Diary of a Renovation: 1959 Suburban Ranch Home Bathroom Remodel
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Considering the number of renovation projects I've participated in, I've never actually had the foresight to document any of them through a blog other than with before and after photos, but here's my chance. I have been hired by a lovely young couple who just closed on a 1959 single story suburban rambler to assist them with their two bathroom remodels, along with some other miscellaneous projects. There's also a kitchen renovation in their future, but that will be Phase 2. Darn budgets!
Immediately, the positives about this project are:
1) They were smart enough to contact me before they closed on the property land
2) They are smart enough to stay in their rental home until the renovations are complete. Considering they have a 20 month old daughter, that's the best thing they can do. Living in a home undergoing a renovation is no fun... living through a renovation with young children is awful!
We have a very aggressive timeline so there's not a lot of time to overthink. They closed escrow on Friday, I met with them on Tuesday, had contractors see the property on Friday to bid the project and I'm just waiting on those to come in today so we can evaluate the numbers and decide what is feasible within their budget. The goal is to start demo next Monday and complete the project within 3 weeks. As long as the Permit Office cooperates with us, we are tentatively looking at a move-in date of July 13, but no later than the weekend after. I have already started sourcing for materials, but because we're waiting to see what is possible within the budget, there's a few key elements that are pending.
We have two plans for each bathroom. First option is to keep everything in the exact same footprint, just new finishes. The second option for the master bathroom would involve stealing some space from the closet area to allow for a larger shower, but a smaller vanity. The homeowners decided that if the budget permits, a larger shower would be more important than a double vanity. The second option for the hall bathroom is to flip the plumbing to the opposite wall which will allow us to take the wall between the tub and the vanity down which will open up the space significantly and make it feel much larger. This will also allow the parents to have a better sight line to their child in the tub.
Keep your fingers crossed that we can make it all happen. Here are the BEFORE pictures...stay tuned for progress posts! My goal is to give them the biggest bang for their buck and to take the cookie cutter typical suburban ranch look and feel out of this house and really elevate it to another level. Don't worry, we won't over renovate for the neighborhood, but we are going to make it the best house on the block! Gotta go find some cool materials now...
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