Mastering The Bathroom

Yes, I've been putting off writing up our bathroom remodel for awhile now. Partly because we've had a lot going on, but also because it's been a very frustrating project. In fact, a few issues weren't even worked out until as late as last week - three months after starting the project!

If you've paid any attention to this blog and what we've been doing at our house over the last five years, you've probably noticed that we tend to do it all ourselves. So why did we decide to hire the bathroom remodel out when we typically just self-perform? A few reasons, actually. 1) There is a limit to our skills. We haven't done a lot of tile work and our giant (over 120 SF) master bathroom, something sure to be a focal point, isn't a good project to git gud. 2) As mentioned in the last post, Leslie is pregnant! So we didn't think it would be best for her to spend a large chunk of her pregnancy swinging hammers, installing tile, and inhaling drywall dust and paint fumes. 3) Somewhat related to item two - timing! We didn't want this project to take six months and figured it would be faster to have someone do it than for us to do it gradually on nights/weekends while also prepping for baby's arrival. So, some solid reasons to hire it out, right? Too bad it didn't as smoothly as we planned.

We started off trying to figure out a design. The old arrangement was... odd. The tiny shower and giant tub just really made the space inefficient for us and didn't meet our needs. Plus it looked terrible. The hard part was trying to decide how best to use all the space. We had some ideas and put together a few sketches that gave us a better layout but still wasn't all that great.

There's not a lot of light, partly because we haven't really been replacing bulbs as they burn out...

Double door to the closet will soon be replaced

Itsy bitsy shower, huuuge tub deck

Our rough plan... still kinda cramped, but better

Doesn't give the toilet and shower any more room, which isn't ideal

From there, we got a few quotes and started looking at materials. Then, while looking at fixtures at Lowe's, we saw that they do some bathroom remodel design and stuff like that. Figuring it wouldn't hurt to get another quote we signed up for a free appointment. Once there, the designer with Lowe's was quick to point out things that don't work, find better products than some of the things we'd been looking at, and even suggest some design changes that made sense. This was exactly what we needed! So we signed up for an initial design and had the designer and a contractor out a few days later. They took a look at the space, got some measurements, and said they'd have a design back to us soon. What they brought back to us was exactly what we wanted - it took advantage of the large space and gave us a great looking, highly functional bathroom.

We decided to go ahead and work through Lowe's on the project. We spent the next few weeks picking apart the design and quote, changing things to our taste a bit (adding lights, changing fixtures, tweaking cabinet dimensions, etc.), and figuring out funding on our end. While initially skeptical about working through Lowe's, there were some good reasons to do so (just like hiring it out in the first place). 1) They were able to come up with a good design and their project staff at the Avon location were experienced with this type of work (apparently they do over $1M in bathroom/kitchen remodels out of our store alone!). This gave us a sense that they knew what they were doing and would be able to do a good job managing the project. 2) The contractors they hire go through a screening process and don't work for them unless they can perform. Lowe's then also holds the contracts, so if anything isn't performed correctly we have Lowe's leaning on the contractor for us, not just us trying to get them to change things. 3) All work comes with a one year warranty on materials and labor. Small contractors can say that too, but if we hire Joe's Plumbing Company down the street and he ends up closing his business in six months we're kinda screwed. Lowe's isn't going anywhere. 4) We were able to pay basically anyway we wanted. Most small businesses would probably just take cash or check, but we were able to use some old Lowe's gift cards we had hanging around and cash in some "Cashback Bonuses" from our credit card for Lowe's cards, saving us probably about $600! So again, all good reasons to go this direction.

So how about a breakdown of the job? First they would come in and rip everything out. All the fixtures, all the cabinets, the tub, the shower, everything. Then they took out the wall next to the toilet and the wall on one side of the linen closet. The linen closet was shrunk by about 10" to make room for a bigger vanity and the orientation of the toilet changed so there would be a larger wall for the shower. The double closet door also went away and was replaced by drywall and a pocket door. The shower is now huge! It's about 92" x 42" which gives us plenty of room for a shower head on each side. We also reworked the lighting. One switch controls the vanity lights and the light in the exhaust fan centered over the main part of the bathroom. The next switch controls a small recessed light over the toilet and the one after that is for the two recessed lights over the showers and the exhaust fan itself. And then last switch is still for the closet. This gives us so much light, especially compared to what it was like before.

