Bathroom Renovation - Weeks 5 - 8

So I got a bit slack with the blogging. We've been busy with tennis and birthdays (see below).

Anyway, four weeks to the day after the previous bathroom "suite" was ripped out we got the new one. And a few days after that the electrician came in and installed the lights, underfloor heating and extractor fan - see below. The fan is particularly exciting as it has a humidity detector and opens itself up when needed (when you're in the bath or shower).

Yes we felt brave and went for a red ceiling

Towel rail - hooked up to the thermostat with the underfloor heating so we can put it on timer. The underfloor heating is a bit disappointing as it doesn't seem to get really hot, but we're still fiddling with it.

Here's the new toilet. It has a "soft-close" seat - if you drop it it closes gently (no excuses for leaving it up!) And in the corner is the hot water cylinder - Steve is still working on boxing it in and building some shelves.

Shower - slightly disappointing as the pressure valve we installed seems to have reduced the pressure. But very spacious - 1m by 1m, and the shower head is gorgeous.

The Starship Enterprise shower

New bath. Not disappointing at all. and has a rim all round it you can put bottles on. Awesome.

We are still looking for a stool we can put between the bath and shower for the plant to rest on.

Mirror. Tom the builder made the frame, and I got the mirror from my leadlight teacher who works for a glass fitters at a bargain price. It is particularly good for highlighting every last wrinkle - I've always wanted a mirror with lights around it.

Oh yes and meanwhile Steve had his birthday. I made this gorilla cake. It was quite yummy.

So the bills are now all in. This is the total summary (including GST (VAT to those from the UK)).

Builder's demolition + reconstruction of doorway - $2000

Fixtures and fittings - $7500

Tiles $1500

Builder $2600

Tiler $2400

Plumber $4000

Electrician $3500 (of which about $1000 was works elsewhere in the house).

New window $400

Sundries (paint, wood, insulation etc.) $450

Total: $24,350 or $23,350 excluding the electrical work outside of the bathroom.

Money well spent? Our friend, an estate agent, says you never lose money doing your bathroom, in fact you more than gain what you put in. That makes our house now worth at least $557,350... in theory.

Lessons learned:

Spend a bit more on your fittings than the minimum. The things we particularly like are the luxuries - the fan is high quality (we bought it on the internet), the soft close toilet seat is steve's favourite. The shower niche is just great.

Make sure your tradespeople understand exactly what you want before you let them loose. We learned this the hard way (although to his credit the plumber did sort it out eventually).

We saved a bit by doing the painting and insulation, and Steve is making the shelving. We could have saved more by doing the demolition ourselves.

But not having another bathroom really dominated our actions - for example doing the tiling ourselves would have meant no bathroom for even longer. If it had been a second bathroom we probably would have tried to save money more than time.

And finally - it was an endurance feat but it's pretty nice having a lovely new bathroom. Come and visit it sometime!

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