshield!

I guess I entitled this "low-cost" bathroom renovation. I never really tallied up the cost, but it was pretty inexpensive. The toilet was the priciest thing about about $300. Oh and the double shower rod was also $300. We used 2x4s leftover from other projects. The special mold-resistant drywall and cement board probably only cost about $100, spent perhaps another $100-150 on tile, thinset, and grout (but much was leftover from other projects). The sink and faucet were less than $100 on eBay. The shower hardware was also about $100 for the handle (and valve) and then the waterfall showerhead. The plumber's bill was about $800. I would say the entire project came in around $1500.