The Adored Abode

The burning question we had before we embarked on our bathroom renovation was how much is this all going to cost us? We knew we wanted to fully gut our bathroom and do a little rearranging of plumbing, electrical, and fixtures. Since this was going to be a big job, we decided to hire it out. We love DIYing, but also needed to be realistic of how long a project like this would have taken us. Hint: much, much longer than the 8-ish weeks it took our contractor. 

Talking about money and money spent on renovations can be a touchy subject. “High” and “low” amounts are so different for each family and you need to take that into account when you are planning your own renovation. Regardless, I want this post to be a resource for you if you ever plan to embark on a bathroom renovation!

This bathroom renovation was for the bathroom and closet in our main bedroom, which is a fairly good size, and we knew it would come with a hefty (to us) price tag. We only do projects with cash – i.e. we save, save, save for each project we do until we have enough funds to cover the cost (plus a cushion). We had our savings ready for a good chunk of the max we were hoping to spend on the project, which was around $20,000 before we contacted contractors for detailed estimates. We estimated $20,000 based on our research and knowledge of how much smaller bathrooms cost when we renovated them ourselves and tried to scale the cost appropriately.

As a reminder this is where we started with our bathroom – so much wasted space and a big tub we never used!.

This is our newly renovated bathroom! Smaller in footprint, but much more functional, our style, and allowed us to enlarge our closet space!

Getting the Estimates

Estimates can vary by which part of the country you live in. We live in the Midwest (Kansas City), for reference. 

Whenever we work with contractors, we like to get multiple bids for a project. We aim for 3 bids, which is what we got for the bathroom. We found all 3 contractors through references from family and friends, which is my favorite way to find a contractor. Each contractor had experience with bathroom renovations. 

Below is what we were quoted from each contractor. The totals included: demo, debris haul away, moving electrical/plumbing, installing new drywall, tile install, installing bathroom fixture (toilet, vanity, shower), painting, trim work, all materials, and clean up. 

Contractor #1: $18,500

The first contractor was a two-man team – they do all aspects of the work themselves. 

Contractor #2: $24,000

A mid-size company that had a team of about 4-6 people that would be responsible for their individual trades (plumbing, electrical, tile etc.). 

Contractor #4: $38,000

Also, a mid-size company that had a team of about 4-6 people that would be responsible for their individual trades (plumbing, electrical, tile etc.). 

You might be thinking what we were thinking after we met with each of the contractors and got all 3 estimates back. That is quite the range of estimates – the highest estimate was nearly double the lowest!

We liked each of the contractors for different reasons and honestly felt that each of them would have executed our bathroom remodel just how we hoped. So how did we decide? 

Ultimately, we nixed contractor #3 right off the bat. Though we knew the contractor was highly qualified, we couldn’t get over that the cost was so much more than the first 2 that were equally qualified. Deciding between contractor #1 and #2 was a little trickier, but we ended up choosing contractor #1 because we were very comfortable with the lead contractor – he was very professional and had excellent communication skills. For us, communication is one of the most important aspects (aside from the skill necessary) when hiring a contractor. We did not choose contractor #1 because it was the cheapest option, but it was nice our favorite ended up being the least expensive. 

How Much Did We Actually Spend? 

Now that we got the estimate and hired our contractor, we got down to the nitty gritty of exactly how much the renovation would cost us. Remember, an estimate is just an estimate and things can always go wrong. Contractors also will usually give you “allowances” for certain things like plumbing fixtures and tile, so if you go over the allowance (usually a builder grade finish), it will cost you more. We knew some of the fixtures and tile we wanted were more than the builder grade allowances, so we expected the total to be more than the estimate. 

Here’s a line by line breakdown of exactly what the renovation cost us. 

Demo and haul away: $1,500

Plumbing: $1,100

Electrical: $900

Interior Wall Repairs: $1,350

Carpentry: $1,200

Tile Labor: $4,550

Installation of Vanity: $150

Installation of Shower Door: $350

Interior Trimwork: $650

Painting: $100

Installation of New Bathroom Doors: $150

Materials (drywall, trim, doors, plumbing parts, electrical parts, lumbar, tile prep supplies, tile, vanity, light fixtures, etc.): $11,600

Sources for the bathroom fixtures and materials are listed at the bottom of this post for reference.

Total: $23,500 – $5,000 over the $18,000 estimated cost.

Where did we go over?

The only line item we actually went over budget in is the materials – everything else was an established cost for the labor of specific items. Like I mentioned before, the materials our contractor quoted for things like the tile, vanity, and light fixtures were “builder grade” level materials. We ended up selecting materials that were a little higher quality and it ended up costing us about $5,000 more – most of this additional cost came from the vanity and the tile for the shower and bathroom floor. We understood that our cost would be more than the estimate going into the project because we wanted materials that were of higher quality, though, we were a bit surprised to be so far over the estimated materials amount. An additional $3-4/square foot on tile really adds up! We felt like it was worth it to spend this extra amount to get exactly what we wanted, within reason.

Renovation costs are very personal and family/budget specific, but I hope seeing how much the renovation for our main bathroom ended up costing is helpful if you are thinking of tackling a similar project!

Sources

This page contains affiliate links for your convenience. For more information, see my disclosures here.

arched mirror // vanity (ours is the 72″, repainted after we purchased it) // sconces // flush mount light // faucets //marble tile (floor & shower walls) // wall hooks // toilet paper holder // vintage style beach print // oak tree sketch // vintage style gold picture frame // glass shower door // vintage runner (similar) // black picture frame // wood picture frame // cabinet pulls // cabinet knobs // shower head // shower head extension arm // towel hooks // toilet paper holder

Wall color: Simply White by Benjamin Moore

Vanity color: Pewter Green by Sherwin Williams