Updating a Bath on the Cheap
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As Marcie mentioned in an earlier blog, this is the Year of the House for us. We decided to stay home, forego any long trips, and get caught up on a number of house projects. So far we’ve added solar panels to our roof, switched to an electric heat pump water heater, updated our kitchen, replaced most of the flooring and repainted throughout. The house is starting to look really grand, but we’re not done yet – there are a lot more things we want to get done.
One item on the list was an update of the half bath that serves the main living area. There wasn’t anything really wrong with it – it just looked worn and dated. We decided to see how inexpensively we could freshen it up, maybe even adding a little wow factor, assuming we did the work ourselves and were somewhat creative in sourcing the parts. Our goal was to do the entire job for $500. Here’s how we did.
Sink base: Repainted with two coats of cabinet paint and two top coats of polyurethane to add durability. Changed the door hinges to soft close and added door pulls. Total: $52
A little paint and new hardware spiffed it up nicely
Walls: Repainted, and upgraded base molding. Total: $65
Countertop: We discovered a marble and granite outlet that specializes in small offcuts of stone. Their website was excellent, with a current listing of all the stone they had in stock, including pictures and pricing. We found a prefect slab of granite that we were able to nab for $100. It was large enough to cut the countertop, sidesplash and backsplash, with enough left over to practice on. I have an inexpensive wet tile saw (it looks like a small circular saw with a hose attached) that I’ve used in the past to cut tile for various projects, and it did a great job cutting and chamfering the granite. Total: $100 (Doesn’t include all the Tylenol I needed after carrying and manipulating that 500 lb (or so it seemed) sucker).
Sink and faucet: We found a really nice granite vessel sink and faucet on Amazon for $125. We had to modify the drain plumbing under the sink as well, and I also replaced the two shutoff valves for the hot and cold water. Total: $163
Our new sink and countertop
Mirror: Nice mirrors are expensive. We wanted a beveled mirror in a nice wood frame, but any of the new ones we looked at were at least $200. We did find a nice one at a consignment shop, but it wasn’t quite what we wanted. With a little perseverance, however, we found a very nice one on Facebook Marketplace that looked great and was the right size. Even better, we got it for $10!
The mirror was a bargain
Accessories: Marcie found a towel ring and toilet paper holder set that matched our new hardware on Amazon for $10.
Miscellaneous: A few other items – caulk, wall anchors, masking tape, etc. Total: $22
Haul-away charges: $0. We advertised the old vanity top and mirror on Facebook Marketplace (free), and we had ten offers to pick it up in the first hour.
The total for the update: $422 – well under our $500 objective.
We still plan to replace the tile floor eventually – a few of the tiles are cracked. That will put us quite close or maybe slightly over our $500 goal. I’ll let you know how well we do when we get there.
See you next time...