Is this the one and only bathroom and thus needs to be usable? If so, you could do a bare-bones reno for now until you've got the cash to do it up properly. Mr. Weedy and I gutted a small bath for someone a couple years ago down to the studs and subfloor. She got lowest-end stuff to put back in, and the total materials came to $1500. It's a basic bathroom, but it's clean and doesn't leak, so it does the trick.

If, OTOH, you do need/want it to look nice first off, and just want some budget ways to accomplish your vision, then post some photos and we can try to help.

That's too bad!

Really, the expenditure can range drastically depending on how much you're able to do yourself, and how much time & energy you're willing to put into careful materials choices and bargain hunting. We just did a bathroom reno that involved butting the room to the studs and floor joists, moving a door, replacing all finishes. We DIY-ed it and it cost less than $3,000, including high-end details like a marble vanity top, calacatta marble niches, custom vanity, and heated floors. I'd guess that if we'd just hired a contractor and let him loose, the bathroom with the same "look" and higher-end feel would have been $20k.

There are a lot of folks here with great ideas and a lot of experience who can probably help you make some good decisions.... but we'll need to see photos, floor plans with measurements, ideas as to what style you like, a list of wants and needs, etc.

Stacey

Hey Sivyaleah,

Sounds like you have a lot of work there to figure out. We have redone 4 bathrooms in our home. Two of them were simple redos. In one we took out a fiberglass shower and replaced it with a Kohler cast iron pan and sliding glass door. I painted the existing cabinetry, changed out the top for granite, ordered new faucets, and tiled the shower with tile we found at Lowes. All of the faucet stuff we ordered through faucetsdirect and I had great experience with them. We also changed out the light. The flooring & layout stayed the same. The Jack & Jill bathroom had a similar change out. Those ran about $3000 each including labour (we used a great handyman service for the labour, so not really diy).

We did guts on our Master & guest Bathrooms and changed layouts, drains and electrical. We used a reputable contractor on those and the total price for 2 was around $60,000, with more money being spent on the Master.

Good luck!

Hi Sivyaleah (nice name)
Can you post pictures of the bath and the damage as well as pictures of what you would like it to look like?

Are you willing to do any work yourself?

Thanks everyone for all of your comments.

I'll take some photos asap so that anyone who has ideas can offer them.

We really aren't capable (anymore) of doing any of the work ourselves. I myself, have physical problems which would prevent me from doing so. My BF is just not detail oriented enough (as I have learned from watching him this past year since we took possession of the house). Seriously, he tries hard and in a pinch can take care of things but honestly it's like his eyes don't work right or something and then he gets all hurt feelings when I have to point out what is wrong; so it's just not worth it.

Thankfully, because of all the work already done on the house I have people I trust.

We do have another small bathroom - but it's only a Powder Room but, at least it is somewhere to use a toilet and wash up in a pinch. The shower, as I mentioned, will not be touched since it was recently redone. We don't intend to reconfigure anything for the most part - plumbing will remain in place (except for moving the tub's plumbing over a foot or so - there is room, the wall is long) and while I would really love a double sink I suspect it would mean changing the entire layout of the room including re-doing that shower; which means $2000 already spent down the tubes which would just gall me; so I'll live with the one. It's only two of us living here anyway.

At least I don't have a desire to make it a show piece. It's not a fancy house, I don't need a spa bathroom. I just want something up-to-date and which works well (I put a lot of thought into my kitchen; also not a show-stopper but one which "fit" into the existing style and materials of my Craftsman home. I intend to do something similar for the bathroom.

Consider installing a plug behind the toilet if you open up the drywall. It is cheap and easy to do at that stage. That will give you the option to install a washlet. Google bowjet to see what that is all about.

Thanks but I already mentioned I just purchased a new Toto toilet. Obviously, that remains.

In view of all the things that need to be done yet, can you live with the bathroom as is for a while? That way you can see how much money you will be left with to do renovation work.

In the mean time, for budgetary planning purposes, you could get a couple of bids on the work that needs to be done. At least that would give you some ballpark figures to work with that are revelant to your geographical location. On your own, you can go to websites like faucetdirect etc to get prices on hardware type things like a new tub. It helped me tremendously to be able to price things out. I don't have any idea what to tell you about plaster walls, that's why I think a couple of quotes would at least put your mind at ease.

With the way the world is now, I would not want to finance anything else, which is why I suggest you do what needs to be done with the cash you have, then, when that is complete, you will know how much you have on hand.

If the rest of the bathroom really has to go -- then you might just bite the bullet and do so.

Your cost for electric & plumbing isn't much (if any) different for a high end vs low end bath.

Repair the joists & subfloors, etc.

Design the right layout -- and have all the rough ins and electric put where you want them.

The big difference will be in finishes & labor to install.

Buy your finishes at one of the big box stores -- buy an inexpensive faucet and a vanity/top/faucet combo, a prefab tub/wall combo. Get sheet vinyl for the floor. Bet you can get that all for $750 or less.

You'll have a nice, clean, temporary bath that'll last you until you can do it the way you'd like.

When you're ready to upgrade your bath, you can donate what you installed to habitat, perhaps even sell on Craigslist. (and its all easily removable without heavy demo).

Personally, the one thing I've learned in the past 10 years of living in an older home, is that I've waited way too long to do some things perfectly. Better to have 50% now, then do 50% in a year or two -- makes the world of difference in livability and enjoyment.

Personally, the one thing I've learned in the past 10 years of living in an older home, is that I've waited way too long to do some things perfectly. Better to have 50% now, then do 50% in a year or two -- makes the world of difference in livability and enjoyment.

We lived with our one bathroom in hideous and leaking condition for over fifteen years because we wanted to do a total gut and have everything perfect. Should have followed the above advice.....

I too finally figured out that often a halfassed job is better than a noassed job.

Sometimes not....but often!

You got some great advice here and you mentioned you have people who have worked for you that you trust. It sounds like the house has good bones. I just redid our master bath which was a big job because it involved enlarging the bedroom too. It was the smallest bathroom in the house and the one used the most and we lived with it since 1988. We were sure we had the money but since you have done the shower and toilet could you work on the other areas in stages depending on the bids you get?

I did a near gut on a 7x7 bath where I paid about $13K. I had done electrical earlier to the tune of a few hundred, and already had the toilet and purchased the vanity myself. The tub was American Standard, the fixtures Kohler, the tile Daltile with a marble shelf and threshhold.

It was actually slightly more expensive than it needed to be because I used a contractor who could do a fast and coordinated project in our condo with only that bathroom.

I have spent a lot of money on this renovation so I thought this was relatively inexpensive and the workmanship is good. It was small and I used basic materials though.