Home Remodeling

Those of you who have known me for awhile know that I won the remodeling battle a few years ago when we decided to remodel our kitchen before our upstairs bathrooms. Our house is “older” – built in the 1980s and it was time for some all-around updates and improvements – due to look and more honestly due to mold issues. After the kitchen remodel, we focused on other things. Andy kept re-caulking the bathrooms and fixing the wet/gross baseboards. The last thing I wanted to jump right into again was living through a construction project.

Then I got that itch and started doing some research hoping to get a project on the books mid-2018.

What Would Be Our Next Focus?

Neighbors were posting photos of gorgeous bathroom upgrades. However, I also wanted to consider an addition to the first floor instead. Because it made total sense in my head to add on a guest room and bathroom so we would have a new bathroom to use when we were ripping out the ones upstairs. Right? And for a few weeks I was even researching new vans and SUVs instead. Yes, I drive Andy nuts. I had a few quotes put together – for the possible addition and new quotes for the bathrooms. We were not planning to actually do anything until at least the summer of 2018. And then it happened.

Revolution Remodeling & Design

I received a call from Nick with Revolution Remodeling & Design whose next project was suddenly on hold due to a Florida hurricane and a family that needed to put their second home in Florida as a priority instead. Suddenly he had a gap in his schedule and wanted to know if I would like to start NOW. As in, let’s start the very next week for a let’s-keep-my-guys-working discount. His original quote for both bathrooms was already cheaper than multiple quotes we had received on our master bath alone a few years ago. And with the added word DISCOUNT (ok, it wasn’t a deep discount, but it was something!), we were sold.

Although our decision was 75% about the cost, we also had great recommendations from a handful of neighbors and I just liked the guy – he was very personable. As was his staff who would be in our house every.single.day. We quickly finalized the kids’ bathroom plan – the green had to go. Along with pretty much everything else. We decided to completely tear it all out and start over. And I only had one request – we had to build the bathroom around this shower curtain.

The New Look

So it wasn’t really about the shower curtain, but it mostly was. Nick will roll his eyes and say it TOTALLY was. And that’s ok. The great thing about Nick is that he understood I really, really liked this shower curtain and so he made sure the other choices I made did indeed match the shower curtain, but would also be fine if the shower curtain ended up in a donate pile someday. Otherwise, I just wanted a fun and fresh new look. The kids are getting older and the drab original vanity top and floor and tub tile were just beige-ing me to death.

The Experience

Overall, our experience with Revolution Remodeling was extremely positive. Nick and his team are very detail-oriented and customer focused. Nick worked with me constantly at the beginning of the project to finalize selections and put a timeframe together. He was willing to talk me off of a cliff go with me to the tile store, Lowes, etc. when I needed help that just couldn’t be answered via text. Although he was still available constantly via text and email which was also very helpful. He made suggestions on where to go to look for items, but also didn’t limit me to his select vendors.

Keith was the main man onsite every day. Every. Day. In my opinion that person can make or break a remodel experience. Keith was great. He always made me aware of the plan for the day and would make sure any questions he needed answered were discussed before I headed out of the house. His skill and attention to detail were incredible. But he also never made me feel stupid when I had no clue what he was talking about and he actually taught me quite a few things – like faucet spread. Apparently, that’s a thing and there are options. When Keith needed a second person onsite, Jaeden was also on our job. Together, they worked well and stayed on schedule. I never felt my upstairs was a total mess outside of the bathroom. And even the bathroom was cleaned up every night before they left. I never felt uncomfortable with them in our home and we actually went on vacation while they were still working in our home every day. They were reliable and trustworthy.

Unlike our kitchen, we didn’t know the exact cost until the final numbers arrived on our last invoice. However, Nick did a great job of keeping us on track and informing us when we were making decisions that would increase the cost of the project. That blue glass tile was not cheap. However, the sale at the time was too good to pass it up because of cost and so we made the decision to go over our original tile budget a bit a lot. That decision was well worth it because it’s absolutely gorgeous. Same thing with the medicine cabinet (see below). Again, it was totally worth the splurge to us. In the end, we were over our original budget (as we were well-informed we would be). However, it was not drastic. And it was still less than other competitor quotes and allowed us to add more extra things like the medicine cabinet and shower niches.

Main Features of the New Bathroom

• Medicine Cabinet – I love a medicine cabinet for storage, but not the look. When Nick showed me the picture frame version I fell in love.
• One Sink – The kids are starting to spend time separately in the bathroom as they grow, so even with three kids, we did actually opt for more counter space instead of more sinks.
• Shower Niches – There’s only so much room around the edges of the tub and these niches are just what we needed.
• Adjustable Shower Head – What a game changer for the kids and being able to put the water directly above their heads!
• Baseboards – One of our requirements was not having wood baseboards after the remodel and so we picked a tile base to match the floor instead.

So now when we walk down the hall and look into the bathroom, this is the view. Fresh and fantastic!

The Details

• Nick Rakel, Revolution Remodeling & Design – find him on the web, Facebook, Instagram, etc.
• THE Shower Curtain: Bed Bath and Beyond Manor Hill Sierra in Blue
• Floor: Noir Hex Travertine Mosaic Tile – 2×2 (The Tile Shop 657671)
• Base: Noir Honed Threshold (The Tile Shop 659305)
• Bullnose: Dark Stainless Steel Somerset (The Tile Shop 667700)
• Tub Surround: Lake Shore Glass Subway Tile – 3×12 (The Tile Shop 615761)
• Shower Head: Moen 4-Function Massaging Handshower W/Slide Bar
• Tub: Sterling Performa – although we could have kept our old tub, this was an upgrade with having a no-slip floor
• Toilet: Brand new but nothing special to report about it; just picked out a basic model
• Cabinet: Kraftmaid Lyndale Dove White
• Counter: Viatera Quartz Minuet
• Sink: Wells Undermount China Rectangular Sink 19×13
• Faucet: Moen Single Handle Lavatory Faucet Eva Polished Chrome
• Mirror: Alluring Glass
• Light Fixture: Progress Lighting Inspire 3-Light Bath/Vanity Chrome
• Medicine Cabinet: Large White Recessed Picture Frame Medicine Cabinet – 14×18 (Concealed Cabinet website)
• Paint: Sherwin-Williams Misty 6232

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