Oh I was so tempted. It would have been easy but I didn't want to start a plumbing project. I hate plumbing. Plumbing mistakes = $$$. If I moved it and it leaked later on I would be screwed because it's in the wall. I thought about paying a plumber to do it but then I just drew a line and said no. I mean I wanted a new shower base as well but it was just outside my scope. I have one of these extensions and they work pretty well. Thanks! I was seriously worried at times that it was going to be a huge mess but what I lacked in experience I made up for by taking my time. I spent a hell of a lot of time on it. The walls were crooked. The ceiling was crooked. The tub was crooked. Getting everything level was half the battle. After several days I started having nightmares about 90 degree angles. Here is the tub side. I still have a thin piece of trim to place along the ceiling.
How much did this cost? Both of our bathrooms need to be redone, and I don't really want to spend $10k a bathroom.
I think about $1300. $220 wet saw $150 3 blades $120 thinset $400 tile $60 bullnose pieces $100 glass tile $60 tile tools $80 cement board $80 Redguard sealant and caulk The blades were an unexpected expense. I guess porcelain tiles wear them down fast. I also had a lot more tile wastage than expected but I've heard that's normal for these 12x24 tiles. I actually had one tile that I had to re-cut so many times it cost me about $80. Then I chipped the bastard later on. I'll fix the chip with paint. $1300 isn't too bad. My Mom paid someone $6000 to do the same to a smaller area but they also swapped a tub and changed fixtures so there was plumbing involved.
Now all your friends and relatives will be pestering you to handle their own bathroom renovations on the cheap...
Wow, that's dirt cheap. And I know an honest plumber who does good work and doesn't rip me off (he's one of my neighbors who already redid most of the plumbing in my house except for some stuff in the bathrooms), so if I'm doing all of the tile work and he handles the plumbing I could probably renovate the bathrooms pretty cheaply. The $6000-10000 that contractors generally charge for bathrooms is retarded. But $1300 + plumbing I would have no problem with.
You guys are ballsy as fuck... I would be out the $1300 on a DIY catastrophe, plus the $10k to have it fixed professionally.
I'm guessing you're an apartment dweller? You'll probably feel more comfortable with these kinds of projects when you own your own house. Also the gamble is usually worth it for the savings, and many contractors are con artists who do shoddy work.
I don't think they'd be happy with my time tables. Maybe but remember that it's only the tile. Glass for a new shower is a minimum $900 and can go to $2500. A tub is a minimum of $500. 64" counter with two sink is about $2000. A full DIY remodel can still cost $5000. I might tile the counter top some day. A counter refinish kit is about $75 and the tile would be about $100. I've seen it done and it looks good. I could do the floor really cheap too. Probably $180. It looks fine so I probably wont touch it. I put a new toilet in a few months ago. I know my limits. I hate electrical but I can do a little without killing myself. I'll change light switches or put in a ceiling fan. I hate plumbing because it has risks and I don't understand it but I'll do disposals, faucets, and toilets. Heck I've even done two water heaters. I suck at finishing drywall. Everything else I can do or learn to do. I've always believed I can do anything if given enough time. I hate to say it but it's true. My Mom had her master bath shower redone. I think it was about $8000. The highly recommended contractor didn't hook the drain up correctly and she had to pay a plumber to come out and fix his work. She also paid a profession glass company to install a shower door and the "pro" messed it up and damaged the brand new tile that the contractor put in. Fortunately the company paid to have the tile and door fixed which made it a total loss for them. Pretty sure they fired the guy who messed up. I hired a restoration company to fix my basement and they pretty much took my insurance money and disappeared. The contractor I payed $900 to do the drywall did an average job with visible mistakes. I don't trust anyone when it comes to home improvements. Actually I've never met a bad plumber or electrification but they're usually certified. I also had a big name AC/Furnace company come to my house and try to tell me I needed to spend $10k on their system. After asking several questions he knew that I knew that he was full of BS.
I'm fine with constructing things that already come with all the parts you need and they're already precut and guaranteed to fit together if you follow the instructions. Anything beyond that is where I start to get uneasy. What bfun is talking about regarding the cuts and leveling is exactly the type of thing I'd prefer to avoid...
It was actually pretty common for people to build their own houses until relatively recently in history. My grandfather built his own house in Vermont for instance. I actually agree with bfun that while you'll want to call a professional for some things, given enough time you could probably figure out how to fix just about anything on a house.
