ACK!!! Here’s what’s left of a bathroom after a two day demo
and now a 10 day hiatus as we wait for the fixtures and tile that I ordered!
More on that in a later post but for now, I’ll try to stick with the positive
and how to save money on a bathroom renovation. Today’s bargain is about tile and the first piece of advice
is “You Better Shop Around”, then shop around some more, then compare prices
and then do some more shopping. Prices vary greatly.
A good place to start is at the tile stores. Put in some face time before you go virtual and look for
decorating ideas and for color samples and then compare online. Either way you
have to order the tile since stores don’t keep things in stock and you’ll
probably get a better deal with and online retailer. I paid a visit to my local
tile store and priced different styles, sizes and quantities. I needed a lot of tile since I was
getting rid of the tub and replacing it with an open shower area. The look I wanted was wall-to-wall
coverage, sort of like the surround sound of tile.
Unfortunately the beautiful lime green glass rectangle bricks tile
that I fell in love with ain’t cheap.
So I tried to find a compromise and considered tiling the entire shower
area and half of the other walls.
Then pulling it together with a border and painting the rest of the room
with a coordinating color.
After
much online comparison I found the tile for $18 per sq ft at My Tile Backsplash
(I saw it as high as $28). Then I
found some green 1x1 recycled glass tile in an off white with matching green
slashes at Cool Tiles for under $10 bucks a 12x12 sheet. Since it was so much less I decided to
do an accent wall in the shower in the brick mosaic and the other 3 walls in
the cheaper squares and still get the total tile effect. Shipping was a flat rate of $29 and I
did a Google search for and online coupon for Cool Tiles and found one for an
additional 10% off. All good in
theory and keeping my fingers crossed that the delivery is smooth and the
product lives up to expectations.
But for now, I’ll just attempt to be patient, Zen serene about by
bathroom limb.