Bathroom Renovation/ Remodel

White bath cabinets, warm color flooring

Renovation/ remodel – aren’t they the same thing?  I don’t like to get hung up in semantics or jargon peculiar to a trade.  I get in trouble for that, since I then forget what things are called by specialists.  Oops, I let the cat out of the bag. 

What has been on my mind lately, don’t ask me why, is bathroom remodeling.  I have 2 ½ baths in my home, and there are changes I would like to make to all of them.  I bet that is true of most people – I mean not that they want to change my bathroom, but you know, upgrade their bathrooms.

So, let’s think about that a bit.  What do most of us want in a bathroom?  I mean besides the basics like leak free fixtures, quiet flushing toilets and everything clean?  Well, to start with, when you walk into your master bath in the morning you want efficient fixtures that are laid out in a logical, non-shin busting arrangement.  You want colors and textures on the shower walls that make you feel good first shot out of bed.  Of course this will be different for each of us, but let me give you some samples we have installed: 

Space saving Neo shower

Warm tile colors, trim, glass shower doors

Warm tile, double sinks

In looking at the highly personal bathroom remodel design concept, I found a nice website that itemizes bathroom design stages.  The article is titled A Guide to Bathroom Design, by Mary Wynn Ryan.  

http://tlc.howstuffworks.com/home/guide-bathroom-design.htm/printable

Some of the concepts laid out in the articles listed below are planning in advance, with the costs listed, so you can decide during the design phase, what is most important to you.  Changes made during construction are very costly. You want to know exactly what your goal is and the costs, before construction and the purchasing of fixtures starts.

1. A guide to bathroom design.
2. Personalizing your bathroom design.
3. New construction vs. remodeling your bathroom. (This would have to be a house that is not constructed yet!)
4. How to design a bathroom on a budget.
5. Hiring bathroom remodeling professionals.

 The advice to carefully plan and research your bathroom design before construction starts cannot be overemphasized.  Review bathroom photos, check out display rooms at your local plumbing dealers and check out your friends bathrooms!  Then list the costs along with less expensive (or more expensive, depending on where your mind goes first) alternatives.  Total it all up and then decide what you can afford and what you will be happy with.  Then call up that remodeling contractor.  If you have a hard time making decisions, we would be happy to go over these things with you!

C’est la vie!