Is a bathroom renovation in your future? If so, here’s a helpful guide

By Kim & Scott Vargo | yellowbrickhome.com

We love old houses. Over the last 15 years, we've renovated four homes with a combined age of over 450 years! Along this ongoing journey, we've learned, succeeded, failed, and had the adventures of a lifetime. Today, we're discussing the renovation decisions we made while completing our vintage-inspired, “pink bathroom.” So, where did we start? With a budget, of course!

Prior to taking on any renovation, it's also important to establish the amount of money you're comfortable spending! Think of it like giving yourself permission to spend that money. Determining a project budget provides a concrete number to subtract from as purchases are made, and can help determine where to splurge and where to save. For example, we opted to reuse the bathroom's existing sink and purchase a new chrome base, as opposed to spending $500 to $700 on a whole new vanity.

This freed up funds to be spent elsewhere!

Which brings us to our next topic ...

Renovating on a budget doesn't mean having to keep things simple or boring! In general, costs for otherwise identical finish goods, like paint, tile and plumbing accessories, are roughly the same, regardless of the color selected. We selected white subway tile for this classic renovation, but having fun with color is a practical way to add visual interest without spending more. In the market for a pink sink like the one we selected for our vintage-inspired remodel? It likely costs the same as the coordinating white fixture, regardless of whether it's purchased new or old.

For background on costs, Remodeling Magazine publishes an annual list of projects and their estimated ROIs.

While a vintage pink tub may not be suited to everyone's personal tastes, we believe it’s important to consider finishes and design styles that are a good fit for you and for your home. For example, we loved the lines of the existing tub, but it was in fairly rough shape. We opted to have it professionally reglazed, as opposed to replacing it with something more modern. This provided a perfect balance of vintage lines, but with a smooth new finish and modern coating to protect the tub for the long haul.

That said, many of the finishes we chose, like chrome and porcelain hooks, would likely look out of place in a home with a more modern aesthetic.

We absolutely love new homes with clean lines and modern finishes, but their corresponding fixtures and finishes simply aren't well-suited to the style of this 130-year old home. We often joke that we let our homes tell us what they need — we just need to listen.

We enjoy taking thoughtful design risks, but when making renovation decisions, we always keep long-term home value in mind. We have no plans to sell this home any time soon, but if circumstances happened to change, polarizing design decisions could make the home more difficult to sell. With long-term value in mind, we've homed in on a design style that involves taking risks on things that are relatively easy to change (a bathroom vanity, for example) but leaning more traditional on finishes that are more difficult to change (like tile).

This would, in theory, allow a new homeowner to build off of the base of the space and change out the vanity, light fixtures, and potentially reglaze the tub if they don't like pink. These changes could probably be made for around $1,500, as opposed to spending somewhere in the neighborhood of $5,000 to start from scratch. This also allows us to make tweaks relatively easily down the road, if we decide that the pink fixtures are no longer for us (not likely!).

So, how much did this bathroom cost you might be wondering? Let's break it down!

• Tile Labor: $2,000 (This was the largest expense of the entire project. Under normal circumstances, we would have DIYed the tile, but this was just one bathroom out of several, so we used pros to save us time.)
• Tile + Tile Supplies: $1,565
• Finish Plumbing Installations: $350
• Lighting + Accessories: $300
• Sink Base (sink is vintage, came with home): $300
• Tub Re-glazing: $250
• Tub + Shower Finishes: $230
• Sink Faucet: $90

GRAND TOTAL: $5,085

The labor costs outlined above will vary widely by market, and if you feel comfortable with DIY, you could save even more! Without labor costs for tile and plumbing installs, the total cost of this renovation would have been $3,000, which we think is a pretty great value for a full (albeit small) bathroom buildout.

Owning a home is a key, lifetime milestone in any person or family's journey, but it definitely brings with it both challenges and opportunities.

Thinking of taking on a renovation project? A HELOC from Citizens can help you unlock the full potential of your home. We provide an easy and efficient approval process and two repayment options for maximum flexibility. And our home equity specialists provide support at every stage of the journey.

Learn more

Hi! We're Kim + Scott from the DIY + Home Renovation blog Yellow Brick Home. We're excited to be sharing some insight on our recent bathroom renovation!

If you'd to see more of our adventures as we bring new life to old houses, you can follow along at yellowbrickhome.com or @yellowbrickhome on social media!