Contractor Fun (Post Rough In Results)

Yes we wanted to DIY what we could with the bathroom, but there were definitely some things we were NOT going to tackle on our own.  Plumbing and electrical were the definite things we were going to hire out, and we did wind up hiring out the floor & wall prep and shower stall installation as well.  Here is the run down on how these items have gone so far (since we are still in the middle of working on the bathroom!)...

We did get ballpark amounts and one detailed estimate from full service contractors, but the hubby took one look at the numbers, choked and said "hell no"... and I did want to tackle the tiling myself no matter what, which at least one full service place said "no bueno we do it all ourselves end to end" to anyways.  All three full service estimates came in at $22-$26k!  I'll break down what our actual costs wind up being in a later post!

Plumbing

I got estimates from three different plumbers, like you're supposed to.  We had chosen a plumber/electrician combination first (they're friends and work together on jobs) who had done a quick electrical job for us last summer and initially gave us a good price.  But there were some issues with their estimate... I was the one who wrote up a detailed list of what items/tasks he vs. us would be responsible for, and he was like "oh, most of that wasn't in that one number I gave you..." and then we thought his next number which this time did include the floors, walls & shower stall was really high.  Some more back and forth, and then he wanted to add $1500 to the estimate for putting the second valve in the shower (which I was mentioning right off the bat to everyone and was in the drawings I gave him) so at that point I was like "thanks but no thanks" and went with a different plumber (Keller Plumbing) who was great at answering my questions, especially when I called him to ask if the $1500 was a reasonable amount for a 2nd valve!  He did give me a price break because one of his friends referred him to me.

Billy Keller & his two helpers came out and did a great job with the rough in.  His estimate was detailed, and he told me right off the bat that if he could tear out a section of wall in the foyer he could replace the entire plumbing stack from basement to 2nd floor.  Those guys worked their butts off for two whole days to get all the new lines run from the basement to the 2nd floor and all new plumbing installed in the bathroom.  They did a great job cleaning up after themselves, and they were working until 6:30pm the second day to get it all done.

Electrical

Again, I got three different estimates.  After I had to break up with the plumber/electrician combo we chose originally I was able to get our close second favorite electrician, Chris Buttlar.  He and his helper did a good job with the electrical lines to the new bathroom, though I have yet to confirm with him that the floor heat is actually on its own circuit now.  (Eep?)  The wall guy we got did have a criticism though that he did not replace ALL the old wire in the walls.  He left the wires that ran to the outlets & switches in the bedrooms on either side of the shared walls.   But Chris did make an extra stop out to work on one of the boxes when the wall guy found the insulation on the old wires was crumbling, and to change out the box for the floor heat thermostat because it needed a "mud ring".  (Partly my fault, I didn't have the floor heat system in hand when Chris came out to do the electrical so he didn't know the exact size/specs of the thermostat.)  In addition to the bathroom work he also installed regular 120v and a 240v outlets in our garage so we can plug in and charge up all of our electrical toys... (our second car, 2 bikes, and a hover board).

Floor/Walls/Shower Stall

We debated about trying to tackle doing the floor, walls and shower stall ourselves.  I did wind up getting estimates from three different people though... they actually were all handyman types who will do most bathrooms start to finish, but were willing to give me estimates for just those items.  One of them was going to be too busy (had a kitchen job lined up that had him booked until MAY) but was willing to send me a ballpark estimate for comparison purposes.  Out of the other two, I liked one better (he was recommended by a friend who checked his references) but he wasn't going to be able to work on it until the end of March due to other jobs & vacation.  The third one, Broderick Complete Contracting, was the cheapest and was available much sooner, though I thought he had kind of a condescending tone when discussing the work scope with me.  He seemed to do a good job though, and spent almost 4 full days getting everything installed, mudded and sanded.  As someone who has an eye for detail and some perfectionist tendencies, I do think his shower stall installation was a little on the sloppy side, and he didn't want to waterproof as much of the bathroom as the other guys were going to.  But having not done any hands on work with the Schluter shower system myself, I don't know how finicky it is to get correct and neat so not sure how much I can say about how exactly good/bad the finished product is.  Everything seems to be covered and waterproofed, even if the corners and walls aren't exactly 100% square and even.

I suggested to him to use some string to lay out the floor heating wires but he just jumped right in with the heating wires.  Well, he had to redo the layout 4 times and still managed to violate almost every rule in the installation manual.  I spend 2 hours the next day using some paracord to mock up an alternate layout, and redid the layout myself and wound up meeting most of the rules.  Not sure if I put too many bends in the wire, but more zig zags used up more wire and I was able to avoid the areas the contractor wasn't able to do.  So there is that.  The resistance reading is still acceptable, though the megaohmmeter test wasn't done prior to installation, so hopefully nothing really went wrong with installing and ripping out the wire FIVE times.

