Bathroom Remodel

[NFATrustGuy]

I DIY'd all 3 bath remodels at my Mom's house within the last 9 months. One was a complete tear out down to the studs. The other two were new flooring, vanity, toilet, baseboard, and doors... so everything but the tub and shower. On the complete tear out, I replaced a tub/shower with a fiberglass shower enclosure with a sliding glass door. The new vanity was from Menards up in Cheyenne and has a granite top with an undercount sink. The new toilet will flush a dozen golf balls or whatever (though I'm not sure I'd want to pass a dozen golf balls, so I'm not sure of the relevance). I tiled the wall above the shower enclosure all the way to the ceiling. The new fixtures for the sink and shower were American Standard. All told, I think I spent about $2500 on the one bathroom.

Your $6000+ estimates make me feel better about my efforts. I'll be sure to remind my mom how spoiled she is! :-)

Here's a pic of the tile. I hadn't installed the grout at this point. The blue is just the protective covering on the fiberglass shower.

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All told, I think I spent about $2500 on the one bathroom.

Your $6000+ estimates make me feel better about my efforts. I'll be sure to remind my mom how spoiled she is! :-)

Here's a pic of the tile. I hadn't installed the grout at this point. The blue is just the protective covering on the fiberglass shower.

That looks awesome! You should feel very good about your $2,500!

I'm not afraid to spend on the skilled work for things that have a learning curve and I don't have time for (tile for example). So I'm okay spending there. I just get these estimates and think there is a lot of inflation somewhere but of course the contractors aren't really transparent.

A lot depends on the materials you choose. If you are choosing tile that is $6 a foot, your price is significantly higher than $2 a foot. I had a bare concrete floor and stud in my master bath that is around 120 square ft. I used a claw foot tub that was in another bathroom.
For plumbing, I used PEX and sharkbite with plastic piping. Incidentally, I plumbed the house in about 6 hours using this system(kitchen, laundry, one bath and one exterior spigot, along with connections in water closet for second bath).
The tile, I ordered an inexpensive tile saw off Amazon, and used the hell out of it. I found some nice 18x18 tile on sale at Home Depot for $.99 a square foot. I bought extra because I knew I would mess some up. The wife chose a nice tile to go with the floor tile for the shower. It is 18x18 as well. If you are going to build a concrete floor pan, google it and good luck. I just couldn't bring myself to try it yet.
For small jobs, you would probably be best off finding a handyman. Some prices I have seen by contractors around here I thought were ridiculous. It is why I do most of my own work, even if I have to learn it and buy the tools.

Absolutely and that is my problem with both bids. The first insisted we pick from their "design studio" with no idea of cost and no ability to shop around. The second just threw an estimate in the bid that isn't itemized with an understanding that if we go over that number, we pay more.

I'd rather just buy materials on my own and then pay for the labor (even at market rates) to have it done right.

Vanity, toilet, fixtures, paint, lighting are all things I can wrestle with. I want my money to go to the things that need to be done right; tile, drywall, etc.