I just put in an over the range microwave. I was surprised by how difficult it ended up being. If you change brands and the brackets and holes don't match it ends up being a lot of work. I went from a GE to an LG, so the bracket and mounting hole pattern was totally different. Sears delivered the wrong microwave. It was supposed to be a $275 model but they delivered a $600 model that does convection. I was only charged for the $275 model. So error in my favor I guess.
Expensive microwaves make no sense to me. They never cook as well as an oven, so you only use them for reheating, defrosting and cooking processed garbage meals. Why would anyone pay $600 to get a slightly better version of that? I made the mistake of buying a shit $80 samsung a few years back where the door sticks so you have to open it with two hands, so no, I'm not saying go for the cheapest. I was looking for a new one the other day and decided on a $160 LG which is huge and has every feature a microwave should have. That's $160 australian convict taxed dollars. Then I just decided that I should just make do with the stupid samsung "we make everything" edition and learn not to hold the plate of food I want to put in when trying to open the door.
You also get bent over and raped on the over the range microwaves compared to the counter top microwaves. You're basically paying three times as much for a fan and a light for your stove. The $275 model we bought was one of the cheapest over the range microwaves we could find. I doubt this $600 model functions any better than a $150-200 counter top microwave. The GE we were using died though. Just completely stopped cooking at all. Probably blown capactiors, but I'm not going to go rooting around inside of a 15 year old microwave. So we needed a replacement of some kind. And yeah I just use it reheat meals I've cooked. The convection oven aspect is not going to replace my stove, oven, or grill. A $600 microwave is pointless. But as a free upgrade that was delivered by mistake it's fine. We also got an LG french door type refrigerator delivered at the same time which is very nice. Way better than the GE POS we were using before that was leaking all over the floor, had a broken ice maker, and wasn't getting cold enough, so food kept spoiling. That fucking piece of crap was leaking so badly it warped the cabinet. It's too bad the dudes took it away before I could take a bat or a crowbar to it. I'm not sure why the people who owned this house before me had such a love affair with GE appliances. Everything they make ranges from mediocre to total shit, with most of it being shit. American appliances in general are shit. Once upon a time Maytag was excellent, but they sold out to Whirlpool a long time ago.
I just had a Maytag go bad this past weekend... I picked it over a Sears brand expecting durability under extreme conditions. They certainly price them for excellent build quality.
They were excellent back in the day. My mom had Maytag stuff when I was growing up and it just worked. Then they got bought out by Whirlpool, which is probably the worst appliance brand on the planet, even worse than GE, and their quality went to shit. Now if you want quality, you buy Korean. Also, Sears doesn't make any of their own appliances. They just rebrand things. When looking at buying Sears Kenmore stuff, look at the first 3 digits of the model number and you can tell who actually made it. A lot of their better stuff is actually LG. I think the cheaper stuff is usually Frigidaire. It's usually easy to tell which model it is. They just slap a kenmore tag on it. Sometimes the control panel is a little different. That's about it. It's a pretty easy way to get a few hundred bucks off of something brand name. http://www.appliance411.com/parts/sears.shtml
I've had good luck with Whirlpool. My current 1000 watt microwave is almost 20 years old and works exactly the same as it did when I bought it.
Back when things were built to last... you won't duplicate that record when you replace it. My parents have a 80s era Toshiba TV that still works with the old school consoles (themselves ~20 years old). It's outlived a projection and 2 LCD TVs from 2000s...
At some point in the late 90s and early 2000s, the American appliance companies became greedy fucks and stopped caring about quality. I would avoid American appliances like the plague at this point. LG and Samsung are as close as you'll get now to that old stuff that was built to last.
I've seen Samsung LCD TVs with traditional fluid filled capacitors right next to the headsinks for the energy regulators so I wouldn't trust them too much. If you know how to replace the caps you are OK but for a normal person its a dead TV.
It cost $600 because of the design. I'm sure it has fancy features too but mostly it's just meant to look good and match a $1500 stainless steal oven. It's called planned obsolescence and it's intentional. Many companies use it. Apple has mastered it. My parents had an 80s microwave that never had a single problem. They finally had to ditch it because the thing was ugly as hell. It had a faux wood finish. My Grandpa also had a GE refrigerator from the 50s that never died. I'm sure it cost a fortune to run though.