Long story short, I’m trying to sell my house and I’ve renovated most of the place except for the 2nd bathroom. The tile, tub, and toilet in that bathroom are perfectly fine. What’s outdated is the cabinet, countertop, and fixtures (what you can’t see is the countertop was originally a 70s yellow. I painted it as soon as I moved in 5 years ago). I’m going to show you a simple and cost effective solution for the everyday homeowner .
…so Fred (my fiancé) and I already knew that we couldn’t afford granite at the moment. It averages around $45/sf where we live and I know I’m already not going to get all my money back out of my house (due to the plummeting housing market). Here’s a word of advice that my father always tells me – “Roxane, you don’t make money on the selling of a house – you make money on the buying of it”. In even simpler words - don’t jump into buying a house and don’t think you’re going to make a ton of money off of it. Really evaluate the market and its potential before you buy it. Just because you sink money into it, doesn’t mean you’ll get it back out when you sell it.
First thing is to replace the countertop. Here’s a ‘before’ picture I took on my phone:
We’re removing the sink – so we just disconnected all of the plumbing, scored around the edge and unscrewed the sink clip underneath. From there, it will just drop down when it’s loose.
Next is the plywood top. Since I’m going to tile over it, it’s recommended you use at least ¾” thickness plywood. We cut it to the exact same size (had to sand slightly on the edge because we cut it a hair large). I scored the original top (because I had painted it) and then added a bonding agent (liquid nails, etc). Once we glued the wood down, we also dropped bolts into the countertop to make sure it’s all sturdy. …and since we want the counter to not have bumps from the top of the bolts, we countersunk all of them as well (this means we drilled one hole for the bolt, then another for the washer and head of the nail). See picture below.
Now to tiling! I chose a mosaic travertine since I really only needed 10 tiles – you could go even cheaper if you wanted to. The trowel I used is a ¼ x ¼ x ¼ …and I’m also using a white thinset to better match in case I’m messy. Before I even spread on the thinset, I cut and dry-fit all of the tiles:
Then just placed the tile sheet on top with a small squish to make sure the tiles made good contact:
Next is the grout – After you’ve waited 24 hours for the thinset to dry, you’re ready to grout. Make sure you get it into all the cracks and crevices. Then wipe off any excess. The day after, keep sponging down the countertop so you don’t have any residue left:
So we’re almost done! In addition to the countertop, I also wanted to replace the light fixture and update the mirror. For the mirror, just take a couple sticks of casing from the home improvement store and cut to length. Then with mirror glue and a caulking gun, affix to the mirror. I used a little painters tape to hold it in place while it dries. …then a coat of fresh paint and you’ve got a beautiful bathroom:
…and view of the mirror surround:
Total spent:
$5 - ½ sheet of plywood
$68 - 10 travertine tiles
$0 – Thinset (I was tiling my other bathroom and really only needed a couple scoops out of the big bucket
$15 - Grout
$65 – vessel sink
$50 – vessel sink faucet and pop-up drain
$18 - Casing trim around mirror
$30 – new light from Costco
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$234
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