Bathroom reno ideas?

[carmenere]

We were planning to give our master bathroom a little makeover this spring, since we aren’t sure whether we want to stay here long. But now we have an urgent issue in the shower plumbing, so we’re considering a reno. I dislike the bathroom but have no vision for what I want it to look like.

The timing of this really sucks (we’ve been bleeding money on home and auto repairs and our HVAC is on borrowed time), plus we still don’t know if we’re staying, so I want to minimize the costs. Ideally I'd like to keep the existing floor tile - I don’t love it, but that would allow us to wait on replacing the toilet and vanity until we save more money. We definitely need to replace the shower tile and bathtub. I hate the wall tile so we’ll remove that and just paint the walls, unless I fall in love with a different tile. Obviously all the fixtures need updating.

So...what kind or shower tile and counter tops would you pair with the existing floor tile? (Or you can tell me the floor is awful and we need to replace it.) What color vanity? Any other ideas?

[laterz]

I don't have any tile suggestions, but depending on what you do with the wall and fixtures, one suggestion i have is to replace the register cover. We replaced our builder-grade covers and they made a HUGE difference! We got ours from signaturehardware.com.

[Susie]

Is the floor linoleum or tile? Even if it's tile, it looks like linoleum, which would not be an asset in a RE listing photo if you end up selling. At least from the photo, I dislike the floor more than the vanity.  It's not awful or anything though.

To make useful suggestions though I think I'd need to understand the problems better. What in the shower has become urgent?

[k3am]

Not knowing why anything in the bathroom needs to go, and especially since money is tight, the first thing I'd do is remove the half shutter. Luckily that's probably also the cheapest and easiest.

[carmenere]

Feb 26, 2020 16:18:48 GMT -5 Susie said:

Is the floor linoleum or tile? Even if it's tile, it looks like linoleum, which would not be an asset in a RE listing photo if you end up selling. At least from the photo, I dislike the floor more than the vanity.  It's not awful or anything though.

To make useful suggestions though I think I'd need to understand the problems better. What in the shower has become urgent?

The floor is tile. I don’t care for it, but I will say it doesn’t look like linoleum in person.

The plumber thinks there’s a pipe cracking behind the shower wall. To fix it they either have to either open up the shower wall, or cut out the other side of the wall, which is above our staircase (so still not a cheap or easy job). We both dislike the tile and the old cast iron tub really needs replacing, so we are leaning toward just biting the bullet and doing a reno now. We have another plumber coming tomorrow for a second opinion on the pipe situation.

[carmenere]

Feb 26, 2020 16:53:22 GMT -5 k3am said:

Not knowing why anything in the bathroom needs to go, and especially since money is tight, the first thing I'd do is remove the half shutter. Luckily that's probably also the cheapest and easiest.

That has been on my to-do list just about every weekend since we moved in and I haven’t gotten around to it. This might be the kick in the pants I need to finally get it done 😳

[k3am]

carmenere, we all have lists like that! If it isn't one thing, it's another, and suddenly those little items on your list that aren't pressing suddenly seem even less pressing.

[sandandsea]

I would replace the floor tile. Otherwise you will never do it. It’s so much easier to do it all at once. What colors do you like? Dark gray vanities with the quartz countertops that look like Carrara marble are really popular now and neutral. I would probably find a neutral one I like from flip or flop and copy it since you want high resell value.

In our bathroom we did a patterned floor tile paired with white wavy wall tile in the shower and I love it. It’s unique and modern.

[sandandsea]

Oh and I found the half shutter very reminiscent of my childhood as my mom had one in our 1983 super cool burnt orange flower bathroom.

[Susie]

If you take the plantation shutter down, I'm guessing you'll need an alternate plan for privacy on that window.  Just something to think about before you rip it off.  We have privacy film on the lower half of our bathroom window.

[carmenere]

UPDATE

We got a second opinion from another plumber who agreed that the whole shower assembly has to be replaced. The plumber the last owners hired really botched it. He also said the wall and floor tile is set into concrete underneath, which is a bitch to demo/renovate, and he recommended going through the wall above the stairs to do the plumbing work.

Oh, and our hall bath is on borrowed time before it has the same issue, but at least that wall is a little easier to access. H and I had a long talk and we are really leaning toward moving in the next year or two and only fixing/updating what we absolutely need to. So a reno is off the table for now and we're back to planning for a makeover.

[Susie]

Just curious, what color are the walls?  In the pic around the window they look dark gray, and in the pic of the vanity they look lighter and more greenish.  I like the lighter, more greenish look better, especially with the counter top.  The dark gray looks really stark against the white tile and doesn't go with the brown.

[carmenere]

Feb 27, 2020 10:15:06 GMT -5 Susie said:

Just curious, what color are the walls?  In the pic around the window they look dark gray, and in the pic of the vanity they look lighter and more greenish.  I like the lighter, more greenish look better, especially with the counter top.  The dark gray looks really stark against the white tile and doesn't go with the brown.

It's a medium sage/olive green. The second photo is an old listing photo (which was obviously lightened because it's darker IRL). I hate it but haven't gotten around to painting yet.