redoing the bathroom

[cricketswife]

i wanna redo our bathroom so bad. completely redo it. but i'm scared.

it's our only bathroom...i don't wanna be without one for any amount of time. can't really go stay in a hotel or anything cause what would we do with the dogs then?

ugh. i know we can more than likely do it all ourselves, but i don't want to deal with it. but dh won't hire anyone to do it. he wants to tile the shower/tub and i really don't want to. i think it's harder to keep the grout clean than a smooth surface, and won't a tiled shower wall look funny with a regular tub?

[Aunt Sponge]

You have a lot of options, actually.

Tub and tile go hand in hand - you can get decorative tiles and mix them in with solid-white/off white to match your tub/flooring.
Large wall tiles can make a tiling job go quicker - you can opt for a scant grout-line (1/8") which will reduce the overal appearance of the grout and how much is used, etc.

But - tiling does take time, it's usually not a 1-day project. I'd say it's a 2-days at LEAST for a beginner. Even pros take 2 or 3 depending on how big the bathroom is and the otehr work needed. Your grout and mortise and everything needs ot set before you layer things up and usually removal and stabilizing of the under-surface takes a while, too...If your bathroom has tile and you want to replace it you ahve to remove it...If you don't have tile then you can tile of your wall - but you have to apply hardibacker (concrete sheets as an under-surface) which is kind of tedious.

So consider doing work over what's already there - you can paint over tile and you can recolor grout that's already there to a color that's preferable.
New mirrors and window-treatments can be simple and make a HUGE difference in appearance.
If your walls are painted just repaint (solid-colors, a pattern like stripes, or stencils) You can, also, get stick-on wall tiles that have a peel-and-stick backing that will allow you to accent your walls without a lot of work.

You can, also, add wood/melamine trim to the floor/wall wall/ceiling doorway areas to change the look of things - though I think that might be tedious and a smidge time consuming.

Changing out a toilet takes just a short while - it's NOT hard to do. Same with changing out a sink (though, a sink - because of the plumbing - might be more time consuming) .. but other things like the faucet-fixtures of your sink and tub can be changed for a new look (gold instead of silver, bronze instead of chrome) without a lot of work and time.

[cricketswife]

we did tile in the kitchen and utility room, so we know what we're doing there and that it is time consuming. blah.

we replaced the toilet pretty much the first week we moved in. (dh was trying to replace the stuff inside the tank and ended up cracking the tank so we had to do the whole thing. lol)

dh will never go for painting the tile.

thanks for all the suggestions though! new paint will make a huge difference. and i'm still hoping not to tile the shower walls. but i guess we'll have to wait and see.

[Heather]

We are going to be redoing our bathroom at some point in the next year, hopefully sooner.

We are fortunate to have two toilets so thats not such an issue but I think we will end up getting a cheapy hotel just to shower in. I know motel 6 allows pets so if theres one near you thats an option. They are pretty cheap too. I've always paid $40 or less for one night.

We have tile in our shower right now. I am careful to clean it often and make sure the bathroom the gets aired out after showers so no mold or mildew can grow. In our new bathroom I plan to have a large soaking style tub with a shower head in the wall. The shower surround will be tiled. I'm even considering tiling half way up the wall all the way around the bathroom. I find that I wash the walls pretty often and tile would be easier to clean.