I'm about to willingly subject myself to a terribly stressful situation. I'm going to remodel my basement bathroom. That is as long as I can afford it. I've never done this before and I really have no idea what this is going to cost me.
We live in a three bedroom ranch style house with a full basement that is partially finished. By partially finished I mean some clown hung drywall and some really lovely simulated wood grain paneling on a couple of walls. And there's a bathroom down there too. The Clown chose to build the bathroom right under the central HVAC duct. The result is a cave-like experience at best, even though the rest of the basement has a really nice ceiling height, for a basement that is. Add to that bathroom-cave a tiny square shower surround with no light and then screw up the install on the shower pan so the low spot is back in a corner, rather than where the drain is. This allows water to pool nicely giving you that wonderful cave smell. It's all about the ambiance folks. Oh, and the only light source in the bathroom-cave is a craptastic medicine cabinet/mirror/light combination that uses two 10 inch fluorescent tubes. Those tubes are impossible to find replacements for. You can get close, but nothings quite right and therefore there has been no light in the bathroom-cave for over 4 years. No light means no cleaning. Go ahead and let your imagination fly with that one. Yep, it's pretty bad down there.
Trophy Husband and I have been talking about fixing the cave-bathroom for a very long time. My upstairs bathroom has a stubborn leak in the shower that has damaged some of the wall but before I tear that bathroom up, I want to have one to use somewhere, even if it's in the basement. As part of the remodel we are also going to wall off a furnace room and storage area and a nice large laundry room. For now we are going to leave the laundry room unfinished but we may go back and do something there at a later date. The furnace room will remain unfinished.
I've just stared this process. I'll be getting three estimates. One is from literally Three Men and a Hammer. Then there's the Contractor Friend who's married to another friend of mine. And finally, a local kitchen and bath Remodeling Co with a large crew. Contractor Friend is the only name I didn't get directly from the Better Business Bureau's website. So far Contractor Friend and Remodeling Co have come by the house to see what I have in mind but I don't have any estimates yet. I just hope that once all of the numbers are in I can proceed. If it's too expensive the project will have to wait. You'll hear more as soon as I know more!
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