Loo Trilogy

Sometimes the thrill of the hunt is the best part about doing a home renovation.

Take one homeowner whose 1,700-square-foot house in northwest Calgary recently underwent a major renovation that saw its three bathrooms refurbished.

Laura (who asked her last name not be published) bought the home seven years ago, but immediately realized it needed improvements.

“This house is about 60 years old, and there was an expansion done in the 1980s,” says the mother of two teens. “The only completely usable bathroom we had was the main bathroom in the (original) portion of the house.”

In fact, downstairs bathroom wasn’t used once in the time the family has lived in the home. “It was a tiny 30-by-30-(foot) shower and when you stepped on the shower floor, it moved,” Laura explained.

Coupled with that, the bathroom in the back 1980s section “was so ugly and awful, we never used it either.”

Laura says she enjoys DIY projects and renovated her kitchen herself. But when it came to redoing her bathrooms, she went shopping for a contractor who shared her vision. She soon discovered bathroom renovations can get awfully pricey, depending on whom you call.

“There were people I called, I’d have had to have taken another mortgage on my house (to pay for the reno),” she exclaimed. “They had their own view what a bathroom reno would look like.”

The homeowner eventually chose Lozier Contracting, based on the experience of her significant other, who had had the company owner Wayne Lozier do some work on his house.

“And he’s an engineer, so he tends to be very particular how people do the work,” says Laura. “The estimate wasn’t the lowest, but I thought it was fair for the work I needed to get done.”

Laura’s renovation was unusual, as she supplied the vanities, floor tiling and other items herself, says Lozier.

“When it comes to plumbing fixtures we usually prefer to purchase them from the wholesalers,” he says. “That way we can put in a warranty so, if a fixture fails, we can swap it out.”

Lozier provided the bathtub and shower fixtures, and installed Toto Drake low-flow toilets in two of the three bathrooms on Laura’s recommendation and previous experience with the product — she had installed one such toilet in the main bathroom a few years ago.

Laura, meanwhile, went shopping for vanities, mirrors and even tiling, hitting major retailers such as Home Depot, Rona and Totem, as well as picking up accessories like mirrors from shops such as HomeSense that she found for as little as $35.

Each bathroom presented its own challenges, and Laura arranged for the work to be done in stages so there would always be one functioning bathroom at all times.

The home’s large downstairs bathroom is the size of a small utility room and had been used to store the ironing board, with one wall covered in mirrors.

“The previous owner must have had a couple of teenagers,” Laura jokes.

The renovation duo had a surprise in store when the room’s tiny shower was ripped out, though.

“They found a false wall,” recalls Laura. “Nobody knew about it. It cost me more to get the custom shower done as a result, but that was fine — they were able to expand it quite a bit.”

Lozier says it was the first time he’d encountered a false wall, “but it allowed us to make the shower a lot bigger. We also had to replace some of the plumbing in the floor drains.”

A long vanity was cut in half and a utility closet installed. Laura considered in-floor heating, but decided it was an unnecessary expense.

Laura had purchased black-brown ceramic tile for a previous upstairs reno, but when she decided to use hardwood for that job, she held on to the tile and used it in the basement bathroom.

This presented some challenges as she wanted the same colour scheme for her other two bathrooms, but dark tile was hard to come by. She eventually got tile from several different retailers, giving each bathroom similar colour scheme, but a unique pattern and style.

She also favoured dark wood in the cabinets she purchased for each bathroom – the downstairs from Totem, the back bathroom from Rona, and the main bathroom from a cabinet store.

For the ceramic countertop in the downstairs bath, “they asked me to pick out an arborite I liked,” says Laura. “I bought a mirror for $50 at HomeSense and picked up some lights at Home Depot.”

Laura didn’t need in-floor heating for the main upstairs bathroom, either – Lozier installed a floor-level wall radiator with a lever that allows her to direct heat towards the floor or upwards.

The dark tile for the main bathroom came from Totem. “They didn’t have the longer tile like I used downstairs in the dark colour, but it was really inexpensive,” says Laura. “The mirror, the lights — all come from different home stores.”

Although Lozier was in charge of installing the Fiberglas acrylic Hytec bathtub, one innovation Laura insisted on was curved shower rods, giving more space in the tub and also in the shower in the back bath where this was also used.

“The shower tiles were bought at Totem, and were a happy surprise,” says Laura, noting that under the shower head the tiles don’t lie flat, creating a 3-D weaving pattern.

Laura describes the back bathroom as her “bling” bathroom, with a few esthetic touches giving it extra pizzazz, such as gemstone-patterned shower wall tiles from Totem, and crystal-accented paper-roll holder and towel rack from HomeSense.

“I really enjoy home renovations — it’s fun to see the effect at the end,” she says. “I wish I’d taken before-and-after pictures — you wouldn’t believe they were the same bathrooms.”

Lozier advises homeowners get at least three estimates before choosing a contractor, and do homework to check Better Business Bureau ratings and whether they’re licensed.

Laura’s main advice: “Know and understand your budget. I estimated I could get the work done for between $7,500 and $10,000 per bathroom. I had a total budget of $30,000, and I stuck to it.

“Think about where you want to spend your money. Getting a custom shower built was important for me. I also wanted higher-quality, low-flush toilets. If you’re looking for places to save money, focus on the cosmetic things and don’t scrimp on fundamentals like plumbing and electrical.”