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5 Tips for Surviving a Home Renovation

June 22, 2022 by jessica Leave a Comment

^{My favorite sneakers are $20 off with this link! You can toss them in the washing machine if they get dirty!}

It has officially been five years since we closed on our house! It feels both like time has dragged on and flown by — and I think that has a lot to do with whatever stage of home improvement we’re in at the time! 2022 has been our home’s most transformative year yet with two bathroom renovations. I have a lot of emotions as a reflect back on the past five years: excitement, pride, frustration, annoyance, exasperation, appreciation … and so many more, but thankfully I’ve circled back to excitement and pride after we handed off our final check to our contractor and finally got to enjoy the end result of the projects that took so much time and money. Renovations aren’t easy and I wanted to share five tips for surviving a renovation if you have one of your own on the horizon.

PLAN CAREFULLY

I can’t overstate the importance of planning when it comes to your renovation, and it’s going to impact all aspects of the project. Here are a few things to keep in mind:

Save more money than you think you’ll need, and have a plan in place if your project creeps and goes beyond what you hoped to spend. We ended up getting a HELOC to allow for cushion when our project went 100% over anticipated costs.
General contractors are in high demand right now. Expect to book at least six months out.
While you’re getting quotes from contractors, work on creating a mood board or source list for your project. (Here’s mine for the main bathroom and the one for the powder room.) You’ll want to have all of your products selected before work begins. While you’ll have some wiggle room when nailing down things like paint colors, it’s easier to have a solid direction right out of the gate.
Decide who is responsible for ordering products, materials, and fixtures. Is it going to be you or your contractor? For our project, I purchased the fixtures and our contractor was responsible for securing the other items. We had a shared Google spreadsheet to track my product selections, colors and finishes, who was responsible for ordering it, and where it was in the delivery process. Many products have a long lead time that you’ll need to account for. Other items, like a bathtub or vanity, are oversize and heavy. Do you have a place to store it if you order it? Can you even move it to the storage location if the shipper leaves it on a pallet outside of your home?
Make sure all of our items are in-hand by the time your project begins. Construction takes a long time as it is and you don’t want an unnecessary delay if something hasn’t arrived in time.
Consider pet or child care. Demo day is especially loud and not the best environment for sensitive ears. Can you spend the day elsewhere?
If your bathroom or kitchen is under construction, plan how you’re going to accommodate for those missing utilities. Do you have another bathroom you can use? Do you need a gym membership so you can shower? Do you need to find more slow cooker recipes so you can “cook” in another room?
Protect your home’s surfaces, especially the flooring. We had our contractor put down X-Board surface protector on each surface the team would be walking on to protect our hardwood floors and stairs. We ended up having one ding on the floor where something was dropped, but managed to avoid any additional scratches.

Minimize Construction Dust

Everyone warned me about construction dust, but I had no idea how bad it would be until we were in the midst of things — and that was even with daily vacuuming by our construction team! Talk to your contractor up front about ways to mitigate dust. They will likely be putting up a plastic barrier, but there may be other things they can do. On demo day for our main bathroom, they put a filter in our window that blew air out of the house and we turned the furnace off to avoid having too much dust circulating. Keep doors to your other rooms closed and consider getting an air purifier for your bedroom (we have this one). Despite all of that, though, you’ll have dust to clean up after your project is complete. Use that as an opportunity to do a deep “spring” clean, no matter what season it is! And, don’t forget to change your furnace filter afterward!

Communicate Clearly

The success of your project is going to rely on your ability to communicate with your contractor about expectations, design, and timelines. Choose a contractor who has a communication style that matches your own. Our contractor was around our age and would text updates and questions, and had read receipts on so I knew when my own comments had been seen. He was also respectful and receptive to my thoughts and concerns when hiccups inevitably happened. I’d also urge you to check in with your contractor whenever you have a question about the process or if something doesn’t seem like it’s going how you expected. You’re the client and you’re paying a lot of money, so you should feel good about the work that’s being done. It’s easier — and oftentimes cheaper — to correct a mistake or change course when you first notice an issue than it is to wait.

Clear communication also extends to your relationship if you’re embarking on a renovation with a partner. Renovations are inherently stressful with money concerns and routines upended — and you two might have different ideas of what’s “good enough” if you hit a snafu. Recognize that your partner may also be overwhelmed and do what you can to empathize with them rather than misdirect any reno frustrations. You’ll be a stronger team at the end of it!

