Basement bath...

There came a time when we looked at our sorry excuse for a "finished" basement, and realized it was time to pull the trigger on a major overhaul. The layout wasted space and wasn't configured in a way that met our needs, so we hired a contractor to remodel it. Nothing fancy: no tricked out party rooms with water features or wine cellar. Just a TV room with some office space, a code conforming bedroom, a bathroom, and a storage room.
The contractor ripped everything out including the studs and we sold all the salvageable stuff. The old bathroom vanity, mirror, and beige toilet, the old gas fireplace insert, a couple of doors, and even the drop ceiling were posted to Craigslist and scooped up by several people.
There were a few other things that we couldn't sell, so we donated those items to the Habitat Restore.

For our new reconfigured bathroom, we were able to score these on Craigslist: a brand new white Toto toilet ($50), enough gray porcelain floor tile for this bath and a later project ($11), and the new IKEA vanity ($230).

What I learned from this project:

1. Gray and yellow is my new favorite color combo.

2. Contractors are very skeptical of homeowners making purchases on their own.

3. I respect their views...to a point.