Also, should the flooring, cabinetry, and countertops match in both bathrooms?

Right this minute, yes, espresso cabinets are good for resale. Whether that will still be true in five years time is another question.

I don't think both baths need to match. It's okay either way.

You may want to consider looking for some granite remnants, we got a local fabricator to make one (42") in the kid's bath with undermount sink for $250, and one in a powder room (30") with a hole for a vessel sink and hole for the faucet for $145. I got a vessel sink and faucet from overstock.com. This might be good time to call around and inquire as they are typically slower this time of year and the remnants have been paid for so they can make some money on the labor.

I agree, the baths don't need to match. Hard to tell if expresso will stand the test of time, I am guessing it is very popular now so it isn't likely to be super dated in 5 years.

Gmp3, thank you for the advice on granite... I didn't know I could get it for that cheap. Anyone with other suggestions for cabinets? I just graduated from college so cheap is just about the only way I can go!

Sorry, just a random comment that your thread title depressed the heck out of me..... were the 90's really that long ago?!? :)

i would do each bathroom differently. Especially if you are concerned about appealing to the masses; you can do something lighter in the second bath to appeal to a greater range of future buyers. cover all your bases so to speak.

First of all, congratulations on getting your first home!

If you might be interested in granite on the cheap, I have a place for you to check out. We just got done updating our guest bathroom and used Denver Granite Tile granite vanity top *and* undermount sink for $200 bucks. And that included a custom cut off of the end for our weirdly sized vanity. I don't know where you are and we didn't need to ship but I heard them say they ship throughout the country. Their web site is below. Of course, we did our own install so that's what made it super reasonable.

I agree with the others that you don't need to have the baths the same and actually you might want to have them quite different to accentuate which is the guest and which is the master.

HTH

Here is a link that might be useful: denver granite

I refinished our ugly 93" builder grade oak vanity in the bathroom with general gel stain which is a fantastic product, it looks great =) We got a gorgeous piece of pre-fab granite for the top, 'desert rose' for $375, but the same place we got that from had more common colors for $99. A few weeks ago a local tile store was clearing out 100 sq feet of carrara marble tile for $1.25 sq ft., it wasn't something I could use, but would be a heck of a deal for someone, so it pays to keep your eyes open for deals.

Would it decrease resale to have granite in one (or both) bathrooms but not the kitchen?

If I were buying a house, I don't think I would walk away from a house that had granite in the bathrooms but not the kitchen, I would probably be glad I didn't have to move in and reno the bathrooms along with the kitchen =)

Lynnblack, I'm intrigued about restaining your builders grade oak cabinets with a gel stain. How does it look? I have a perfectly good oak vanity in the kid's bath, and I hate getting rid of it just because it looks dated. Do you think staining it dark would update the look?

@telly it sure updated mine, I will take a picture and post it when the bathroom is done, right now it's full of plumbers, sheet rock guys etc so I dare not go in to take pictures lol.

General Gel Stains are fantastic, I first heard about them on gardenweb. After spending a week trying to use nasty miniwax polyshades I decided to remove that gunk and give general oil stains a try. The cabinet is 93" and fits in an alcove so whatever I got would somehow have to look "right" in that space and would have been costly. The cool thing about General gel stain is you don't strip the cabinet, just lightly sand it. After it dried I put on general stain rub on poly (several coats) and installed brushed nickle bar pulls. I posted a link below so you can see some before/after pictures posted by another user. It was actually celticmoon who posted the most comprehensive guide so you might try to find her thread on it- I think it was in kitchens

Here is a link that might be useful: refinish oak cabinet with general oil stain

Thanks for the link. I am anxious to see your bathroom photos.I think that may be exactly what I am looking for.Were there other things in the room you applied the gel stain to such as doors or trim? Also where did you purchase the product? Thank you for your help.

@dee4nebraska the vanity is the only thing we stained, the door will match the other doors in the house (painted white) You might find general stain locally, if not try rockler.com or woodworker.com and google both for any coupons, I found a free shipping coupon for rockler when I ordered.

Here is a link that might be useful: General Finishes dealer locator

Thanks lynneblack.There is a Woodworkers Supply about 70 miles from me. I will try that when I am in the area.All our trim is golden oak but that vanity is in an alcove so I want to try that first and then maybe move on to to the floor to ceiling cabinet behind the door that holds laundry basket and extra towels.If I screw up I will buy new!

There is some good advice on this thread. To your question about matching cabinets, its generally a good idea for the cabinets to match in any one bathroom. In terms of maximizing resale value, neutral designs that you also like is probably the way to go since future buyers will have surprisingly distinct preferences. Are you using a bathroom remodeling contractor?

Here is a link that might be useful: bathroom remodeling contractor

If you are going to be in the house for 5 years you don't have to do both bathrooms at once. You can do one now and one in a year or 2. I don't know if I would like expresso cabinets in both bathrooms; also depends on the lighting, but that's just me. We did 3 bathrooms over and in 2 of them we installed a one peice counter undermount sink. 1 granite and 1 marble. They are available at the big box stores. I think we paid about 250.00 each.

Mtnfever, sorry to hijack this thread but I am loving the vanities at denver granite (Bath and Granite 4 Less site). Reviews seem okay.

Did you look at their vanities at all and if so, what are your thoughts? I do not live in Denver so will need to get a quote on what the shipping will be. Also, the few complaints I found, some of them said their faucets and sinks weren't American standard sizes. Did you find that to be true? I am using my own granite but need a sink and faucet.

Sorry, colorfast, I have been remiss in checking my email so haven't responded promptly!

I only glanced at the vanities which looked ok but I didn't open them or anything to check on their quality, unfortunately, so I'm sorry that I can't help you more with those.

We used our own faucet, a Kohler Fairfax 4'' on center, and it fit fine including the drain and popup. Maybe the reviews you read meant that the plumbing connections weren't standard on their faucets? so that maybe you have get a hose with standard on one end and whatever the connection on the faucet is on the other??

The sink is smaller than our existing 80s' cultured marble integrated bath sinks but works fine and looks fine. The sink/its hole in the granite 14'' side to side, 11'' front to back, and 6'' to the *bottom* of the granite. The sink itself is an inch or so bigger than these dimensions so it can be undermounted.

I don't know if they have sink templates, since we needed both granite and sink and of course the granite had the right size hole, but you'll need one (or a granite fabricator ok with doing one) for your own granite cutting.

HTH

There can be a problem with faucets not working with American plumbing, that occurs with the drains on Ikea faucets. I looked at the site you mentioned, I see no reason to buy a faucet from them, they don't have enough information (or manufacturer name) that you could even evaluate them. I can't imagine the sinks not working, a sink is a sink.

Mtnfever, thanks for posting back...I can go days without checking threads on GW. I find this forum to be hard to check on past threads one posts on. And Lynne, I had heard that about IKEA faucets too.

For Denver Granite, I got the shipping price, and while it is still a very good price, I'm now checking locally to see if I can find a similar smaller shop closer to home for comparable price or less.

Found a local guy who carries Canyon Creek line from Monroe WA and will post separately about that. Looks promising so far.