Bathroom Remodels Made Simple

Do you know how many decisions are required to outfit a new bathroom? There are literally 100s of decisions to be made. Having completed more than 10 bathroom remodels, I know the decision making can get overwhelming. After dealing with custom cabinets for 2 bathrooms, I once jumped at the chance to buy a discontinued vanity/cabinet combination to save myself lots of decisions.

When I learned about bathsimple.com, a website that simplifies the process of picking out the majority of your bathroom purchases, I had to check out their website and you should too!

A New Remodeling Concept

Many bathroom updates start with a new coat of paint and towels, for under $1,000. Costs quickly increase when you don't plan ahead so the best advice is write down the estimated cost of your bathroom renovations … before starting. Include contingency of 10 to 20% as there are costs you can't predict like one of my handyman customers who needed a new window because she'd ignored a leak for years.

Here's a quick overview of the design process offered by bathsimple.com. For fun, I used one of my bathrooms where I'd like to reclaim the space taken up by an over sized jacuzzi bathtub. It's great for giving our chocolate labrador baths but no one has used the tub in 4 years.

Designing the bathroom was straight forward, following these steps:

• Identifed type of bathroom being remodeled – powder room, full bath or master bath and here I picked the master bathroom.
• A good idea is picking your budget up front – choices included standard, premium or luxury and I picked standard
• My challenge was bathroom style as I'm rather eclectic. Choices included classic, transitional or modern. At first I picked modern but realized “classic” vanity choices made more sense, to maintain consistency with the rest of the house, i.e. built-in vanity cabinets.
• From several designs, I picked bathroom vignette for the built-in vanity. Up popped the design below, along with a shopping cart full of recommended items and very important, a price tag of $14,776 (about $4,000 cheaper than the modern style, standard budget design).

Customizing the Recommended Bathroom Design

The website recommended working through tabs on the left but not sure I like the order, i.e. I'd rather pick my vanity and wall colors first and then find a complimentary floor color. I removed the crown molding but found the design looked better with a chair rail, something I wouldn't normally select. Here are the changes made, resulting in an additional $1,500 – I would recommend keeping track on an item basis when you have a tight budget.

• Removed crown molding which I saw right away in photo above.
• Changed light fixtures to see if they'd change in the design (yes) but now I think they're wider than the mirrors so more tweaking needed here.
• Changed floor tile color (darker) and shower surround (darker). Wasn't able to add matching tub surround, to either go with the tub surround (what I would have picked) or floor tile.

Why Bathroom Remodeling Solution Works

Most homeowners don't realize the complexity involved in even small, partial bathroom remodels. bathsimple.com offers a solution that addresses the 2 biggest problems encountered during every bathroom remodel.

• Shopping in multiple locations means you don't see all fixtures together until installed. When you buy things over months, it's difficult to return something that's been installed or more than a year old. At bathsimple.com you get to audition everything before ordering … although you should go to a store to confirm the shape and finishes of the products you're ordering.
• For large fixtures like bathtubs, showers and even toilets, the odds of getting damaged items is high, i.e. exceeding 50%. With my handyman business, we recommend buying items through a plumbing supply company or ask customers toget these items as we've wasted too much time repacking & returning damaged products. We've had more success with web based businesses which pack items better … and the bonus here is everything comes together.
• Product quality is excellent, i.e. Hansgrohe faucets are the only ones I use personally.
• Love that you pack up your old bathroom fixtures and bathsimple.com handles recycling for you.

Obviously bathsimple.com has limitations. For now it appears they're a great solution when you're buying a few fixtures to renovations  that fit within your existing walls. You can partner with a handyman or remodeler who can provide wall measurements when these are changing, and that way you can include labor costs too.

Wishing you much success with your bathroom remodeling project. Would love for you to share your experiences here, and especially those involving bathsimple.com (who I have no relationship with but know they've got a great solution).