Bitter Bathroom Breakdown
Can you tell I like alliteration? Aside from the tongue twister of a title giving me a laugh, the sentiment truly is ~ conflicted ~ (insert woozy face emoji here). One of my most 'liked' and asked about projects has been our primary bath renovation from Summer 2022. While I absolutely adore the space now that it's complete -- for the second time -- I've wanted to share more about the overall experience to potentially help you from finding yourself in similar binds.
While I always aspired to renovate our primary bathroom, we were pushed to fast track the project when a pipe burst in our shower causing an epic leak. Coincidentally, we were in the design phase for our guest bathroom that we fully intended to do ourselves because Evan (my husband) is Mr. DIY and I'm more Mrs. Buy Buy Buy. A leak in your house and the damage it causes can be catastrophic and as a fully aware neat freak, having multiple levels of the house in disarray was pretty much my own personal hell {yes, I'm aware we're lucky to have a roof over our head and not completely out of touch}. So, in summary, the leak which was more of a flood for a period of time, really threw a metaphorical wrench in our plans and we were on to insurance claims and searching for a contractor.
If there's one thing you take from anything that you're reading, pay attention to this - GET REFERENCES. By no means am I insinuating our contractor didn't come recommended from some online reviews that made Evan content to hire him. The issue was really the lack of personal recommendations of people we trust. There are certain trades that you can always find someone in your network to offer up a contact and a contractor should be one of them. Don't hire anyone without hearing from someone that has worked with them to know their work ethic, quality and process. Since we were in a rush to get someone started right away (i.e. massive hole in my living room ceiling and walking up stairs to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night), we hired the first person that could take the job immediately, or so we thought.
Now that you've got the bitter part out of the way... mostly... we can focus on the process. I was so stoked to have a blank slate for the most part and had so much fun choosing every detail for this bathroom. I've never pinned so many photos of showers in my life but the inspiration was endless.
Important questions we had to ask ourselves:
Realistic budget knowing this isn't our forever home and this was an unexpected project
Design concept - play it safe or stay true to our vibe
What do buyers want in a bathroom? (we plan to sell within the next year)
Is it worth it to make expensive structural changes when it won't impact resell value?
Quality of finishes - never cheap but again, not our forever home
Availability of products - account for shipping delays and items going out of stock if you don't purchase enough up front
Contractor capabilities to see your vision - confirm what you want is possible within the timeframe in your proposal before making a hiring decision
Once we were comfortable with the answers to those key questions, I had what I needed to create a Design Board. Design Boards are an essential part of my process to ensure I've nailed the vibe for a space. And they get me REALLY excited! Seeing all of the individual pieces mesh together propels me into the hours and hours of curating - searching, reading countless reviews, price comparisons, checking availability, taking measurements (twice, just like Santa Claus), asking for feedback, etc. The curating stage can go on and on but my goal is always to have at least two options for everything I need - usually high and low end - to get client input... in this case, my partner in crime and life, Evan. Because he lives here too.
The vibe - check. The shopping list - check. Materials - check. Our Contractor's crew -- apparently non-existent. Our project took weeks to get off the ground because the person we hired was working solo on a fairly large space. The demo alone, even with Evan getting it well under way, was painfully slow. The plumbing seemed to have an issue at every turn and when we got to the tile I was having daily screaming sessions into pillows where he couldn't hear me. When you work from home and have constant demolition, music, loud talking (and other interesting sounds) you pretty much never want to see the person again in your life.
Things to note about materials:
Discuss excess materials with your contractor in detail so you aren't short but you aren't wasting money
Ask your contractor to use their discounts for items that can be purchased from Big Box stores like Home Depot, Lowes, Floor & Decor, etc.
Search aforementioned stores online to compare prices but also try to choose one so you don't lose your contractor to a whole day of running from store to store
Most stores will allow you to return extra materials and it's better to have more, just in case, if there's a risk of it going out of stock or taking a long time to ship when you need it yesterday
Invest the most $$ in shower/backsplash tile and hardware, use a trusted brand for hardware for warranties
I wanted my bathroom to feel like a spa. Who wouldn't? To feel transported to somewhere else.. stress free and totally relaxed every time I stepped inside and closed the door. Once the punch list was done and we said our goodbyes, I breathed a sigh of relief and totally felt that... for almost 3 months.
Back to that 'bitter' part. Unfortunately, our Contractor failed to seal our shower drain pipe properly which caused ANOTHER LEAK! While the damage wasn't nearly as severe, I was devastated that our living room ceiling that was just completely repaired was severely damaged again. Luckily the pipe was able to be sealed without any demolition of the finished bathroom through the ceiling opening below but ARE YOU KIDDING ME? I felt like I was being punked (did I just date myself with that reference?)
All was repaired and back to normal prior to the holiday season and we've since been enjoying our bathroom despite the headache, heartache and hit to our bank account. One of my favorite pastimes is taking a scalding hot shower, while singing of course, so having a beautiful place to do that makes me very happy.
Final thoughts:
Follow your style and gut - choose what YOU like
Trends can also be timeless, so don't write them off
Tackling a big project in smaller stages as your budget allows is a great way to get it done
Limit the number of opinions you ask for to maintain focus
Consider the help of a designer to get you started or guide you from start to finish
If you'd like to learn more about my Services and how I could assist you on a project like this, check out my Services here >> https://www.acaciaabodes.com/services
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