Equity Enhancement: Bathroom Edition

We're stepping up our game in the bathroom remodeling department.  This job was for clients in Quincy who wanted to remodel the circa 1989 bathroom in their townhouse.  Their primary goal was simply to put in something rental grade so that they could rent out the home more easily to tenants.  After talking with them and looking at comparable properties in the area, however, we realized that for the cost of a "rental grade" remodel, we could put a fairly impressive and equity enhancing bathroom into the space.  By making smart purchase decisions, we were able to give them a high end look for a bare bones price.  The bathtub was a simple four piece system, and the vanity was an 'on sale' purchase from Home Depot.  Since the bathroom was on the small side, we used an open-style vanity to visually expand the space, and installed a low-flow toilet that had the added benefit of having a small profile tank. For the floor, we bought inexpensive $2 per square foot 12" travertine tiles, then cut them in half with our tile saw, laid them in a brick pattern, and grouted them with a coordinating grout color - the result was a floor that looked 10 times as expensive.

Equity Enhancement in Practice!

We're in the middle of a short, cheap, fun project to renovate a run-down condo and add $60,000 to its sales value.  This garden level 600 square foot 1 bedroom + study hadn't been painted in probably 20 years, had dull linoleum tile and dated cabinets from the 1950s, and generally felt like a dark, basement apartment.  Funny that it seemed so subterranean at first, since its a higher than usual garden level unit with full size windows!

We are doing a quick renovation and staging, bringing in an updated 'Mad Men' midcentury vibe to play up the characteristic 1960s layout and finish work in the unit.  Groutable vinyl tile flooring in a brick pattern and the right choice of wall color made a huge difference, and we're completing the transformation by refinishing the cabinets & countertops, replacing the appliances with stainless steel, updating some electrical & lighting, and reglazing the dated tile in the bathroom.

Read on to see some of the 'before' pictures... Look for more 'after' pics next week!