<p>In the vein of the kitchen floor and carpet cleaning threads - </p>
<p>Anyone with real estate experience. We need to do some work in our master bath. It is over 20 years old, and was built using builder grade fixtures, ie, really cheap, cheaper than cheap. We have through the years painted, replaced the toilet, and put in a tile floor - it had CARPET, OMG - but I made a very poor choice with the tile, and I’d really like to change it.
We must do some repairs to the ceiling and roof - the roof leaks occasionally, due to a poor design and some other changes we have made, and the leaking has destroyed the exhaust fan, it leaks around the fan housing. The faucets drip and are unfixable. The finish has worn off the cabinets and some of the cabinet knobs have gone missing.</p>
<p>My question is this, we are planning on staying in the house at least 5 years, maybe as long as 10 years. If we gut the bath, and go for cleanability rather than high end resale - I want NO VISIBLE MILDEW, a tall order in a climate where the average relatvie humidity is 80-90% - and do things like a soaking tub rather than a whirlpool, move some cabinets around so the room, which is now very symmetrical is no longer symmetrical - in other words make some idiosyncratic choices rather than typical choices, would we have to assume that the bath adds no resale value to the house??? Does it even matter after 8 years, if we decided to paint the bathroom chartreuse???</p>
<p>We finished a remodel in our master bath last year… I’m with you on the mildew factor. What makes the biggest difference in eliminating that problem is an efficient exhaust fan to the outside. Use it every time you shower, and let it run for awhile afterwards. That along with wiping down all the surfaces at least every couple of weeks should solve your problem.
We went with a beautiful porcelain tile on the floor and shower, cherry cabinets with marble counter tops and nickel finish fixtures. It’s both very clean looking, easy to keep clean and warm feeling at the same time. I would imagine it will look great 10 years from now, when we too will be selling to move to someplace smaller.
Have fun with your project. You’ll be so happy you didn’t wait any longer!</p>
<p>By the sound of it, you need to repair the roof if you want to elimate the moisture problem. Hate to be the bearer of bad news, but this sounds to me like the primary source of your mildew problem; you even say the leak from the roof was what cuased your exhaust fan to be ruined. Fix that first, the rest of the things you’re considering are cosmetic.</p>
<p>Just try to sell a house that has a leaky roof! Watch the prospective buyers run out of your house when they find out about that!</p>
<p>I don’t think asymmetrical is an issue at all. Of course, we’d have to see specific layouts to see if you’re considering a poor design. But asymmetrical, per se, should not be an issue.</p>
<p>Nor should cleanable surfaces compete with surfaces which appeal for re-sale.
Nice tile tub surround, easily cleanable with butt joint tile vs. wide grout (not so easily cleanable)… can all be done relatively economically. So can higher end finishes, but it isn’t necessary to go there if you don’t want to. </p>
<p>I also made a poor floor tile choice in my bathroom remodel - only poor choice I made in a whole house remodel. Chose white floor tile - shows everything! Do not make that mistake. White tile in my shower surround, with an interesting accent strip, is fine. But on the bathroom floor itself - NO! A thousand times NO!</p>
<p>IMO, it’s silly to make idiosyncratic choices that compete with resale value… when bathrooms and kitchens are the key features in selling a home. There really must be choices that you would like personally that will also appeal to most buyers.</p>
<p>Your exhaust fan should be high power and go straight to the outside. Travertine seems the hot ticket today but in 10 years could be just as dated as shag carpet. But I like it and it comes in many shades and quality. A good jetted tub is nice but they can leak and cause problems after 10 years. I might just stick with a high quality cool looking tub. Multiple shower heads are great as are high quality glass doors and oversized showers. Double vanity with nice furniture look and granite or tile is also the style and a good look. You might even look at doing two exhaust fans in your climate and let them run half an hour after you finish the shower/bath. I hate mildew/mold too and have a house in a pretty humid area that had problems until we upgraded the fan system.</p>
<p>In my opinion a clean line simple bath would be the best go for resale. You can use color and style in accessories, and just simple it when it comes time for sale.</p>
<p>I’m in the process of rehabbing my 6’ x 7’ bathroom. In the process I’ve discovered Habitat for Humanity ReStore. It’s like a thrift store for refurbishing a home. 90% of what they have is closeouts from Home Depot/Lowes/other stores/manufacturers, and the balance is donated from folks also rehabbing (and these things need to be in good repair and most have all the parts). </p>