Be Flexible

There will be hiccups along the way. There might be a product that’s out of stock or an item you ordered that just won’t work in your space due to what’s going on behind the walls — or, in my case, the brand of tile you picked for your walls doesn’t have a matching bullnose option and you have to figure out a new trim solution. Despite your best laid plans, something will come up that will throw you off course. Be nimble and open to your contractor’s suggestions — and be willing and able to make decisions on the fly (or at least after sleeping on it). I know you might want to replicate your inspiration board to a T, but every house is different and has different challenges to work around. The longer you wait to make a decision, the longer the timeline gets and the more expensive the project becomes.

And, even if you’re quick to change course, accept early on that the project will cost more than the quote. Save another 50% before beginning the work to allow yourself a cushion if it comes to that. If you don’t need to spend it, you’ve just given yourself a sweet little vacation fund to celebrate!

Create Renovation-Free Zones

Create a space in your home that’s free from renovation reminders — and renovation discussions. Your life is going to be chaotic during the process, so give yourself a refuge to mentally check out and enjoy your evenings!

Please leave any additional advice in the comments!

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Main Bathroom Renovation: The Cost Breakdown

June 10, 2022 by jessica Leave a Comment

So, how much did all of this cost? A lot. And way more than what our original quote was.

I do think it’s important to be transparent about renovation costs so others aren’t blindsided by prices when they’re doing their own remodels. Prices vary depending on where you live, and your contractor’s experience and expertise. Plus, you don’t know what you’ll find when you open up your walls. I’ll share more about the half bath in upcoming posts, but when we got behind the walls and saw our old cast iron plumbing, we decided to update it to modern PVC pipes which was an expected cost, but a smart decision to take care of it when the room was down to the studs to prevent possible plumbing issues down the road related to old pipes.

In this post, I’ll break down the costs by three areas:

Labor – This is self-explanatory. We paid our contractor $65/hour and $30/hour for the trainees that were on the job occasionally. Due to what would turn out to be a wildly inaccurate quote, our contractor eventually did a blanket 20% discount on labor and did roughly $6,000 in labor for free.

Materials – This includes things like lumber, paint, nails, backer board, caulk, etc. Tile is also included in this section.

Fixtures – This will account for the finishings that you saw in the reveal post. It includes things like light fixtures, the tub, faucets, etc.

I’m excluding the cost of updating our plumbing, which came to $3,040.47. We removed all of the cast iron plumbing in the house and replaced it with modern PVC pipes. Cast iron eventually erodes and creates rough surfaces inside the pipes, which leads to drainage issues like clogs. We also discovered that the pipes were pitched incorrectly in the basement, so that was all corrected with that above price. It was money well spent.

Here’s where we came in at:

Permits – $242

Labor – $19,670.25

Materials – $4,945.24

Fixtures – $4,223.68

Grand Total – $29,081.17

To put this in perspective, our original quote for labor and materials was approximately $12,000. We decided to remove the original built-in cabinet and rebuild it to match the new one, so based on the original quote, that would have added another $1,300 to our estimated costs. We anticipated an additional 30% to account for unexpected costs, but we certainly didn’t expect to come in as high as we did by time the project ended — and this was after the labor discount. We ultimately decided to take out a home equity line of credit to allow for a cushion while we pay this back.

When it’s all said and done, though, I’m sure we’ll have “renovation amnesia” and will forget some of the financial stress. We’re certainly very lucky to be in the position to take on such a bougie remodel and I don’t take that for granted. It really ended up being worth it and it’s really an investment in our home which will pay off when we eventually sell, but it’ll also pay dividends now with our enjoyment of our home — and peace of mind that we’re no longer having sustained water damage!

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The Main Bathroom Renovation – Reveal Day! (All Sources Linked)

June 8, 2022 by jessica Leave a Comment

Reveal day is finally here! It’s been a long process that started back in April 2020 with a kitchen ceiling leak that was attributed to water leaking from our tub faucet and working its way through the floor and into the kitchen. Our bathroom was never anything to look at (before photos here), but the leak really accelerated our plans for a full bathroom renovation when timelines — and budgets — allowed. It feels a bit surreal to have it done and I don’t think I’ll ever stop admiring it whenever I walk past.

It was incredibly important to me to have the main bathroom feel appropriate for a house from the 1920s and I think we nailed it with traditional materials and fixtures. Some areas had to be modernized based on product availability, like the tile edging, but I think it all came together beautifully.

I could go on and on about the details and decisions, and how we landed where we did. But I know you’re here for the photos today, so let’s get to it! (I’ve also linked the other bathroom posts below, and included a list of sources at the end.)

^{The sharp contrast between those tiles isn’t typically visible. I think it’s a result of the lighting the day I took these photos.}

A flat-sided toilet makes it easier to clean.

