Tips and Suggestions to Help You Plan Your Bathroom Remodel

Remodeling any room yourself can be a large scale project, but remodeling a bathroom often presents even more of a challenge. Just try to keep your mind focused on the end result. Hopefully it will be worth all the headaches, backaches, and financial aches you're about to encounter.

Be sure to take some pictures of the room before you start. You will need something to to help keep you motivated about half way through the project. It will also help to remind you of why you undertook the project to begin with.

Here are a few suggestions and tips for you to write down before you begin. Following them may help you survive the remodel.

1. Have a budget. Make out a budget and decide how much you can afford to spend on the project. Don't budget every cent you have. Keep some for those things you forgot about or didn't expect to have to buy or do. Most remodels run into unexpected expenses, such as moving water lines or new electrical wiring. Usually anything pertaining to plumbing or electricity can blow your budget to pieces. So allow some extra for those unexpected little surprises.

2. Have a design or layout for the room. Know exactly where you want each major item. Keep in mind that if you relocate the toilet, tub, or vanity, it will require extra plumbing for the water and drain lines. As mentioned earlier, plumbing can be a great expense. So unless you are dead set against leaving the items where they are or the layout simply doesn't work, you may want to simply replace the items or even reuse them if possible. Remodeling doesn't necessarily mean you have to replace everything. And don't start changing your design halfway through the remodel. If you do, it will end up taking twice as long and costing much more.

3. Choose your new items ahead of time and make sure they will work in the space chosen for them. If you have a place to store them, it is a good idea to have them delivered or picked up before you begin work on the room. That way you can check them for any damages and have time to return them if anything is wrong. Getting the items before you begin work can also help keep you on budget. That's because there will be no unexpected expenses should the item you want increase in price or be out of stock and have to be replaced with a different and more expensive item.

4. Hopefully you have a second bathroom ready to use before you begin working. But with a family, having only one bathroom can create turmoil and havoc, especially in the mornings. So try to replace the necessary items first once you begin working. The toilet and shower should be installed as quickly as possible. That way the family can use the bathroom if necessary. But if the bathroom remodel is going to be an extensive and time-consuming one, you may want to work out a schedule for the family to use the other bathroom. For example, you could have the kids shower or bath at night and the adults in the morning. Teeth brushing could be moved to the kitchen sink if necessary. Girls or Mom can apply their makeup in their bedrooms, using a small table as a makeup table. Everyone may have to make some sacrifices until the new bathroom is completed, but with careful and thoughtful planning, inconveniences can be kept to a minimum.

5. Once you officially begin the project, devote as much time to it as possible. However, if in the course of the remodel, the pressure to complete the project starts overwhelming you, take a day off. Go fishing or golfing or shopping, whatever relaxes you. Sometimes a break will help things that seemed impossible one day be simple the next. So don't let the project take control of your life.

6. Make a list of the remodel, step by step. Marking things off on the list and actually seeing the list get smaller is motivation in itself. Keep it next to the picture of the old bathroom.

These suggestions will help you prepare for your remodel. By planning ahead you can make remodeling easier and faster for yourself and your family.