Today I had an appt at a kitchen/bath showroom with a designer.
The bad news is while they had some beautiful displays, doubt that we will go with them.
Cons:
we would like to keep our budget around 40kish. Labor and materials. Her guesstimate for our 11x12 bathroom was “at least 55K”.
They are scheduling for fall, we’d like to have it done sooner.
She estimated 6-8 weeks. This is about twice what 2 smaller companies told us.
Pros:
If we are interested they will come out and measure and offer us potentially 2 different footprints which they will put into a CAD program and result in a realistic sketch. This would cost $350. Which we would totally do. I feel uncomfortable doing that knowing that we are unlikely to go through with them. If you go with them they put the $350 towards your project. Thoughts about “using” someone that way?
I feel like if you’re paying them $350 then you can totally do that and not feel bad about it. I’m sure the cost is precisely because not everyone uses their services - and it gives them a chance to essentially bid for your business after all.
Here is what we did for our master bath remodel. We had a standard double sink with a tub/shower combo and a closet.
No more tub. Full walk-in shower. Plenty of space. Glass door. We lost one sink. The shower was moved to a different wall. New toilet that is higher than normal. Fan with blue-tooth speaker. Heated floors on a timer.
The loss of sink is a bit of a downer, but in reality we aren’t in there together hardly ever. Love the hotel type shower. Also love the heated floors. And I am glad we kept the closet for storage.
I agree that if you are fine walking away for the $350, it’s worth it to help you visualize.
FWIW, 11x12 is a decent size for a primary bath and I think your designer is likely correct about the price unless you are going to do everything bare bones.
Someone who lived in this house before us must have done the same to our kitchen, as the cabinets go to the ceiling and everything is proportionately high. Unfortunately, in our family we are all below-average height. I don’t even use the wall cabinets for anything but long term storage, since I have to get out the step stool to reach anything that isn’t at the very front of the lowest shelf. One day, we might be able to afford a remodel…
I can’t imagine it’s a full block of time. Subs do things on their timetable so there may be blocks of inactivity in between.
2 months from demolition to completion. You always want to over estimate, no one is mad if the painters don’t get there right away.
The estimate is that, they don’t know if you are going to pick out expensive tile and top end fixtures. So they give a top end price. Then you will be pleasantly surprised when it comes in under budget.
I also think a designer is going to assume that you are going to go with higher end finishes.
That is why my husband loves to do time and materials. He likes that he has control over the process and that everyone gets paid their due.
She def said there would be lull times as we wait for the next plumber or electrician or whatever to come to the job. But that still
Means the bathroom is completely out of commission for most of that time.
I’m pretty frank when I meet with people as to what I want, what is most
Important to me, where I’ll consider spending more money and where I won’t.
I’m sure they would be more detailed in price once they see the space, we pick out products etc. I for sure know enough to take an estimate and plan for it to be more (who knows what they find in an 85 year old house?) - and for that reason I’m
Not going to throw caution to the wind at an initial bid that is already $10k + over our budget.
Two of my kids have done some big jobs in the last few years. One daughter did her master bath. She had a board of ideas she liked and her husband drew out on graph paper different configurations. Her father-in-law is a plumber and he helped them source the tub and fixtures. They picked a vanity from Home Depot. Her husband did all the work himself.
When their kitchen flooded they decided to remodel a very impractical space. They were also dealing with insurance. She must of had 12 contractors out and they all gave her suggestions for layouts. They were moving two walls and they all had different suggestions. She quickly came to realize that contractors are not designers. The contractor she went with had a woman who worked helping with countertops and this woman was the most helpful. In the end my daughter designed it herself. It came out really well.
Other daughter bought a house that was basically in need of new everything. They hired a designer because they weren’t good at making decisions. They got recommendations for designers from a lot of people. The prices were a wide range. They ended up working with a younger designer on an hourly rate. The designer gave them room configuration ideas and finishes. Some of the finishes were high end but it was easy to swap out to something similar for less money. They saved money by using a very experienced handyman. They did hire a general contractor(friend of ours) who did hang the kitchen cabinets and did some of the electrical. Hired a professional painter as we knew the handyman’s painting skills were weak.
Had another contractor come out to provide an estimate. We are not moving any walls or changing configuration of anything so it is just new tile and countertop and fixtures. These guys do all work but we pick and buy our own tile and fixtures from their preferred suppliers. I like that.
When we did our master bath we used a retired fireman who did work but also sub’d out some of the work. He came recommended by a friend. It was not a quick job and there was some time waiting on subs. But I could tell some of the guys he used as subs were doing the work as a side job.
My general philosophy about work being done on my house is I prefer to work with smaller outfits where the owner is also one of the workers. Or better yet it is a side job. My Dad was a bricklayer and he did side jobs plenty. I know how those work. But then there is not a large corporation there taking a profit I feel better. I also know the type of people I want working on my house.
Even though I moved to my city after college my wife and I did our best to know people in the trades. My father-in-law is was in the trades and knew guys that did work. Sadly a lot of ‘our guys’ are too old now and have retired even from side jobs.
The contractor we are considering is a small business. The owners have just a handful of employees and also do a fair amount of work themselves.
I asked my husband if he wanted to do the work himself (we already replaced the ugly glued on mirror with two lighted mirrors and tiled the wall under them). He said no, but he was excited about picking our stuff which is a first. Ferguson and F&D and other showrooms, here we go!
It wouldn’t be worth it, due to the not-great quality of the cabinets. The whole kitchen needs a redo, but other things are higher priority right now. Thanks for thinking of us, though!
Just circling back. I found the cure for my decision paralysis. I hired a great contractor who brought in his own designer and has an amazing app that keeps me on track. His app has a calendar that lists when decisions need to be made, when materials are coming, when specific work is going to be done, etc. If one thing changes or causes a delay, it moves everything to the new dates. For my finance obsessed husband, there are real-time invoices for all of the labor and materials. It also has a task list telling me everything I need to do and how to do it. His designer and project manager respond to everything via a text chain, so I can see all the conversations we’ve had, and there is a gallery of what we’ve picked out.
He was also able to fix all of my design issues. He’s taking an inch from my closet so that a standard 72” vanity fits, making the wall between the toilet and the shower a pony wall to open up the space visually, adding lighting, and moving the shower head to the opposite wall (because of the pony wall) but leaving the control valves on the pony wall so that we can turn on the shower without getting wet. The top of the pony wall will also serve as a shelf as I couldn’t come up with a niche idea that I liked.
