Remodeling a small bathroom on a budget

Part One

During the pandemic, most of America has been fixing up their homes.  I wasn’t. I was really afraid to spend any money for fear shut downs would happen again.  It left me feeling stagnant.  If you know me, I’m better when I’m doing so being stagnant couldn’t continue.  Thanks to my dear husband’s nudge (it was really a kick in the pants with steel toed boots). we are back at the remodel game.  Our first project in a long time is a bathroom remodel on a budget.  In case you need a quick reminder what this little bathroom looked like when we moved in, you can see her HERE.

In November 2021, Forbes say an ‘average’ bathroom remodel costs about $10,000. That number gave me some solid financial anxiety.  I wanted a budget update.  At first, that meant nothing but paint:  on the ceiling, walls, vanity and definitely on the harvest gold shower stall.  That probably would have been about a $300 fix.  That didn’t feel like enough.  It didn’t inspire me to do it so…  I came up with a new plan: a $1600-ish plan.  

This was inspiring and was something to get excited about!  

Demo

We got started at demo.  Firstly, we removed that heavy vanity.  I CANNOT emphasize enough how marvelous that felt.  I put her on Facebook marketplace for free and I’m grateful to say she’s going on someone’s bus to live her life on the road.  (It hurts my feelings that my old vanity is going to be living my dream of being a road gypsy.)

Years ago we had the linoleum tested and it did not contain asbestos.  In an abundance of caution, we were going to leave it and tile over it but…  it was peeling up on its own.  Upon lifting it, we found the old glue was no longer holding.  In other words, a small tug pulled the floor right up and that (of course) revealed a problem with our sub floor.  We had a soft section that really needed to be removed and, you guessed it, part of that floor was under the ugly shower stall that we were only going to paint.  UGH!!

Because of that sub floor, we felt we had no choice but to go all in and take out the shower stall as well.   

Budget

How do you do a budget bathroom remodel when a problem results in a big addition to your budget?  You adjust.  We knew we would have to add to the budget but we also knew we could make some adjustments elsewhere to compensate.  Because of my past DIY experiences, I’ve learned that flexibility is an important quality.  I’ll address my adjustments in my next post.  Talk to you soon.

xoxo

Donna
I love having you on the road with me!