My next project - a new bathroom
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I’ve finished both the bedrooms, I’ve painted the hallway, there’s only one room left for me to tackle and then the whole of the upstairs is finished. The problem is that room is the bathroom. Now I thought about refinishing it rather than redoing it, but my bathroom is in an utter state.
I often think that a bathroom can make or break a house. I also don’t think that there is any point in doing a bathroom cheaply. If you do it properly it should last ages, but it will cost you in the region of $14-$30k. I really wanted a nice bathroom, I wanted a claw foot, free standing bath, I wanted nice modern tiling, I wanted a floor which the shower hadn’t been leaking into for the last decade slowly rotting it away. But most importantly I wanted it done well. I wanted one company to come in and renovate the whole lot for me.
And trust me, there was a lot to do. I was fairly sure that the plaster would need to be stripped back to the brick on at least two of the walls, the whole room would need skimmed with a fresh coat of plaster, a couple of stud walls would need to come down and a few more would need to go up, the plumbing would need to be re-routed and the waste stack would need to be repositioned outside the house. All of this before I could start thinking about a new bathroom suite.
So I called in the professionals. I posted my job. Actually I posted my job twice. Once looking for companies that could do the whole lot, all the work and supply the bathroom as well, and once looking for workmen who would just do the work. I knew I was going to be paying a large amount of cash for the bathroom, but I wanted to make sure I was going to be paying it to the right people.
The quoting process blew me away with how detailed it was. Hours spent sat on my bathroom floor digging through brochures, being asked to pick taps when I didn’t know what sink I wanted. Before long I was curled in a foetal position on the floor whimpering quietly. So I went to talk to the font of all knowledge. The woman who has designed more tasteful bathrooms than anyone else I know. My mother. She was an excellent help. She made me think clearly about what I did and didn’t like, what I definitely wanted and what I would compromise on and then helped me work around this so I had a list of requirements for the quotes.
What we came up with was this - I wanted a free standing bath, I wanted rainfall shower, I wanted the shower glass to be clear not frosted, I knew what tiles I wanted and I wanted the whole suite to be white. From there she guided me towards a squarer sink to tie in with the tiles I wanted, and a slightly squarer WC unit for the same reason. She pulled me away from the slate tiles I wanted on the floor to a more practical vinyl solution. Once I had all of these things clear in my head, the quoting procedure became so much more simple. I had been so terrified that I was going to be spending all my savings on a room that I could have not conceive of whether or not it would work, that I was focusing on the practical stuff rather than the aesthetic.
When the quotes came back, I was really impressed with how detailed they were. I got a couple of little folders, with all the works listed, the products they were going to use listed, time scales, project plans – all beautifully presented as well.
Anyway, I’ve picked a local company. Not the cheapest, but I’ve seen their work in other house and I know they’re good. They were really helpful all the way through the process and they start next week.
Keep your fingers crossed for me. Not having a working bathroom while the work is done is going to be tough.
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I can relate to the foetal position comment. I was all set to do my bathroom reno last year but found the process just all too much so put it off. Now I'm trying again. Have purchased everything, hired all the tradies and have a start date in 2 weeks' time. Fingers crossed it all goes smoothly. This has been so stressful and not something I ever want to do again, unless of course I have no budget and can just hire one reno company to come in and manage the lot (rather than the cheaper option I've gone for which is hiring all the tradies separately and managing them myself).
over a year ago by allie181
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