bathroom makeover

Bathroom remodeling doesn't have to cost a fortune.  Sometimes with just a few changes you can transform an outdated bathroom without having to break the bank.  Our house is about 65 years old so everything they did back then is solid, and I mean solid. Under the floor tile in both of our bathrooms is 5" thick concrete poured right in between the floor joists and behind all of the wall tile there is about equal the amount. It's not a fun job taking it out.  We went through the expense of having it done in our master bath but weren't about to do it for the kids' bathroom.  So instead we made minor improvements that made a major difference.

First we had to figure out what we were willing to do, which didn't involve taking down all the tiles on the wall and floor. We were lucky that the tile was gray and not pink which is very typical for the age of the house.  Gray isn't so bad to work with so we picked out a marble floor so the gray and white tones would go nicely with the wall tile. The old tile on the floor was original to the house and they were worn down and so scuffed that we actually just laid the new floor right over it.  I wouldn't recommend doing that over all floors, but we were lucky that the floor was already so solid and the tiles didn't come too high over the threshold by the door.  We then replaced the old toilet and then the sink with a vanity. A lot of the older homes just have sinks in the bathrooms with no cabinet space. The one minor problem we faced was what to do with the old tiles that are attached to the walls around the sink. There were ceramic holders set into the wall for soap, toothbrushes and cups. So we carefully knocked those tiles out (being cautious not to break the adjacent tile) and used some of the leftover floor tile to create a mosaic in that space.  I think it worked pretty well.  But just those few changes (plus taking down old wall paper and painting)  really updated the bathroom without costing more then $600.