Our DIY Spare Bathroom Renovation, Part II

After 3 weeks our spare bathroom renovation is complete.  There was a lot of blood, sweat, and tears involved.  How did it turn out?  Did we blow our budget?  Am I still married to Mrs. Heartland on FIRE?   Read on for the details…

When I last left you reader, I had just installed the backerboard for the shower and floor tile.

It feels like that was months ago, when in fact it was two weeks ago.  Go figure.

So, what’s happened since then?  Let me explain, with help from several photos.

Waterproofing

After the backerboard was installed in the shower and the joints taped and coated with thinset, the next step was to apply the waterproof membrane.  There are a number of options available, but I went with a liquid-applied membrane, Redgard.  The process was perhaps the simplest of the renovation tasks.  I used a brush to heavily coat the joints, then followed that by rolling on the rest of the areas using a 3/4-inch nap roller.  The first coat dried in a few hours and then I rolled on a second coat.  Easy peasy!

Painting

I absolutely despise painting.  Almost as much as sanding drywall.  Mrs. Heartland on FIRE, thankfully, is a willing painter.  More importantly, she is a good “edger”.  We selected a light gray that we used in our recent kitchen remodel and she got a couple coats on before I started tiling.  It’s always nice to have painting down before tiling and fixtures go in.

Tiling

The next step was to set the tile.  I started with the shower early on a Saturday.  After about 12 hours of near constant spreading, setting and cutting, the job was complete.  This was the longest day of the job, wrapping up at 8:45 pm totally spent!

The job would have been much worse if it wasn’t for this baby:

This tile cutter allowed me to cut tiles in the bathroom, saving me countless trips up and down stairs and going outside to use a conventional tile saw.  I purchased this when we were remodeling our kitchen.  We installed a glass tile backsplash and I found that it cut these tiles much cleaner than a saw.

One problem that cropped up was that I revised the tile layout in the middle of the job and forgot to refigure the square footage.  As it turned out I had to make a mad dash to Lowes before the store closed to purchase another box of wall tile.  At least I had exactly enough of the bullnose edge tiles to the inch… or so I thought.  There was another issue with the revised layout: the top row of tile ran into the shower arm.  This meant the escutcheon didn’t seat against the wall.  I figured we would come up with a solution later… more on this in a bit.

The next day consisted of grouting.  Mrs. Heartland on FIRE and I have worked out a good system (for me at least!) over the years where I spread the grout and she sponges it off.  Things started off on the wrong foot as I popped off one of the bullnose tiles immediately when I was cleaning the grout lines.  The tile broke and I was completely out of tile.  Ugh, another run to the store in my future (of course the closest store had just run out of these as well.  Insult meet injury).  Despite that, we pushed forward and completed the job.  Here’s a closeup of the grout job and you can see the tile texture better:

We grouted the shower tile on Sunday and I decided to not take the next night off.  So I set out to set the floor tile…  on a Monday… after work.  Maybe not the best idea?

Setting the tile only took a bit over 2 hours.  It took one hour to spread the thinset and set all the tiles, and one hour to successfully make the cut needed for the toilet flange.   I previously mentioned installing the tub as the breaking point for the project.  Well making the cut for the toilet flange was its equal.  I attempted to cut a circle in the middle of one tile using a grinder with a tile blade.  After two tiles shattered within an inch of completing the cut, we had to choose a different strategy.  I switched approaches and made the cut using two separate tiles and the wet saw.  One tile cut as easy as a cheese sandwich.  The other took half an hour of iterative nibbling away portions of the file.  I was mentally shot after this one.

Thankfully, the 12″x24″ floor tile meant very little grouting, so the next day was a much needed breeze!  We used the same grout here to keep with the simple, clean look.  Here is the bathroom with the floor tile set and grouted:

Installing the Fixtures

With tiling complete, everything started moving quickly.  Working from the top down, I switched out the light, installed the new medicine cabinet, and hung the mirror.  This took about an hour.  Next I installed the vanity.  As always seems to be the case, the drain and supply lines conflicted with the cabinet framing, so I had to use the jigsaw and “modify” the back of the cabinet.  Next, I attached the faucet and supply lines and installed the vanity top.  I also replaced the vintage 90s beige receptacle and light switches with clean white ones and cover plates.

