Bathroom materials and cost

It is nice of my husband to share this blog with me!  He gave me permission to post on here so here is my first one.  Our first major remodeling project is our one bathroom.   We are a family of seven so you can imagine the chaos in this one bathroom in the mornings and at bedtime.  The bathroom is a good size at about 70 square feet but it only has one sink, which makes for a few fights at teeth brushing time! 

Josh and I make decisions on the materials for the bathroom together but I am the one who usually finds the options we have and brings those options to him.  We splurge on a few things (like the mosaic tile backsplash) and we go the less expensive route on others.  I thought I would post a few of the materials that we have found along the way.

Our first big purchase was our vanity countertop.  We wanted to expand from one sink to two sinks so that we could have more than two children brushing teeth at a time.  We also wanted vessel sinks, which are surprisingly hard to find at the store.  Even more difficult was finding a vanity or vanity top to fit those vessel sinks!

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Titan Quartz Pre-fabricated countertop in Sierra Ice - 

 

I think we went to four different places before we were able to figure out how to get the countertop we wanted.  Both Home Depot and Lowe's were too expensive for the semi-custom vanity top we needed (over $1,000 and probably wouldn't have worked with the sinks we wanted). The custom order/install department at these places also would not do any jobs that were less than 25 square feet.  We didn't want a completely new vanity, which probably would have been the easiest way to go.  This also would have cost over $1,000.  Our current vanity is real hardwood and we didn't want to get rid of it. Josh was planning on refinishing it.

Cost of refinishing the vanity: $50 plus about 25 million hours of labor.  Okay, it's not that much time but poor Josh has spent a lot of time refinishing the vanity, and he still isn't totally done with it!

We were able to go to a place on Miramar Road called Stoneville USA that sells granite slabs and tile.  Slab yards are a fun place!  Josh and I kept getting distracted by the pretty granite slabs even though we knew they would be way too expensive and too much material for our little 5' x 3' countertop.  At first, we were there to look into using tile for the countertop instead of a slab.  I wasn't too thrilled about tile for the counter but was willing to consider it. We were able to talk to a sales rep there and he suggested going with a prefabricated countertop and having a fabricator cut it down to the size we needed.  It was either that or calling around to fabricators to see if they had any slab remnants we could buy and use, which would have taken a lot of time.  So he took us to look at the prefabricated countertops and we found one that was probably the closest to what we wanted, a white engineered quartz.

Cost for prefabricated quartz countertop - $345
Cost estimate for fabrication (cut it down to size and drill holes for faucet and sink, also may include installation)- $300

Bonus: We found the granite we would use on our kitchen island whenever we remodel the kitchen!  This slab has tan in it but we would prefer only blue and white if we can find it.

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KRAUS Vessel Sink in White 

We ended up finding our vessel sinks online at Home Depot.  Shipping was free which was a big plus!  We also were able to bundle our sinks, faucets, and pop-up drains together.  Once Josh told me he wanted vessel sinks, I was pretty adamant that they had to be square.  I guess this was nitpicky but there was something about the rounded squares and rectangles and sloped walls of the others that irked me.  We may end up going with grid drains though for the sinks because the pop-up drains that came with the sinks are monsters!  We would be left with only two usable drawers in the vanity because the pipes for the drains are so long.

Cost for two square 15"x15" sinks, two single-handle faucets, and two pop-up drains - about $500

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Elida Ceramica Stardust Mosaic tile

 

Finding the right backsplash took me a while.  Finally, I found this one at the Lowe's website.  It looked pretty online and looked even prettier in person.  We started out buying 12 of these to start.  We may have to buy more as we find areas to use them.  For sure, we are using them as the entire backplash above the countertop.

Cost for twelve 12"x12" pieces of mosaic tile - about $180

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Trend Lighting Scope mini-pendant light

We also needed to change the lighting in the bathroom.  Before the remodel, there was a ceiling box that made no sense containing a light fixture that was falling apart.  Thanks to my FIL and Josh, the ceiling box and ugly old light fixture are gone and replaced with an open space to the attic and two pendant lights.  The open space will soon be covered by sheetrock.  

Commerical Electric Brushed Nickel Ceiling Light 

Josh was also able to replace the very tired old ceiling light with this new one.  It supposedly won't need to be replaced for 32 years since it uses an LED bulb.  We'll see!

Cost for new lighting - about $180 

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Brushed Nickel Cabinet and Drawer pulls 

I actually bought a 10 pack of these at Dixieline.  I'm so glad I did and I love them!  I tried out all the ones they had on display to see how they would feel.  Why I picked this one:  Brushed nickel finish, not rounded (kind of sticking with the square shape except for in the lighting), easy to pull open, and easy to clean!

Cost for 10 pack of cabinet pulls - $28

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Behr Marquee Semi-gloss paint in Etched Glass - We went with the whitest paint we could find for the walls.  This one might have some gray/blue in it.  We are only to the primer stage in painting the walls so we haven't been able to see it in a large portion yet.  I always forget how expensive paint is!


Cost for 1 gallon of paint - $40

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Current total cost estimate for bathroom renovation: $5000 
This estimate may change as we get further along.  

We are estimating that it will probably be the end of February or middle of March before we are done remodeling the bathroom.  It may even go longer than that.  At the end though, we will have a shiny new bathroom to use!