Heating wire as contractor left it

Heating wire after I redid the layout

Demolition Treasures

Once the walls came down, we actually found some old newspapers stuffed in the area under the attic and above the main stairs.  The date on them was from April 1941, so we are assuming that is the date the house was probably constructed?  Or perhaps it was from installing insulation pretty early on because Zillow has our house listed as having been built in 1938?  (I haven't done the definitive research on what the actual year was yet...)  Either way, it was neat to see some of the pages.  It was in VERY poor shape, and most of it crumbled away when we picked it up.  We left most of it where we found it, but I got some pictures of some of the pages.

Crazy to think these are from before any of our parents were born!!!  But it was certainly interesting to see some of the original house prices in this area! (For reference, our house is approximately $300k now!)  

Demolition! (aka "Smash and Destroy")

Tim had a week off between jobs, so it would have been the perfect time to demolish the bathroom.  Until the kids wound up having 3 days off of school that week due to extreme cold!!!  Ugh.  Fortunately we were able to call in some favors and farm them out to friends and neighbors for two days while we got the nastiest, dirtiest, most questionable parts of the demolition done.

With an old house, of course we had some concerns about lead paint.  After using a bunch of test swabs on all the paint layers we could uncover, we were fairly confident the only place there was major concern about was the wooden trim on the inside of the bathroom itself.  After a bunch of online research, talking to a couple of remediation contractors, and (yet another) trip to Home Depot, we decided to tackle and address the issue ourselves by trying to seal everything up as well as possible, minimizing dust, and cleaning up well afterwards.  All of these are the steps recommended by the EPA lead removal information and website for homeowners.  A lead removal face mask, full body Tyvek suit, plastic sheeting, duct tape, and LOTS of garbage bags later, we were ready to take on full demolition mode.

Tim donned all the PPE gear and sequestered himself inside the plastic sheeted bathroom with the window open.  (I also hung plastic sheets in front of the kids rooms and kept their doors shut too, and Keira slept in our room as well for a few nights - her bedroom adjoins and shares an air vent with the bathroom).  

I donned a face mask too, but I mainly stayed outside the bathroom itself to haul all the buckets (and buckets and buckets and buckets) between the bathroom and the Bagster at the end of the driveway (down two flights of stairs of course...).

Partway through...

Tim used mostly hand tools (pry bars & sledgehammer were the real workhorses) to break up and demolish all the wall tile and plaster, and dismantle the closet framing.  The giant sledgehammer did the tub in, but amazingly, after removing all of the walls and even breaking up the tub on the original floor there was ONE chip out of ONE tile in the whole floor!  Well, a rented large demolition hammer did the floor in within 4 hours.  (yes, I got to bash a bit of tub, and to use the demolition hammer a little bit too!)

Leaving us with bare studs, and one heaped up Bagster, plus a few other bags and bits off to the side. 

(We were also left really sore for a couple of days, and I had bruises all over my thighs from all the buckets bumping down the stairs)  

We were a little concerned that they wouldn't pick up the Bagster due to all the concrete piled on top, but I did remove (and cut up) all the studs sitting on top, and I tied the handles together so that they still met over top.  It was picked up one day during the one hour that I was out grocery shopping! Boo... I had wanted to see how that thing got put on the disposal truck!  

The Great Bathroom Adventure "Before"

We bought this house in June 2018 from a family moving to Montana.  The upstairs main bathroom is really the only major "problem area" the house has, otherwise it is in pretty good condition considering it was built in 1941.  After brainstorming and pinning and researching all fall, it is finally time to make a complete main bathroom renovation happen!

The biggest issue with the bathroom was the layout of the toilet in relation to a small closet.  The toilet was so close to the closet that the door (which was tiny to begin with!) never even opened fully.    And it was so close to the closet that an adult couldn't really sit normally on a toilet... you had to angle at 45 degrees!  

After that, while it was in pretty decent shape, the tile around the shower was starting to get a little wonky, and you could see where previous patches and repairs had been done to the tile throughout the room.  The tub was "well used" and worn, and I had already replaced the stems on the faucet handles due to leaks right after we moved in.  The floor was in amazing shape however - no cracks or chips at ALL!  (Besides the grout being darkened due to age/dirt...)  

I actually like the "classic" look the bathroom had, with the smaller mosaic and the trim around the room.  But it is DEFINITELY time for an upgrade!!!  The sconces seemed to know they were done for... one just up and quit working last week! (No, it wasn't just a burnt out bulb!)