I have heard so many horror stories about general contractors, and so few good experiences.

I’m here to tell you that I am the unicorn: we renovated our tiny bathroom, and we are happy with the timeline, the finished result, and the cost.

The actual renovation before and after pics are coming—in fact, I’ll do you one better. Here’s our before video:

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A post shared by Mary Kay McBrayer | horror, nonfiction writer (@marykaymcbrayer)

But, first things first.

This is part two of a series of how to prepare for your bathroom renovation. That means you’ve already seen Part 1: How to Learn from Your Friends’ Mistakes.

We planned this remodel the way we planned our wedding and our tattoos… in four steps:

We collected the experiences of our friends and learned from their mistakes
We made the dream board
We determined the result of what we wanted and ballpark cost—plus how much we were willing to spend and saved for it intentionally
We hired a contractor and got the ball rolling

If you want to join the journey, be sure to subscribe to Wayward Curator so you don’t miss any updates to our bathroom renovation.

Before you even talk to contractors, you should determine…

What are your most important principles?

That’s where the Pinterest board comes in. And honestly, this is the most fun part, so really try to milk it.

Visualize the New Bathroom

You want to be excited about your remodel, so the more you can visualize it, the more real it becomes. It also helps you establish expectations for what you want.

What is the best thing that could happen with your new bathroom?

Here’s our BEFORE PICTURE.

So, you see the myriad problems already.

And, just to be clear, we had already tried to fix some of these problems on our own—namely replacing the super-noisy vent that never actually let air escape from the bathroom. It just moved it into the attic. My husband even made a song about it, the refrain of which was, “No thinking! Just SMASH. SMASH RESULTS.” You can watch the candid footage below.

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A post shared by Mary Kay McBrayer | horror, nonfiction writer (@marykaymcbrayer)

Here’s my list of how this bathroom renovation could improve my life—just so you can see, nothing is too trivial to include:

I won’t have to constantly clean it—no washing of shower curtains, no replacing the liner monthly, no climbing onto a stepstool and almost breaking my neck to scrub mold off the ceiling. So, I probably won’t avoid cleaning it.
It probably won’t smell bad in there anymore, which means that my office probably won’t smell bad anymore, which means my entire time at work will be more pleasant
I can leave the door open to the bathroom, which means more light in my office, too.
I won’t dread showering in mildew, so I’ll probably bathe more.
It’ll be pretty, and being in a pretty space always improves my mood. It won’t stress me out to even walk in there.
I won’t have to worry about getting the (bullshit wood) floor wet anymore and destroying the subfloor—so that Sword of Damocles will just be gone completely.
It’ll probably be tidier, since I get to redesign the water-warped vanity, too.
It might feel bigger, even though it’s the same size, and still small.

Making that list got me pretty emotionally excited. So, I turned to Pinterest for visual inspiration.

Make your dream board.

I’m all about design, so [most of my pins] were about color schemes, tile, hardware, towels… you know, the fun stuff. Swing big, here, and spend time on it. You can always scale it down later. Bathtub made entirely of amethyst? Don’t mind if I do!

By the way, [here’s what I pinned,] in case you are curious.

While you’re doing all this manifesting, go ahead and add stuff to your various carts if you want to—go ahead and get that lil’ dopamine hit. And, why double-work yourself? It’ll be easier to see, too, where your material costs are going to land.

After you’ve spent… I don’t know, does anyone ever spend less than 7 straight hours on Pinterest? Once you have your vision, go look at your own bathroom.

What do you really need? Be sure to identify one or two of your biggest problems so you know that if you can’t get those handled, the project is not worth doing.

For us, the two biggest problems were ventilation and space.

On a long enough timeline, every bathroom will grow mildew. But ours only took about two days. In winter.

Our vent never exited the house. Not only was it not really sucking up any moisture, but the moisture it did suck, it just moved into the attic. To which there was no access.

Someone also chose to floor the bathroom with vinyl plank wood. So, I was convinced there would be damage to the subfloor (probably a change-order just waiting to strike).

Our primary bathroom is 5x8’ with 8-foot ceilings. Pretty modest. The door itself was 3’ wide and 6.6’ tall. It took the whole room to open it. Look at this ratio:

Incorrigible. I mean, who decided? Literally, who? Get them on the phone so I can ask them what the hell.

I once tried to give them the benefit of the doubt: maybe the original occupant needed to use a wheelchair, and that requires wider doorways.

But no, because the door to the primary bedroom was narrow af. It was just ill-conceived and took up our whole bathroom.

So, ventilation and space. Those were our two things that if we couldn’t address, there was no point in doing a renovation. And there was definitely no point in throwing money at it. These were my non-negotiables.

But, how to fix them?

Dream Big

What if we take out the ceiling to the rafters and install a skylight? What if we tile the whole room in this awesome swimming pool mosaic? What if we get heated floors?

Ultimately, we did scale down those solutions, but just creating them helped me visualize the possibilities of achieving my absolutely necessary means.

After I established our two most important fixes, and we created a visual feast a la What Color is Your Parachute?, we made a second tier: these were very-important elements. They weren’t deal-breakers individually, but renovating the entire bathroom (rather than fixing the two main problems alone) may not be worth doing if I couldn’t get most of them.

Here’s my list:

I mostly made this list so I wouldn’t forget to mention these items to the estimators.

And you definitely, absolutely, without a doubt want to talk to at least three companies before you make a decision.

It’s not only to weigh the price—though that is a big part of it.

It’s to get their expert advice.

Reel it back in

We ultimately got a lot of insight before even securing a deal. Stuff we never would have thought of. Ways to save money without compromising on our non-negotiable of fixing the ventilation.

More importantly, some really cool ideas that we wouldn’t have thought of on our own because we don’t have the experience.

Here’s what we settled on, after talking to three experts:

Move the ceiling vent to exit through the roof.
No skylight (for the sake of cost and repair), but instead, a transom window over the shower to provide more light and actually open, so there’s another vent.
Paint the walls and ceiling semi- or high-gloss to prevent/slow mold growth.
Tile the whole floor and create a walk-in shower with glass doors for the sake of space
Pocket door. (Remember, pocket door, or I walk.)

Up next, we talk about how to name your price.

To make sure you don’t miss the next installment of the Bathroom Reno, make sure you subscribe to the Wayward Curator’s mailing list.

Here’s the link to Part 3 of 4: How to Save for a Renovation!

If this story stuck with you, then you might like…

—How to Prepare for Your Bathroom Renovation, Part 1 of 4: How to Learn from Your Friends’ Mistakes

— How to Prepare for Your Bathroom Renovation, Part 3 of 4: How to Save for a Renovation

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