Master Bathroom Remodel

When we bought this house we knew it wasn't perfect. The problem was we had looked for so long to find something livable and within budget. We were getting tired of looking and we were losing hope that we would find anything that we could both agree on. He was all about the house, and was definitely not into any sort of diy remodeling, and I was not so fixated on the house but I insisted on getting some decent land. We had looked at this house the last time we lived here (before we moved to Prineville) but they wanted too much money at that time. We moved back to Roseburg and started our search again. After listing and delisting the house was listed again with a new realtor for a lower price. This time we made an offer and we got it.

One of the first things I wanted to do was fix the master bathroom. To me it was one of the most hideous things I've ever seen. It had a large double headed shower (no tub--I have to have a tub!) with glass block walls. Several of the blocks were cracked and even had mold and algae growing inside the blocks. There must have been a leak in the shower pan at one point because the floor tiles were uneven and not slanted properly toward the drain. Another clue to the leak problem was directly below, in the ceiling of the living room, was a patch of paint that didn't quite match the other ceiling paint.

The double sinks were nice but they are colored and I'm not really into colored sinks. Also the antiqued brass fixtures are not my thing.

The floor was not bad, a tile-looking vinyl that wasn't in too bad of shape. I'm guessing it was replaced when the leak in the shower floor was "fixed".

Finally the toilet was also in good shape. At least it's white.

The before pictures.

Ugly pinkish tile.

After we'd been in the house for a couple of months I decided to start looking for a home equity loan. I wasn't even sure if it would be possible to get one since we hadn't been there all that long. But on the other hand why not? We had a large down payment so really, the cash was there, in the house. And we were going to make the house more valuable with the improvements.

I checked with several banks and credit unions. Most would not touch it because it was "too rural", it was "more than 20 acres", or whatever else. I finally got a "yes" from Wells Fargo. That was before I found out they were in hot water from allegedly taking out loans in people's names without their knowledge. I was a little leary after learning that info but figured now that they were under the microscope they wouldn't dare do anything fishy.

I needn't have worried because everything went smoothly. We got our HELOC loan and started making improvements. I usually tell people the logging we did paid for the master bathroom. In reality we pulled money from the HELOC since it was readily there and I repaid it with the logging money.

We had a few contractors come out to give us a bid after we told them what we wanted. There is an interior design store here that gave us a great presentation, with a plan and sample materials. They weren't the least expensive but we decided to go with them. 

We took their first plan home with us to make measurements. They had a separate shower and my beloved soaking tub, but it turns out that left only a tiny space for the double sinks and counters. We went back to the drawing board and another plan emerged where the shower and tub were in the same space. That worked out much better.

A start date and schedule was set.  I have to say they pretty much stuck to schedule and there were only a few glitches.

The after pictures.

The bathtub/shower. The green tape is where they had a few minor fixes.

The only thing that stayed was the toilet.

After everything was done I got the final bills. The major thing I didn't understand was how the project lady figured the bill. She had said they charge 15% over what their contractors charge. I did the calculations based on the bills she provided and it wasn't adding up. She had some cockamamie way of doing it using 85%. Her figures were coming out higher than mine. We finally got it figured out and we ended up doing my way.

I love my new master bathroom. I love the tile, the deep soaking tub, the soft close cabinetry, the granite.  

The master bedroom was next.