^{It’s such a silly thing, but I’m enamored with this pivoting toilet paper holder!}

POSTS ABOUT THE MAIN BATHROOM:

SOURCES:

Paint Color – Sherwin-Williams Riverway and Sherwin-Williams High Reflective White

Wall Tile – 4″ x 12″ Subway Tile in White

L-Shaped Tile Edging

Wall Tile Grout – Custom Building Products in Natural Gray

Floor Tile – The Tile Shop Firenze Carrara Honed Marble Hex Mosaic Tile, 2 in.

Floor Tile Grout – Custom Building Products in Delorean Gray

Mirror – Rejuvenation Yaquina Pivot Mirror

Shelf – Rejunvenation Yaquina 20″ Glass Shelf

Sconce – Schoolhouse Electric Irvine

Sconce Shade – Schoolhouse Electric Straight Bell Shade

Vanity – Tile & Top 30″ Uptown Vanity

Ceiling Light – Norwell Lighting

Faucet – Delta Cassidy

Towel Bars – Moen Kingsley 18″ & Moen Kingsley Double Towel Bar

J-Hook – Rejuvenation (I had a hard time finding a simple hook to hold a towel while showering.)

Toilet – Kohler Corbelle

Toilet Seat – Kohler Reveal Quiet-Close Elongated Closed Front Toilet Seat

Toilet Paper Holder – Moen Kingsley

Cabinet Knobs – House of Antique Hardware

Cabinet Hinges – House of Antique Hardware

Shower & Tub Kit – Delta Cassidy

Bathtub – Kohler Bellwether

Shower Rod – Moen, 5 ft.

Shower Rod Flange Set – Moen

Towels – Target

Shower Curtain – Target

Fabric Shower Curtain Liner

Shower Curtain Hooks – Target

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Two Years Later: How Sherwin Williams SuperDeck Stain is Holding Up

June 1, 2022 by jessica Leave a Comment

We stained our front porch two years ago with Sherwin Williams SuperDeck stain in Wet Clay. Now that it’s been a couple of years, I wanted to give you an update on how it looks after being walked on and exposed to harsh Wisconsin winters.

To refresh your memory, here’s where we started. I had painted the bottom of our house white the week we moved in, but that was initially raw wood as well. I had toyed with the idea of painting the stairs, but had conflicting input from people as to whether stain or paint was the better option — and then I gave up entirely on this project and focused my attention to the interior as I only had so much bandwidth for house projects! Eventually I decided on the best of both world: a solid deck stain.

(I also painted the railings black that summer. I used Rust-Oleum rusty metal primer and the brand’s protective enamel in a satin finish.)

Here’s what it looked like right after staining it. Click here for the full post — and to see the awful color I tried first.

And here are some unedited photos of where we are after two years:

(Note: It rained the night before I took these photos, so the wood is darker than it usually is after a dry day.)

Clearly the treads have seen better days, but I do think the stain has held up pretty well considering it’s been through two winters with shovels scraping against the risers after each snowfall. The edges by the railing that don’t get walked on or shoveled have remained in good shape, as well as the porch floor that’s protected by the overhang.

In the next few weeks, I’m going to give the risers a quick sand and put a new coat of stain on. I can’t imagine it’ll take more than an hour of work, which is what I expected for a colored stain instead of going with a traditional wood stain.

Our bathroom contactor had his team cut some of the tile on the front porch when it was pouring out, so those white marks on the deck are actually tile dust that hasn’t been swept away by the wind. The stain color hasn’t faded.

Now that we’ve had the stain for two years, I do feel comfortable recommending it — so long as you’re aware that there will be maintenance to keep it looking great (which is something you’d have to with any paint or stain anyway). Let me know if you have questions! (And let me know if you have a recommendation for a good power washer. Our house needs it!)

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Project Update: Main Bathroom Progress, Part Three

May 27, 2022 by jessica Leave a Comment

In full disclosure, our bathroom is completed and it’s gorgeous! I can’t believe it’s ours and I’m just the happiest! Before we get to the full reveal in an upcoming post, I wanted to share some photos and updates from the last leg of the project.

As you know, we renovated our first floor half bath before we began the upstairs main bathroom. The project was expected to take six to eight weeks, and it ended up being a full three months. It was stressful and expensive. I will do a full cost breakdown for you in a future post as I think it’s helpful to get an idea of what these things cost as you plan and save for your own renovation. Now that we’re through it, though, I’m starting to have “renovation amnesia” as Emily Henderson put it in her new book. It’s completely accurate that the final product makes you forget the frustration you felt during the process. I’m not going to sugarcoat the fact that the process sucks sometimes. You’ll have moments of bliss and excitement. I felt that when our tub was placed or when I saw our built-in cabinets coming together. Those are counterbalanced by annoyances that pop up during the process — two of mine are shared below.

