Renovating my house in the suburbs

[Muhammad]

Yeah when you have to do it, it is hard work. I would much rather have a year to get this done but I guess having a functional kitchen is important for some reason.

 

[MossRoad]

Yeah when you have to do it, it is hard work. I would much rather have a year to get this done but I guess having a functional kitchen is important for some reason.

So's a functional bathroom... :laughing:

Our first house and our current house are both 1 bathroom houses. We re-did both of them. I always had to make sure that at the end of the day, the toilet and shower functioned. That added a lot of two-steps forward, one-step back days to the job.

 

[Muhammad]

So's a functional bathroom... :laughing:

Our first house and our current house are both 1 bathroom houses. We re-did both of them. I always had to make sure that at the end of the day, the toilet and shower functioned. That added a lot of two-steps forward, one-step back days to the job.

Yeah that's downright crazy. But I guess the one bathroom paints you into a corner. We have three bathrooms and I haven't touched any of them yet... mainly due to budget. But also bathrooms can take a long time if you want to move anything around. Ideally renovations are all done at the same time, that's for sure.

 

[MossRoad]

For example, our current house. 3 bedrooms. 1 bath. The bathroom has a 50+ year old cast-iron porcelain coated tub and Miraplas styron tiles. You know. That funky plastic tile from the 50s like this.



The tiles are on all of the walls, all the way up, and 12" tiles on the ceiling. They were in great condition, but looked like a 50's museum diorama. The bathroom needed sprucing up. To get the tub out would have meant to destroy the surround, which is Corian, the vanity top, which is Corian, and an outside wall in the hallway. Then to get all of the tiles off the walls and ceilings would have meant complete gutting of the room. Then new tub, surround, custom vanity top (size and shape are unique), walls and floor. About 10G and bathroom would have been unusable for many days.

After much thought, we had the tub reglazed for $500. And we asked the tub glazer guy what he thought about the walls and ceiling. He said why don't we re-glaze those too? What? Yeah. He said they looked to be in great condition, just outdated color. So for $1900 he glazed all of the walls and ceiling in a nice color with speckled stuff in it that my wife picked out. It looks great! I removed the old vinyl floor and put in a new sheet of wood-look vinyl. Then I made new baseboards and molding and stained and painted until it matched the existing door.

In that entire process, we had no shower for only 24 hours. I had to remove and reinstall the toilet 3 times: for tub glazing, for wall glazing, for floor installation. But we were never without a toilet for more than about 4 hours.

So there are ways to make remodeling while living in a home doable. But it ads lots of time and cost if you're paying someone to do it for you. If it's just you, then it's much more palatable.

 

[MossRoad]

Oh, and a house with 4 people and 1 bath, you learn good social skills, too. :laughing:

 

[joeyd]

When I remodeled our only bathroom in a previous home I purchased a Coleman camping toilet. It had a removable holding tank and a small fresh water tank for flushing. I would empty it daily by dumping it in our existing sewer line that was "open" since the toilet was off for the new subfloor, tile/grout etc.

 

[dragoneggs]

Oh, and a house with 4 people and 1 bath, you learn good social skills, too. :laughing:

Even better, my wife was 1 of 10 kids, and seventh successive daughter before a boy came. Age spread between the 10 was/is 14 years and only one bathroom in a four bedroom house growing up.

They still get together regularly for birthdays, book clubs, etc. I can't believe they still want to see each other! :laughing:

 

[MossRoad]

Even better, my wife was 1 of 10 kids, and seventh successive daughter before a boy came. Age spread between the 10 was/is 14 years and only one bathroom in a four bedroom house growing up.

They still get together regularly for birthdays, book clubs, etc. I can't believe they still want to see each other! :laughing:

Between me, my dad, and my two grandfathers, there are 18 women. No other males.... and yes, some of them don't want to see each other.

 

[ultrarunner]

Mom one of 10 siblings was born when just an out-house existed... she said going outside as a child in the snow is something you never forget.

They were the first farm with indoor plumbing...

When I built the vacation cabin nearby I made it 2.5 baths... A little over the top for the grandparents!

 

[Dftodd]

Even better, my wife was 1 of 10 kids, and seventh successive daughter before a boy came. Age spread between the 10 was/is 14 years and only one bathroom in a four bedroom house growing up.

They still get together regularly for birthdays, book clubs, etc. I can't believe they still want to see each other! :laughing:

6 kids and two adults in a one bathroom house. I got up at 5:00am for school so I could have hot water for a shower.