<p>I was able to buy a brushed nickel door knob set for $10 (brand new, in box, with all hardware, instructions, etc.) which I saw comparable for $45. Brushed nickel drawer/door pulls for $2 each (saw for $7.50), and sinks for $40 (saw for $80 +). I have my eye on a specific faucet and shower fixtures, but alas, they will come from eBay (still costing far less that 1/2, even with shipping). I even bought white subway tile, 196 pieces for $2.50 (HD wants .67 a piece!).</p>
<p>I agree good bath exhaust fan and fixing the roof should be your top priority. They have fans now with sensors that keep running until the humidity goes down, or ones with a 20 minute timer. I’ve read that whirlpools are less popular and soaking tubs are in. Fancy showers with multiple heads or huge rainshower heads are also in, but they are huge water hogs. I think if you have a tub at all, deep is the way to go. </p>
<p>Tile styles come and go - ten or fifteen years ago we put tumbled marble in every bath we did, but there seems to be more variety now. Personally I think it’s fine to get a plain tile for most of the room and splurge on a border. (I like the glass tiles inserts and/or the sea glass look, but who knows, ten years out they may look horribly dated.) I think it’s more important to do something that will make you happy every time you go into that bath. Beadboard is a nice inexpensive look, I’ve done a couple of terrific looking bathrooms with it. Assymetry is fine and not at all unusual.</p>
<p>Have you thought about going to Home Depot/Lowe’s/Menards/Expo (or whatever is in your area) and working with a bath designer. Whichever store you buy the majority of your stuff from, they will most likely have a designer that will work some basics with you and offer some simple design plans.</p>
<p>Thanks for the input!
You are telling me what I want to hear - do what WE like. Our bathroom has his and her sinks on opposite sides of the room facing each other. DH wants more storage on his side, so he proposed doubling the size of the storage unit which means it would come out on top of the counter, and butt right up against his sink - I said that will be too odd, and you won’t be able to get to the sink properly. So we are considering moving the sink 6-8", to give counter space on both sides. This of course will cost more, and the sinks won’t be symmetrical anymore, but i thought that would be better than closing up the countertop.</p>
<p>Mathmom - you are right on, I love sea glass. we don’t use a lot of hair care or acidic products around the sink, so I’m thinking about splurging and getting a limestone countertop, maybe a limestone floor. I don’t like the Roman bath look of travertine, I would prefer something with a gold tinge, and a finer grain stone.</p>
<p>Teriwtt - yes. Unfortunately, there is no Expo here - that would be perfect because they have such a range of choices. Lowe’s/HD can get the high end stuff, but you can’t see it in the store. My only other choice would be the one bath remodel shop in town. I visited them when we did our kitchen, and they have some good ideas, but they sell primarily Kohler, I think, so there isn’t a huge choice of manufacturers.</p>
<p>cangel - sometimes what can work is to work with Lowe’s/Home Depot’s designers, then go the manufacturer’s website and find out who in your area carries what Lowe’s/Home Depot is suggesting, just so you can see it in person, then go back to Lowe’s/Home Depot to do your business with, especially if they’ve given you their design services for free.</p>
<p>I recently remodeled two bathrooms with limestone. The kids’ bath has a tub/shower with mosaic limestone tile walls, 6" limestone tile set diagonally on the floor and a limestone countertop. The master bath has a stall shower with seat and 6" limestone tile with a mosaic tile border, 6" tiles set square on the floor and a limestone countertop and tub surround. The cabinetry, lighting ad mirrors in the two baths are different, so they look different but still related. The limestone feels so luxurious, every time I take a shower I feel like I’m at a spa.</p>
<p>justaMom, thanks for the info on Habitat ReStores! </p>
<p>Anyone care to comment about removing the tub and replacing it with a walk in shower in terms of resale value? I have 3 bathrooms in my house now and the master bath needs to be redone. I’d like to do away with the tub and replace it with a walk in shower. The house would then have 2 walk in showers & one tub. But I hate to do it if it would hurt the resale value (though I’m not planning on selling anytime soon).</p>
<p>We recently redid both baths in our Cape Cod style home. We converted a tub to shower in our upper level bath. We kept the original porcelain tub in the remodel of our main floor bath.
It seems many folks will want a walk in shower as they age or care for aging parents in their home. My MIL paid to have her tub converted to a W/I shower in her new retirement community condo (she went into a resale) The community is now building with all W/I’s and will only allow 1 tub in a 2 bath unit.</p>
<p>oaklandmom: I’m transforming my tub into a walk-in with a large/wide seat. I figure I’m not getting younger and never use the tub. </p>
<p>Sometimes I think, well, what if I have grandbabies, where will I bathe them? The kitchen sink for a start, and I can always put some type of makeshift tub in the shower for the wee ones, should that day ever come. I don’t even think about the resale value. </p>