Shortly after I left you with the last update, team finished tiling the shower and we turned our attention to the flooring. You may recall that we had to shift gears with our flooring. The marble tile I had originally purchased from Home Depot had good reviews when I bought it, but shortly after there were complaints about tile yellowing once it was grouted, likely due to too many mineral deposits that were oxidizing. We shifted gears and ordered a more expensive marble hexagon flooring from The Tile Shop. I’m really glad that we did because the new tile is beautiful and better quality than the budget marble. When you’re already spends tens of thousands of dollars, you may as well figure out a way to pay for the nicer finishes. I know that costs add up and it feels overwhelming, but I promise that you’ll be happier in the long run if you can make it work with your budget or a home equity line of credit.

I spent a lot of time obsessing over the layout of our tile and our contractor numbered each sheet so it would go back where I wanted it. It was a great idea in theory, until a couple of sheets were rotated. For the most part, it didn’t matter. A natural material is going to have variations. That’s why it’s attractive and why people pay for it. But we had an unfortunate tile layout that, well, looked phallic:

It wasn’t really noticeable in person, but I couldn’t unsee a penis in those dark tiles when I took photos of the room — as you can see from this screenshot from my phone. I hated it so much that I asked our contractor how much it would cost to replace tiles that I delicately phrased as “a dark line that catches the eye.” He quoted approximately $20 per tile to replace individual ones (thankfully this was before it was grouted), but asked Dave if he thought the tiles were really that bothersome. Dave bluntly told our contractor, “she sees a dick.” Haha. So, for around $100, the tiles were replaced with a few lighter ones to break up the pattern:

Of those two options, I went with the set of five replacements on the left.

We extended the tile to the floors of the built-ins. We could have either done this or placed a wood “shelf” on the floor. I figured that this would be easier to clean when I mop the floor.

This is the interior of the left cabinet where there’s an access panel for the shower plumbing. The team eventually created baseboards for the inside of the cabinets to give them a clean finish.

The tiles still had a grout haze in this photo, but it was such a delight to see the room coming together exactly how I had imagined it last summer when we started interviewing contractors. It was a long time coming!

The marble was sealed after grouting with a water-based sealer that was recommended by The Tile Shop. We also added a marble ledge in our shower niche and window, which was also sealed prior to showering for the first time to reduce water stains.

I can’t begin to tell you how happy I am with the built-ins. They replicated the original cabinet (seen here) and added a second to flank the tub. It was important to me to make sure this room incorporated design features that were original to our 1929 house. While the original built-in was in bad shape, the replicas are spot on.

The team was also able to keep the original trim for the window that isn’t in the shower. They carefully cut around it during demo. The doorframe wasn’t so lucky, but they rebuilt it so it looks original.

Take a moment to note that register opening. Like the rest of our house, it’s a large register. I had expressed concern about this when we began the project, and wondered how this was going to work with a vanity in front of it. It was too expensive to move the duct, so I had asked if a decorative register cover would work since the vanity has an open shelf. I was assured that it would be fine, so I spent $100 on a register cover.

…it clearly was not fine. So, the register cover jutted out from the wall about an inch, which was just enough to keep the vanity from being flush against the wall. Our contractor had gone to lunch when I popped my head in to see how things were coming along and saw this. Surely he wasn’t going to leave it like this, right? Yet, I still texted to share my concern. (I figured it’s cheaper to share concerns earlier rather than later.) He told me that the register cover was the issue and that we could try to set a piece of marble behind the vanity to meet up with the wall or built a wood ledge — and then had the audacity to suggest that some people like floating vanities. No, they do not. (Never mind that floating vanities are those without legs; not those that float away from the wall.)

I asked him if there was a way to recess the register cover by cutting out some tile that surrounded the hole and setting it in deeper, or to just go with a smaller register cover that fit within the open shelf. The latter would simply force more air to other rooms upstairs, which isn’t the worst. I’m still a little sour that I had to suggest those solutions rather than him coming up with them, but whatever. We got through it and went with the smaller register:

He eventually tiled underneath the new cover. The spacing of the tile down there doesn’t match the rest of the wall as a result, which bothered him. (Weird time to be a perfectionist.) I told him that I didn’t care and we can address it down the road if if we ever swap out this vanity for one where we can see that tile. This was clearly a better solution than a “floating vanity.”

Truth be told, this room has the most direct run from the furnace, so it would always get too hot or cold, depending on the thermostat, so reducing the opening and forcing air to other rooms has actually been great. Even if that weren’t the case, pushing up the vanity against the wall was necessary:

Stay tuned for the full reveal!

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