Plumbing 2.0

I mentioned the issue with the tile conflicting with the shower arm escutcheon earlier.  Unfortunately, fixing this issue required me putting another hole in the wall and adjusting the shower arm upwards to the escutcheon would sit flat against the wall.  Naturally, I broke 2 more bullnose tiles in the process and managed to buy the wrong sharkbite elbow fitting.  Doh!  Back to “The Depot” for more parts!  Thankfully, patching the wall, taping and mudding went quickly and relatively painlessly.  I wish I thought that through earlier in the job when I had the wall opened up.  It would have been MUCH easier.

With the shower arm fixed and the wall patched, I installed the trim kit (tub filler and shower valve handle).  No issues here.

Baseboards

There wasn’t much trim needed in this small bathroom, so baseboard installation was non-eventful.  We went with taller trim so I had a bit of a tricky cut around the toilet supply line.  I did find out that I can get an 8-foot length of trim into my Honda Accord.  Who needs a pickup!

Toilet

Speaking of the toilet… I had the lovely misfortune of dropping one of the mounting bolts down the toilet drain line.  AHH!  I devised a way to McGyver myself out of the situation by using one of our kiddo’s MagnaFormers, a bit of rope and a plumbing snake.  To my utter surprise this worked!

Anyways, enough of my rambling.  What does the finished product look like?

Here you go:

Why Rainbows?  Remember this is a bathroom for two little girls.  The beauty is that the fixtures and finishes are fairly neutral and modern so as they grow up, or if we sell the house, we can easily update the look by replacing the shower curtain and floor rug.

Since this is a personal finance blog I would be remiss not to report on our budget and spending.  We were originally budgeting $3,000 for this project.  Where did we end up?

Budget Vs. Spending

Item	Budget	Actual	Variance (- means over budget)
Tile	$90.00	$105.06	-$15.06
Grout	$40.00	$14.47	$25.53
Grout Sealer	$10.00	$10.00	$0.00
Grout Sponge	$10.00	$9.88	$0.12
Backerboard	$62.50	$121.83	-$59.33
Redgard	$56.00	$60.51	-$4.51
Redgard tape	$20.00	$6.97	$13.03
Backerboard Screws	$20.00	$26.44	-$6.44
Thinset	$56.00	$84.59	-$28.59
Vanity	$500.00	$379.00	$121.00
Vanity Top	$250.00	$189.00	$61.00
Faucet	$100.00	$89.00	$11.00
Shower Valve	$90.00	$0.00	$90.00
Mirror	$75.00	$72.00	$3.00
Paint	$75.00	$29.98	$45.02
Shower Head	$50.00	$0.00	$50.00
Shower Trim Kit	$150.00	$159.00	-$9.00
Light	$100.00	$88.77	$11.23
Shower Tile	$370.00	$287.34	$82.66
Medicine Cabinet	$75.00	$29.96	$45.04
Tub	$230.00	$139.00	$91.00
Misc Plumbing/Electrical	$50.00	$317.70	-$257.14
Tax	$223.16	$141.10	$82.05
Dumpster	$350.00	$295.00	$55.00
Total	$3,052.66	$2,656.60	$351.61

I still need to purchase and install a towel bar, so the grand total will end up just below $2,700, leaving us $300 below budget!  I’d love to say this was due to excellent cost estimating on my part, but it really wasn’t.  For instance look at the Misc. Plumbing/Electrical line item… Whoops!  This was our “catch all” category.  I ended up purchasing a lot more plumbing fittings, as well as buckets for mixing thinset and grout, and drywall mud.

The major reasons we beat our budget was due to me being naive that the shower valve and shower head actually come with the trim kit, and our shower tile and vanity choices were a bit more economical than anticipated.

Labor Hours

From a time standpoint, the project was completed in 17 days with work on every day with one or two exceptions.  We took one day of vacation, but the vast majority of the work was completed on weekends and weeknights after our day jobs.  As best as I can figure my wife and I had approximately 65 labor hours invested in the actual construction work and running to the store for parts.  I am looking forward to a few nights off!

In Summary

Other than some spilled paint on the carpet (facepalm!), a handful of cuts and bruises, and several frayed nerves, the project went well.  Any project where I walk away with all my extremities and my marriage intact is a winner to me!  In the end we are happy with the final product and expense.  Most importantly, the girls seem to like it as well!

I’ll leave you with a Before and After Photo for comparison.

Now to start planning on that Master Bathroom Reno!

Thanks for reading!