The Starting Point: Master Bath Remodel

Many times you've heard the phrase "everything was fine and then..." it wasn't.  Back in March when we were in lockdown, there were 5 of us living in our house.  Everyone had their own bathroom but, somehow everyone including the kids would migrate to our bathroom for whatever purpose. The bathroom began to have an odor, not a normal bathroom odor.  At first I just thought it was because we were all going in and out.   To no avail I'd spray with an assortment of sprays both air freshner and cleaners around the shower.  Months went on and by May, Honey decided it was time to have a handyman come by.  He looked at the shower and then said, let's go under your house(we are on a crawlspace). As soon as he opened the door under the house he said immediately your shower drain has a leak!  He takes my phone and starts snapping pics of water marks all over boards under the house, along with the drain pipe from the shower that was covered in calcium deposits.  We both knew this was over his head and it was time to call professionals.

Having contractors come over took the better part of June.   I must admit, we were in sticker shock...along with our insurance agent!  We had such a variety of estimates ranging from $6000-$9450.  All the estimates were without the price of the tile!  Along with the financial side of this came the time to complete this project.  Most said it would take up to 4 weeks to complete. With that information  I knew I wanted to wait until John had gone back to college for the fall and Andrew's fiance had left for University of Minnesota phd program.  

For a bit I want to talk about the odor that was present.  I've already mentioned it wasn't an odor that would be typical for a bathroom.  A contractor told me it was the smell that bacteria from rotting wood give off... his word was "bacteria fart."  I'm glad we followed mine and Melissa's nose as this was the ideal time to find this type of damage for insurance concerns as well as our safety(think falling thru the floor).  When the insurance adjustor came out he told us had the decay gotten worse the insurance wouldn't have paid.  I'm telling you all this because if you have stuff going on in your home that isn't typical, like a smell or something you need to seek out the cause...this has saved us big $$$!

One thing most bloggers don't do is share what things like remodels or home repairs cost. Most site the difference in areas for what things cost and simply don't share that info.  I do believe locations do cause prices to be different.  From the very beginning I've said I will tell you everything!  As I sit here typing I'm waiting for my tile guy to finish and give me the final invoice.  As we finish the details of the bathroom I will absolutely share all of the costs and the varied expenses we have incurred, along with what the insurance company paid.

Before all of this happened I had not even entertained the idea of having to change anything in our master bath other than the chandy that was above the tub.  I had never looked at tile or even master bath ideas on any site.  Once it happened my first thought was...well it is just a shower, surely $5000 will cover it.  Stay tuned to see just how wrong I was!