Story: A bathroom renovation

My condo has been in desperate need for a bathroom renovation since I bought it. But, as a homeowner, you'll learn that there is always something that needs repairing - especially if you buy in an older building like I did.

The time came that I had to redo the bathroom - and just like you see on HGTV when people try to do it themselves, it was one surprise after another.

I had two contractors give me estimates - both were around $2,000.

Me being in real estate know that the savviest of investment repairs that can yield the highest returns, are the one's done well and at as low a cost as possible. So I decided to demo the bathroom myself along with some help of a hired man and some direction from a pro -- my fiance's mother. :)

I was originally told by a contractor that the reason my walls are not flush with the rest is because "there are two layers of sheet rock - but you never know what's behind these old walls. "

Sure enough, as we started to carefully remove the tile, we discover that behind the tile are these enormous concrete blocks about 31/2 inches thick!

Then we had to remove the blocks one by one and then move on to removing the floor tile.

Long and behold underneath the floor tile was a gorgeous original marble with a weave design, silver accents and black squares! Absolutely beautiful. My thought immediately was, I hope I can save this!

After removing 20 bags of heavy duty construction garbage - which my association wasn't happy about - little tip: always call the association president first before making any renovations like this where there will be some noise and garbage involved to give them a heads up. Things will go much smoother! I then called my contractor in to finish the job -- which will save me about $400, it would have been more of a savings however we had to pay a company to remove the construction debri and dispose of properly.

Unfortunately the floors of my bath aren't level which explains why someone covered up the gorgeous marble to attempt a renovation. The concrete blocks are difficult to remove and whoever renovated my bath just slapped tile over it which explains why it was unlevel with the rest of the walls.

Contractors tell me that more of the concrete and plaster now left needs to be removed in order to do the renovation properly. Otherwise the new sheet rock that needs to be installed still wouldn't be flush with the existing sheet rock. So back to demo!!

After another 20 trash bags of heavy duty construction material of concrete, plaster and more, we were then ready to move on! PHEW!

A special concrete liquid was poured over one half of my bathroom floor to now level the ground so that the new floor tile I picked out - a cermaic design of octagon white tiles with block accents - can be laid properly. The contractor's also had to level the walls around the tub which had huge gaping spaces between.

The white subway tile I picked out has now been put up along the walls of the tub. As another money saver, I opted not to continue the tile work throughout the walls of the bath, half way up, the way it was originally. I saved money on tile and labor as well.

After the tile is done, floor is in I then have to paint myself for the finished product. Can't wait!