The Big Bath Reno

So, you might remember that we ended up out a few grand for a new furnace, among other problems.

We are back on track to start working on the upstairs bath.  Thing is, with the structural engineering stuff we found out, we need to do the main bath on the 2nd floor first.  Jeff says, since we need to sister up a bunch of joists, it's easier to do that from above, rather than below.  Makes sense to me, only we don't have another full bath in the house, so we'll be trying to do this on the quick.  Some plans to make that happen:

• Staging: We're trying to buy basically everything in advance.  We'll probably keep it in the EstroDen, since it's the room right by the bath that we're not using daily.  So, tub, toilet, tile, cement board, 2X4s, drywall, whatever.  We'll have it 'all' here in advance, before we start demo.
• Layout: Layout stays the same.  We're putting in a new floor and fixing up the joists and whatnot, but moving plumbing around takes time, and honestly, the bath room is only 7X7 anyway, so there's not really much reconfiguring we can do.  I'm OK with that.  
• Reusing: We are pretty sure we're going to reuse the existing sink and vanity (and cabinet over the toilet).  

So here I am trying to mock up some finishes I could go with that may 'work' with the pink.  Not loving it, but it seems OK.  The floor here is a white basket weave I found at Home Depot for $6.95 a square foot. I can get something nearly the same at the Tile Shop for $5.29 a sq ft, says their web site, so about $270.  This could work.

I do kind of want to replace the pink top with this nice white one (which is $170 or so, and will fit on our 4' long cabinet).

Pretty nice, huh?

Wandering around Lowe's, we found some even cheaper octagon dot tile flooring for $2.57 a square foot, or about $130.

Octodot

I just don't love it as much, you know?   But it's nice.  Also, this pic has some 1X2 subway tile on a mesh back.  Above is larger, single tiles arranged in a subway pattern which are 8X12.


My big problem is that what I *really* want is marble basket weave, which is OBVIOUSLY gonna be vastly more expensive.


It's just so gorgeous!!!  I really want it with the bigger tiles on the left.  You'll have to forgive my primitive photoshop skills.  You get the basic idea.  Anyway, at $12.99 a square foot, that's $630 or so which is, you know, like 5 times as much.  Kind of hard to sell the husband on that one.  See above for "cheap".

So I'm torn.  I want to buck up for the marble, honestly, because the floor is the  main thing that you're just NOT gonna replace later, right?  So I should put out the coin for the marble and leave the pink top alone, right?  That will save me the $160 for the top, and I can replace that next year when we have some more money.

This could work, right?

So maybe I keep the top, buck up for the floor, and then go with a more blue-ey grey color that I basically made up in photoshop.  I kind of like this.  It's not perfect, and it's not 100% what I want, but I think it might be workable.  Just need to find a nice grey.  The white in between the two tiles is "Opal" from Martha Stewart's Home Depot line of paints.