There were quite a few bumps along the way. Like, on the first day, they left the old toilet upstairs but didn't get the water out of it, causing water damage to the kitchen ceiling below. Later on they tiled over the duct work for the air vent in the floor. Towards the end of the project they managed to chip the toilet seat, then replaced it with the wrong brand/model, so that had to essentially be replaced twice. Lots of little things like that (and actually a few bigger problems too, but whatever). In fact, the day after they finished, Leslie and I spent a good amount of time touching up paint, installing drywall anchors where they hadn't bothered, and cleaning paint off escutcheons, light switches, and faucets. Doing that sort of stuff isn't hard, but I didn't pay somebody a bunch of money to give me a finished product that requires fixing. How do you even stay in business when that's the norm?

One of the biggest sources of frustration throughout the project was how long it took and how they were never able to give us a realistic finish date. The project started on the 5th of March and the construction company said they'd be done on 23rd. After two weeks they had a problem with the floor tile and on the 19th they said they'd need an extra week, so that put us at completion on the 30th. At the end of that week, so on the 23rd, I asked if they could still hit the 30th and was told they could. Well, that comes and goes, and on Thursday, the 5th of April, a week past when they just said they'd be done, I ask when they'll finish. I'm told they can finish the next day, Friday, with maybe just a bit of touch up work on Saturday the 7th. They work all day Friday and then on Saturday call to tell me a part they're waiting on didn't come in and they won't be in that day to finish but will on Monday the 9th instead. Riiiight. They work all day on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday the 11th, three full days after needing just part of a day for touch ups, at which point we put them on hold since we're leaving for vacation. We get back on Monday and have them resume work on Tuesday, the 17th of April. We ask how long they need and, after basically telling them and Lowe's that we need them to be done that week, they say they can finish by the end of the week, the 20th of April and are actually able to. So, let's recap: a project that was supposed to take three or four weeks and originally finish on the 23rd of March ends up taking seven weeks and finishes on the 20th of April. And since the 20th we've had to fix multiple things ourselves and have them come back to finish a few things that were still missed! How is that even acceptable to Lowe's or the owner of the construction company, let alone us?!

To be fair, there were a few things that happened that were outside of their control and added to the disorganization. The Lowe's project specialist, basically the guy in charge of overseeing our project from Lowe's, was in the process of moving to a different position within Lowe's and that probably impacted his ability to give our project the attention it needed. Then his replacement came on board and was great to work with, but he was also coming in late in the game and was just trying to play catch up on everything. The contractor's foreman also caught pneumonia halfway through, which put him out of commission for a week or so, meaning even less supervision than before. There were also a few issues with suppliers, like the stone company had their saw break which caused a delay on the vanity top. Not that these excuse the generally poor performance or delayed timeline, but there were challenges.

So, all that said, I think you can understand why we haven't been super enthused about this project. We're more glad it's done than excited to show it off. But we are happy with the results. We love the new layout, the huge shower is awesome, and everything looks so nice now. We've gotten some art and a little bench from IKEA to go by the showers. We've also got new rugs and cups and all that for the vanity. We still have to install it, but we have a shelf for over the toilet and will probably get a picture for up there too eventually. But otherwise we're pretty much done!

New new new everything! Custom maple vanity is about 82" wide and is nice and tall. Undermount sinks, a center cabinet, and even tip-outs on the panels right under the counter.

New toilet matches the other H2Option dual flush toilets we've put in the other bathrooms. We'll probably put a shelf above this to hold the tissues and spray and maybe some artwork eventually.

This is a 60" shower door with two 16" walls on either side - those little walls saved us a ton of money since we didn't have to use a custom glass size. Tile mosaic helps break up the back wall.

Leslie's side - bench under the towel bar and art above.

Nice, tall shower head, nook for shampoo and whatnot, and stone "step" in the corner. Also has a diverter with hand sprayer on her side.

My side. No bench, but otherwise about the same.

I have the squeegee on my side. Super cool.

And there you have it - the last bathroom remodel for our house. I think that's the last time we'll hire out an entire project. If we have to tackle a project like this again I'll just find my own people to do it and piecemeal it out, then we'll just do stuff like painting and installing finishes ourselves. Because this mess was so not worth it. Anyway, that's it for now. Baby Miller is right around the corner, so I'm sure I'll have an update once he gets here and would like to post pictures of the nursery too. So, until then, thanks for reading and we'll see you next time!