I knew from the moment I entered this home, I would want a bathroom in the basement. A finished basement was at the top of my list when house hunting, with the goal of renting it out. My agent Joe and I figured it wouldn't be too difficult to get a bathroom installed. I was fortunate enough that the seller gave me $5,000 towards renovations. The night before closing, we met with contractors to get estimates, and boy were we shocked! The estimates were coming in at $20,000-$30,000... this was way more than we had figured. And none of the contractors seemed to like the space I picked for the bathroom. We had this small area on the other side of the stairs- many felt like it was too small.
But I didn't want to give up all this unfinished space- I felt like it had a lot of potential for the future:
I finally found a contractor that was willing to do the job in that space, at a reasonable price compared to all the others. And the work started. And man was it messy.
There was no rough in, so we had to start from scratch. They were able to locate a pipe under the concrete and hook into there. The water heater needed to be moved back to make more space too. Dust was everywhere- this was the part I didn't expect. No matter how many times I dusted and vacuumed, the dust was everywhere. But, once the concrete was drilled, I knew there was no turning back. The next few days they started framing out the bathroom and cut the door:
Then was the fun part- picking the tiles. I had fallen in love with these huge (12"x24") wavy white tiles, and this mosaic with some silver. Since this is a basement bath without any windows, I wanted to keep the shower tiles bright. I also had to keep in mind that my goal is to eventually rent out the space, so I wanted larger tiles to prevent tons of grout lines. I know no one that rents is ever going to treat the space the same as I would, so I wanted it to be very minor maintenance.
The tile guy HATED my tile selections. He said my tile was too big for the size of the shower. Then he hated that the mosaic had so much texture- both tiles were wavy, and hard to work with. But, he figured out a way to lay them that looked good. We then decided to pop in a niche for bottles and soap... thanks to Tessa consistently bumping her elbow on her soap dish- she said I HAD to do a niche :P I was impressed that this was all done before they installed a light!
I learned that the shower tiles have to be 2"x2" for drainage- they allow for the water to slope down to the drain. So I bought the same tile I used on the floor for the shower floor, just smaller.
Once they laid the floor tiles, I wasn't allowed to walk on the tile for a night. They sealed it off to make sure I didn't! Once it was grouted, it was time for the finishing touches. They painted, put in the toilet, vanity, hardware, lighting, etc. And the end product- amazing! I'm so jealous that this isn't my bathroom.
I really didn't want to put up a shower curtain, but I got this hotel style shower curtain from Home Goods. I guess I'll get over it!
Cost: approximately $16,000 YIKES!
