Number of bathrooms in home: One.
Project Scope: New floor tile, new vanity, new shower and sink faucets, new toilet, plus an addition of a linen closet.
Total Remodeling Cost: Around $10,000.
For the complete remodeling story, read below. See more photos of the remodel here.
Melissa Andres’ truly liked her first home when she bought it in 2004. Located in a quaint neighborhood on Chicago’s North Side, the condo was spacious and, for the most part, had plenty of charm. Except for one room: the bath.
“My old bathroom was hideous. When I first moved in, it was painted Smucker’s grape-jelly purple and Heinz mustard yellow,” said Melissa. “I was able to improve things slightly with some paint, but there wasn’t too much I could do to hide the fact that the tiles in the shower were popping off the wall, the vanity cabinet was plastic, there was a hole in the wall, the wooden window frame in the shower was warped, and molding and the flooring most closely resembled garden patio tiles.”
On the bright side, the toilet worked, and she had hot water.
But clearly, the homely-and-decrepit aesthetic had to go. When Melissa decided to cross the remodeling Rubicon, she knew there was plenty of work to be done. She wisely called in some contractors to take on this hearty project. Still, the contractors couldn’t just dynamite the room and start over. They had to be respectful of the fact that this was Melissa’s only bathroom and it needed to be somewhat functional. For the most part this wasn’t an issue, but as most people experience during a major remodel, Melissa had one troublesome, borderline nightmarish evening.
“Coming home from work and finding your one and only toilet (which was supposed to always be in a useable state) in the middle of the hallway is not a good way to end the day.” she said.
Melissa endured the toilet snafu (she was without a toilet in her condo for a couple days), and after about six weeks of construction, her remodel turned out exactly how she wanted it. She installed a reasonably priced cast iron tub, put in classic subway wall tiles, and had a new vanity with Carrara marble countertop installed. The contractors also borrowed some space from an adjoining bedroom closet on the other side of a bathroom wall to create a linen closet for the bathroom. Her condo’s bathroom now has a timeless look, a far cry from her the falling-apart space with a purple-and-yellow, cover-your-eyes-bad paint job.
Find out more about Melissa’s bathroom style choices in the Bathonista Blog.
