We recently took on the challenge of remodeling our bathroom… ourselves. Well, I did very little *actual* hard labor and my in-laws came to help out. I mean the majority of the project was really just my husband and his dad!
A little backstory, we bought our house in December 2020, we closed 2 days before Christmas and immediately left to spend Christmas with my husband’s family… which just so happened to be at the height of the pandemic.
We got our house for under list price, but it had a bit of work that needed to be done. We knew the bathroom would be high on the list, but I’d hoped it would take us a a year and a half to get to.
Plan
Even if you deviate from your plan, it is still good to have one. The first step to planning is know your current floor plan dimensions, then determine the new floor plan. In our case we were not changing the floor plan, just removing a wall.
Determine the Budget
The first thing we did was to get several quotes from various contractors in our area. Mind you, this was 2021, the height of contractor demand. The quotes we received ranged from $20,000 to $65,000. By the time we received the final quote and decided to go with the $20K quote he was booked for the next year, I did not want to wait this long. My husband being a bit cheap and very handy decided we could do it ourselves and it would save us a ton of money.
We set the budget at $15,000, knowing we would not want to to do the tile work ourselves and that would take a good chunk of the budget.
Get Design Inspiration
After many hours on Pinterest, looking at friends bathrooms, IKEA visits, and various other websites I determined the following inspiration items. And you really don’t want to rush this part. Test the features you think you like and make sure you really look at all materials before you set your mind to spending thousands of dollars. Don’t be afraid to order and return thing that don’t work out, especially on Amazon.
I determined that I wanted my fixtures to be brushed nickel because of the style longevity, clean-ability, and overall look.
Because this is the only bathroom with space to fit a tub, I decided to keep the tub. And to use a shower curtain because of the ease of entering and exiting the tub.
- Ove Decors Tohoe 72in Vanity
- Comllen Faucet
- Ove Decors Mirror
- Hand Towel & Toilet Paper Holder
- Towel Hooks
- Moen Tub & Shower Kit
- Moen Magnetix Dual Shower Head
- Vanity Wall Mounted Light Fixture
- Daltile BeeHive Gray 8.5in Floor Tile
- Rugs and Shower Curtains Homegoods, Target, and Amazon
- Various other decor and shelving: Homegoods, Amazon, and IKEA
Get Quotes & Estimates
First we got the tile materials and installation quote, as this was the most expensive part because we did not want to take this on ourselves.
Next identify the vanity, tub, fixtures and other accessories that need to be installed. I did a lot of digging and finally landed on this vanity from Home Depot to finding. We purchased the tub from a local plumbing supply chain.
Lastly we estimated all the construction materials, electrical, plumbing, and general tools needed to complete the job
Plan timeline for demolition, clean up, installs, and included unexpected delay times. I created a total renovation schedule and a weekly schedule to set expectations even if we got off schedule.
Take Advantage of Deals & Plan Delivery Timelines
While things are pretty much back to normal when it come to product availability there is still the chance that the exact part you want may be out of stock or no longer on sale when you actually get started on your remodel. For this reason we ordered our vanity well in advance and stored it on our garage for about 2 months (it just barely fit with my car in the garage). Similarly we order our tub early and the company stored it in their warehouse for a 2 months at no additional cost to us. To make sure it was delivered on time and there were no issues we had them delivery it 1 week before installation.
Anticipate Delays
You can plan as much as you like, but you can’t control everything (as much as I would like to). Our tile installation took 2 additional weeks to get started and then lasted 1.5 additional weeks than they estimated, this was due to a miss communication on the sales reps part. Which means we were using one bathroom for about 6 weeks. Not the worst, but it definitely was not fun.
Research Specialty Task before Committing to the Work
If you are new to plumbing, electrical, or general construction a DIY remodel is probably not the first task you should take on. My husband has been doing handy project his whole life, as well as a bunch since buying our house. He has updated light fixtures, changed wall switches and outlets, ran new ethernet cable through the wall throughout the house, vented the microwave outside of the house, and countless other activities. So we were pretty confident that we could take on this task.
But even so, we research hanging drywall, plumbing a tub and new shower fixtures, process of water proofing for tile installation, and a many other things just to make sure we were prepared for the task.
