Adventures in Remodeling & the cost of “unobtainium” — Donna and Steve’s 1957 bathroom

Donna and Steve waited 18 months after moving into their 1957 ranch home before tackling the renovation of their main bathroom. The original soft blue-green Rheem-Richmond tub and toilet were in great shape and could be reused, but they would need a matching vintage sink, new wall and floor tile, and a new vanity. So a gut remodel — which ended up including a memorable adventure to the famous World of Tile liquidation sale — was in order. Of course, Adventures in Remodeling don’t usually come cheap — and we get Donna’s hilarious calculation: The cost of “unobtainium” — we love it!

Donna and Steve were able to source most all of the elements for the new bathroom using resources found here on Retro Renovation.

And most of them sound pretty affordable: The wall tile is plain white Daltile. The flooring, American Olean Chloe. The sink and even the laminate countertop are from craigslist. Steve designed the vanity and had it custom made. As with most of the stories we do here, we asked for a complete list of resources, and Donna generously sent them along — they are at the bottom of this story. Thank you, Donna.

The real stickler item, though: Donna and Steve wanted the bullnose trim tile to match the Richmond-Rheem fixtures. After comparing their original qblue-green fixtures to every known tile manufacturer under the sun — including our go-to B&W Tile — they had almost given up on finding a match — until they read about World of Tile. But wait! While waiting for Chippy to produce a tile match for their aqua green, the couple heard that World of Tile was closing its doors! But… Donna and Steve were planning a vacation to the East Coast. Could they divert a portion to attend the World of Tile liquidation sale (November 2014) — and possibly score some tile for their project? Yes! Adventure: On!

• Finding wall tiles to match the original features proved to be a challenge — one that Donna chronicled over on her blog Mid Century Make Under.

How much did their World of Tile treasure hunt cost?

Thankfully, the pair did manage to find the perfect tiles (and a few other things) at the WOT liquidation sale. Donna wrote all about it in her hilarious blog post The True Cost of Unobtanium.

Excerpt from the blog post:

We’re all familiar with unobtanium, right?

From the Wikipedia:

“…any fictional, extremely rare, costly, or impossible material … needed to fulfill a given design for a given application.”

Color-matching tile for the bathroom has been our most recent unobtanium quest.  We long ago gave up on trying to find enough in a perfect color to do everything, and were just hoping to find some accent pieces to relieve the (planned) solid white.  Which is why we found ourselves in a New Jersey hotel at 2am on Friday, hoping to get a couple hours of sleep before visiting the World Of Tile liquidation sale.

We frequently talked about needing to make the pilgrimage, but when faced with the store’s closing, the urgency ramped up considerably, and we decided to squeeze in a side-trip to already-planned vacation.  However, this meant that while we only had a 3-hour drive (instead of 10) there were some other expenditures, adding to the “true cost” of our treasure.

Our favorite part of their story is the chart (shown above) that Donna made to illustrate the true cost of the great tile bargain that the couple managed to score at WOT.

After the Adventure and once all the treasures were in hand, the bathroom came together beautifully:

List of resources used in Donna and Steve’s bathroom remodel:

• Tub and toilet – vintage, original to the house
• Toilet seat — Bemis Classic Colors Ming Green
• Tub faucet — Union Brass 530 three handle tub and shower valve from Locke Plumbing
• Sink – Craigslist
• Sink faucet — Foundations 4 inch centerset single-handle bathroom faucet in chrome
• Countertop — Craigslist acquired for free, but then cut down and finished by the contractors
• Medicine cabinet mirror — ReStore Habitat for Humanity
• Shower door — Sterling ‘Starscape’ 
• Hall-Mack Aristochrome accessories — salvaged
• Hall-Mack Towel Ladder — salvaged
• Vintage cone lights over vanity — salvaged
• Vanity — Custom made from Steve’s design (based on Chris and Angela’s bathroom vanity)
• Cabinet knobs — dish cabinet knob and backplate from Rejuvenation
• Aqua trim tile — World of Tile Liquidation sale find
• Special accent tile in shower — World of Tile Liquidation sale find
• Ceramic bathroom accessories — World of Tile Liquidation sale find
• Wall tile — Daltile Semi-Gloss in White 0100
• Floor tile — American Olean’s CHO1 Chloe in Satin White
• Grout — CEG-Lite in Delorean Gray
• Recessed shower light — 6″ shower trim with fresnel lens
• Shower niche — Redi Niche Triple Recessed Shelf
• Paint — Sherwin-Williams Snowbound

With this epic bathroom renovation finally complete, what’s next for the dynamic duo?

Donna writes:

With that put to bed, we will sign contracts tomorrow for our kitchen makeover, featuring salvaged custom-color St. Charles cabinets (ETA mid-2016).

Never a dull moment in Retro Renovation land!

Never a dull moment indeed, Donna and Steve! Thanks so much for sharing your renovation — another stellar example of how doing things The Hard Way can pay off! — with us. It looks fantastic.

Link love:

• Follow Donna’s blog, Mid Century Make Under