Bathroom - GO TIME

Ok, so there may be things dumber (too harsh?) than starting a bathroom reno on the only bathroom in one's home when you're 35.5 weeks pregnant. Maybe. But alas, we have found ourselves in this position, and we're going for it.

We brought in a bunch of contractors to take a look at the job and got quotes from 4. They ranged from (in our opinion) outlandish to preposterous ($12 - $16k WITHOUT materials!).  Guys, we're talking about a room that is a little over 6' x 8' at its very widest/largest points. Yes, it's a gut job (going down to the studs), but seriously?

We talked with Rush's parents, who recently re-did every bathroom in their home, and Rush's dad completely agreed that we were being quoted some ridiculous #s.  His handyman is proficient in all things bathroom, so we hatched a plan to actually bring Rush's dad and Pat the Handyman out to complete the bathroom.  Again, probably dumb, but we couldn't figure a way around it.

Now for the "before" photos.  Ugh, it's kind of embarrassing.  Nothing about this bathroom is what we want, but it's been passable for the past 5 years.  The house is 60 years old and still has the original plaster walls in the bathroom, so that sort of necessitates gutting the room and starting at the studs.  There's some water damage from before we replaced the roof, and the ceiling was not prepped carefully and probably suffered due to the super cheap (and 'jet taking off' noise level) fan.

Barely big enough to even take a photo

Cheapo vanity that I hit my head on whenever getting something from below

Water damage in the plaster

Ceiling damage due to condensation and bad prep

So what are we going for with the remodeled bath? So glad you asked. I have Pinterested the hell out of this bathroom project.  

Original inspo photo:

Via

Revised inspo:

Via

So we're doing a white subway tile (oh-so-original, I know) with a darker grout and a herringbone tile in a dark wood/slate pattern.  We're going to do a wainscot around the bath and all new fixtures with a more modern look.  Again, nothing is going to get us featured in a design mag, but it'll be a really nice update. We will likely be selling the house within 6 months and feel like the changes will give us an edge when we do.

So that's the news for now. I'll post some updates when we get underway (Monday, 11/3).  Can't wait!!!