This just in; home renovation projects ain’t cheap! We’ve now been through three major renovations for our condo—kitchen, guest bath, and master bath—and wanted to share our lessons learned from our most recent project, the master bath. In this blog I break down all the out-of-pocket costs and share all the ways we saved money in an effort to help prepare you for what the real cost of a renovation might look like. Teaser alert: the time and cost of home renovations can end up being much more than originally planned.
Renovations Begin
We live in a condominium complex in the suburbs of Atlanta. As our condo unit approached 40 years old, we decided to start investing in some renovations. We contacted a contractor friend for a quote on renovating our kitchen, master bath, and guest bath. The quote came in at well over $20,000. We didn’t have $20,000 and didn’t want to go into debt just to have a farmhouse sink. So, we decided to break up the quote into three separate projects and prioritize the kitchen remodel first. The kitchen project alone would cost over $10,000 and I quickly reminded my wife that “If we lived in a single-family home, this would’ve cost at least double!”
A few years later I changed jobs and my previous employer paid out all my unused vacation time, which was about six week’s pay. We used that extra money to pay for the guest bath renovation. Now all that was left was the master bath.
Plumbing Leak = Forced Renovations
We had been saving for several years with the goal of finally knocking out our master bath remodel by paying cash. A month after we had our second child a global pandemic hit. So the thought of undergoing another major renovation at that time was not particularly appealing to my wife—as you might imagine. Then I received a text message from my downstair neighbor that alerted me of a water leak in his master bath ceiling, which would be directly under our master bath. Our plumber determined that our master bath tub/shower drain was leaking and causing the water damage. However, our plumber informed us that we would have to rip out our tub and tile walls to access the leak as it was in between the units.
Since we were budgeting to renovate the master bath anyway, we decided it would be silly not to go ahead to do the remodel. Our contractor was called out to give us an updated quote…
How much we spent
Plumbing service $1,700 – this was to fix shower leak, demo out entire bathroom – tub, shower tiles, floor tile, removal of old vanity, and removal of toilet, install splitter for two sink faucets for new double vanity, install double vanity, and install new shower faucets.
Contractor:
- Master Bathroom Tile Remodeling – $5,933
- Master Bedroom and Bath: Wall and paint and trim touch up – $1,200
Total $7,133
Material purchased and provided to contractors:
- Double vanity with topper and basin – $1,260.13
- Tile for bathroom floor, shower walls, shower floor and trim, and metal edge trimmers – $832.37
- Toilet paper holder to bathroom wall – $12.98
- Shower drain with strainer for tile shower floor – $8.30
- Shower faucet and showerhead – $69
- Bathroom sink faucets for new double vanity (2 x $99) – $198
- 24-inch towel bar for bathroom wall next to toilet – (2 x $14.98) – $29.96
- 18-inch his/hers towel bars for walls next to double vanity (2 x $13.98) – $27.96
- Medicine cabinet to mount above toilet – $74.98
- Gray paint for bedroom and bathroom walls (5 gallons) – $134
- Barn Door mounting hardware kit – $149.99
- Barn Door handles (2) – $46
- Barn Doors (2) – $300
- Shower bench $200
- Sliding Glass shower door – around $1,780
- New shower head – $29.98
- New shower arm for shower head – $21.98
- Marble side backsplashes to cover gaps on vanity counter – $200
Materials Total: $5,380.91
Hired a handyman for ceiling drywall repairs for my downstairs neighbor’s unit: $260
GRAND TOTAL: $14,473.91
How we saved money
Since we were paying for the majority of the materials, we worked hard to keep the costs low. The best example of this was during our research of installing barn doors. I learned that “barn doors” were a marketing term that you will pay much more for being they are branded as such. For example, each white, solid-wood core, barn door with mounting kit from Home Depot would’ve cost us over $500 each. I was staring at over $1,000 just for the barn doors. That was the moment where the unexpected costs were skyrocketing and I felt in over my head. The ah-ha moment came when I realized I could just buy a couple of solid-core door slabs from Home Depot for about 20% of the cost of the branded barn doors. Additionally, I realized that you really can find thing cheaper on Amazon. That’s where I found the barn door mounting kits and door handles (for half the cost of Home Depot and Lowes).
- Branded Barn Doors with mounting kits – $510 each (Home Depot): bought door slabs and painted them ourselves for $120 each (Home Depot)
- Separate mounting kits for 2 barn doors – $249.99 (Home Depot): bought identical item on Amazon for $149.99
- Barn door handles — $49.99 each (Home Depot): bought a two pack of the same handle on Amazon for $46
Keep Your Receipts
Another think I learned was that my contractors (maybe they all do this) had us over order all the supplies they needed so there was no chance of having to make multiple runs to the various stores if material ran out. I knew this because I did all the measurements myself and researched the estimated price for the materials needed. When the contractor gave me his list, I compared it to mine and realized it was much more than I had accounted for. As a result, I was hoping for extra items that could be returned so I saved all the receipts as needed.
TIP: Floor & Décor will take back individual items that were sold as part of a package. For example, if you buy a box of eight tiles and used six you can still return the remaining loose two tiles for a partial refund based on the per tile price. Also, you can return any samples you may have purchased beforehand.
Final Thoughts/Lessons Learned
What we’ve learned from all our renovation projects is that it’s probably wise to double the cost and the time that your contractor quotes you. Nothing ever goes according to plan in these types of projects. Always expect the unexpected.
Summary:
Quoted Cost – $7,133 (not counting plumbing repairs)/Final Cost — $14,473.91
Quoted Time – 3-5 days/Actual Time — 2 weeks (including weekend work)
For more on my financial journey and thoughts from other unique individuals, check out my book Margin Matters: How to Live on a Simple Budget & Crush Debt Forever.