Renovation Costs: Don't Believe What You See on TV

"We are now committed to this renovation," I said after we signed the document to finalize the bathroom design, and handed over the first payment for the remodel. My husband said he knew he was committed to the project when our master bathroom was taken down to the studs. He did have a point. We couldn't just leave the former master bathroom gutted. It just became more real for me when we finalized the plan, the choices, and more so with handing over the first payment. Bathroom renovations, especially when turning two bathrooms into one, are expensive. We had always said one day we'd renovate our master bath and that "one day" came without our input.

Here is the diagram of the two bathrooms that are back-to-back.

We have two bedrooms and three bathrooms on the first floor, so it made sense to us to turn the two nice size bathrooms into a large master bathroom. We'll be able to have our tile walk in shower and a bathtub!

One thing this renovation has taught me is that renovation shows on HGTV (like Love It or List It) can give a person an unrealistic idea on how much a remodel costs. I thought we had a reasonable budget in mind for what we wanted, but was wrong. I can't believe everything that house owners can have done on those shows for a budget of $45,000 to $60,000. The designer told us to put all our needs, wants, and dream big items into the plan and then we could work the cost down from there. Having watched HGTV a lot, I thought I'd be able to get everything considering bathrooms, kitchens, and bedrooms could all be redone for $60,000. If three rooms can be done for $60,000 then a bathroom could be easily done for the budget we had in mind.

Dream Bathroom Plan

I was wrong. So wrong. The estimate for the dream big bathroom was $45,000, way more than we wanted to spend. I was shocked at the number. This plan included a tile shower, frosted glass block window for the shower area, soaker tub, double sink vanity, custom linen cabinet, and custom make-up desk area with a lighted mirror. Everything my heart desired. I had gone into the meeting with a few items in mind that could easily go to get the budge under, but there was such a huge difference between our max and the estimate that we knew it would be more than a little something.

And from the alternative plans offered to us, what would cut costs the most was to eliminate the tile shower and go with a shower surround (also moving it away from the window). My attitude was if the large tile shower was out, what was the point of doubling the master bathroom. We might as well just redo the one space.

We went home to consider our options, one of them being to leave the bathrooms separate and just redoing the current master bathroom. After staring at the budget buster and alternate plans, I came up with an idea. What if we used the plan with the shower moved away from the window, but it was a tile shower and get rid of some of the custom cabinets (the linen cabinet as there are two closets in the bathroom, the make-up area which eliminated the large mirror and having to add in extra electrical outlets, and also the cabinet near the toilet (I like having the separation and it would be a great place to store extra toilet paper). I emailed our designer and he sent me back a new plan and estimate. We were now in budget! Custom cabinets sure do cost a lot of money, and of course it took away some costs for counter tops as we no longer needed material for the top of the make-up area or small cabinet near the toilet.

We do have some "empty" spaces. My husband said we can buy some freestanding furniture later to fill in (like maybe a desk for a make-up station).