I hear you on the demo surprises—my last bathroom reno had a layer of old linoleum under the tile, and beneath that, some kind of tar paper that took forever to scrape up. I ended up spending clo...
Honestly, $10k sounds steep, even with the eco upgrades. I get the appeal of recycled glass tile, but I’ve found you can get a similar look with porcelain for way less. Demo surprises are the worst, though—last time I found a newspaper from 1972 under the tub. Made me wish I’d just painted the old tile and called it a day. As for smart mirrors, I’m still not convinced my bathroom needs WiFi...
I hear you on the smart mirrors—feels a bit overkill for most bathrooms unless you’re really into gadgets. I’ve run into those demo surprises too, and they always eat up more time (and money) than you expect. Last place I flipped, we found three layers of wallpaper under the tile, each uglier than the last. Curious if you did any of the work yourself or hired it all out? Labor costs can really swing the budget.
I did about half the work myself—demo, tiling, and painting—then brought in a plumber for the shower and toilet. Honestly, if I’d hired it all out, it would’ve been at least double what I spent. Ended up around $7k, but that’s with me sweating through weekends and learning how not to grout the hard way. Labor is where the numbers really jump, no doubt. Those “quick” demo jobs always seem to hide something weird behind the walls...
I hear you on the demo surprises—my last bathroom reno had me pulling out drywall only to find a mess of old plumbing patched together with duct tape and hope. I did most of the work myself, too, except for the electrical. Came in just under $6k, but that was a lot of late nights and a few “what have I gotten myself into” moments. Labor costs are wild, but sometimes I wonder if my sanity would’ve been worth the extra cash...
Pulled a similar move last year—thought I could just swap out tile and fixtures, but once I opened up the walls, it was a whole can of worms.
—that’s exactly what I found, too. Ended up doing demo, tiling, and plumbing myself, but paid for a pro to handle the shower valve. All in, I spent about $7k, but honestly, the stress was real. If I had to do it again, I’d probably budget more for labor just to keep my weekends intact.“a mess of old plumbing patched together with duct tape and hope”