It's a room with a toilet in it. Get over it.

When you visit, you might watch how your brother sits down. Chances are he’s sitting down very carefully and very gingerly these days.

Cause he got screwed up the ass big time. Really hoped they kissed him first and used a little lube.

$51,000. and he wasn’t even aware of the total until you asked? Number than a pounded thumb.

The thing is, I’m not even sure anymore that I’m going for the visit. I’m having a hard time finding a plane ticket for under $500, and that’s for a flight that can take 12 hours. I mean, I really want to see my niece get married, but sheesh.

He says a lot of that money went to the interior designer, who got a lot of great insider discounts on products. Yeah, I bet her saved a ton of money on that.

I have to disagree. $41,000 is not the cost of a room where you shit. It is the cost of a room where you “Modestly go about the business of defication”.

$200 is the cost of a room where you shit.

At what point does he get to say no? I mean, he hasn’t spent the money yet, has he?

You know what? I don’t care where he is, I’ll fly out there and do the job myself for half that amount.

Yes, he has. He was paying as he went. Now that it’s done, he added it all up.

You don’t say what part of the country he lives. I’m a bath designer here in Santa Cruz, CA. To gut and replace a small (5’ x8’) bathroom starts at about $20,000. Most of the bath remodels I do average about $30-35,000. I bid out one yesterday for $41k. It was about 9’ x 12’. I start one next month that went over 80.

He’s in Santa Fe.

It surprises me that those are normal prices for you. How do they typically break down?

I just quoted a small bathroom yesterday that broke down this way:

Plumbing fixtures: $6,000
Vanity cabinet: $1000
Quartz countertop: $1200
Tile: $2000
Labor: $14,000

So you’re around $24,2000.

Plumbing fixtures typically include:
Jason tub (non-jetted
European Shower valve and trim
Quality shower head
Sink, faucet
Toilet (Toto)
Also included in plumbing is accessories:
Towel bar, hook, ring
Mirror
Decorative lighting
TP holder, etc

Obviously you can go to the local big box and get vanities for a couple of hundred dollars, but the ones we sell are very high quality and semi-custom.

Countertops are all over the place.

As is tile.

Labor includes:
Site prep (protective plastic, etc)
Demo, removal
Repairing any dry rot (a big problem here)
Framing (at tub)
Rough plumbing (including changing pipes to copper, install new shower valve, etc)
Rough electrical (we usually upgrading lighting plan, add vents, etc)
Tub install, vanity install
Tile labor - Floor, tub surround, tub skirt
Set new toilet
Install accessories
Drywall repair, texture, paint
Labor also includes new green board at tub surround and Hardi-backer on floor.

That makes a lot of sense. That sounds very much like the work my brother had done, and his bathroom is bigger. And at first your cost for labor looked outrageous, but if that’s your only work for three months, then it’s very reasonable.

Uh-huh. I hope she took him out to dinner first.

I think you mean the exchange rate. English doesn’t use “course” for this.

I’m not nitpicking, but this might make it clearer for people who don’t speak Dutch or German.

Ouch. We added a whole section onto our house (1 bedroom, 1 bathroom, dining area/entryway) and replaced the windows and siding on the rest of our house for 40 grand.