Yeah, one of the big problems for us was that we had absolutely no idea how much any kind of remodeling was likely to cost. I went into it thinking that we could get a nice update to our master bath for like $10-$15k. And maybe we ended up overpaying substantially due to our lack of familiarity with contractors. But I’m a pretty big believer in market forces, and the fact that very few contractors even returned our call suggests to me that good remodels are tough and you can’t just order a highly-rated contractor from Amazon at a low price. (The other contractor to give us a quote was close to $100k, albeit with more extensive upgrades.) In any event, shit’s costly. I’m trying not to think about the $$$ and just enjoy the shower now.
Edit just to add some specifics for the master:
The countertop alone in the master bathroom was $2,800.
The glass shower door/walls were about $2,400.
And of course we could have gone cheaper on those things, but I never would have imagined that those two things on their own would eat up $5k.
Then when you think about the demo, electric, plumbing, floor, tile shower floor, wall tiles, etc. the total cost doesn’t seem that crazy. I mean, of course it’s crazy to spend that much on a bathroom, but it’s understandable how it got there.
Yeah, that was a little unclear. The chain of command was owner of the contracting company–>project manager–>guys actually doing the work. The project manager was a completely useless position, as one of the workers was obviously capable of managing the day-to-day crew, and that PM actually ended up leaving the company at the end of our job. Anyway, the owner of this contracting company typically comes out for a final walkthrough. But in our case, we were so dissatisifed with how things looked that we requested that he come for an interim walkthrough because the things that we were unhappy with didn’t seem like the kind of punchlist items that could be fixed with a day’s work. We basically said that the tile in both bathrooms looked terrible and wasn’t acceptable. He didn’t actually disagree with us, and so they ripped everything out and re-did it.
In terms of the lippage, I’m not sure what they did when they initially put the tile on. But the second time around, they had small plastic spacers along every piece of tile to ensure consistent spacing between tiles vertically and horizontally, as well as consistent distance coming out of the wall. (It looked like the shower was undergoing accupuncture.) I felt somewhat bad that they had to go through all of that extra effort. But I also think they should have done it that way from the start.
Yeah. I think he meant the big boss. After his meeting with the supervisor produced ‘lippage’ and 'imperfections are the good stuff, the peccadillos!"
And the fact that they were the lone outfit among the 6 contacted to even follow through with a bid, I’m inclined to think they’re a larger remodeler with multiple crews.
Your costs seem pretty reasonable from what I can see. I’m in the middle of a master bath remodel right now that’s smaller than yours and it’s going to end up somewhere between $20-$25k. And I am most definitely not getting rich on the job.
Looks good. Price doesn’t seem that crazy to me based on recent remodel that I had done.
Only thing I think I might have done differently is tiled the floor of the basement shower. Not sure how much cost difference that would have been though. I guess if you’re going to save a lot and it’s seldom used it may be worth it to go with the pan.
With all the tiling I’ve had done recently, I’d have assumed this was standard. I can’t imagine how you would get a good result without it. My tilers did that for everything, so I don’t think you should feel even a little bad.
We waffled on this, and I can imagine looking back in a couple of years regretting it. (Like, I’m totally baffled that some previous owner of the house paid to finish this entire huge basement and deliberately chose not to have a shower installed when putting in the bathroom.) I think it would have added $2.5-$3k, and if we expected it to be used more, we probably would have done it. In fact, when we had the “shower pan is flexing and we don’t know why” problem, I was leaning towards saying “screw it, just tile the floor”. But (as you probably know), you can make this kind of smallish upgrade on literally everything you’re doing. So at some point, we had to say, “It would be nice to upgrade XXX, but we’re putting a cap on how much we’re spending.”
In the corner of a room (The house is on a hill, so this part of the room is below ground level. I noticed) there appears to be some water damage. The carpet is discolored and the baseboard is warped and discolored. Who is the right type of professional to find the source of the water getting in and fix everything.
Had a plumber come by for some other stuff and he quickly looked at it and said he was pretty sure it’s not from a plumbing problem. It’s likely rain water (we’ve had a ton) seeping in somehow.
That’s going to either be a general contractor or drainage specialist, maybe a foundation guy. If you’re lucky you can solve it by diverting water at or near the surface with gutters, downspouts, french drains, etc. If you’re unlucky they’re going to have to dig up your yard and expose the entire foundation wall. Those sorts of leaks can almost never be solved from the inside.
Thanks. Sounds like this is going to be a big deal. The room is an addition that prior owners added about 12 years ago. I don’t know if it’s good or bad that we’re only discovering it now.
I had a hillside home with this problem. I dug a trench about 7’ deep at the deepest and like 75’ long behind the house and put in a drain and filled it with gravel - all by myself and by hand - and it 99% worked.
A mouse will not bite you. If you’ve seen one mouse there are probably 18 mice in your house. Pretty much guarantee there’s more than one. I have resisted killing mice. They’re pretty cute. But, there’s no real way around it. And mice don’t do well when captured if you don’t release them very quickly. It’s likely a gruesome death if you try to use a humane trap Rats can handle being trapped.
2 rooms? Ok, 8 mice. You need traps. Mice are not that hard to get rid of if you don’t mind wholesale murder. Rats are very hard. They don’t just fall for any old trap.
Mice are absolutely nasty. They nest in their own piss and shit.
@zarapochka I’ll avoid adding to your concerns with more mouse facts and simply assure you that they will leave the house as soon as it warms up a bit more outside.
I don’t see how you persuade it to leave unless you’re a cat. If that’s you in the picture, I don’t think a tiger could catch a mouse in an apartment, but persuade? Maybe.
It’s definitely a thing in northern climates. Do you ever see things like this in attics? This is what it looks like when mice take up winter residence (don’t look zara). Honestly this isn’t even that bad. I routinely see worse.
