The leaks were noticeable and the bathroom was plagued with mildew.
Armed with little more than basic knowledge of home-improvement skills, Mike Webb tore down a wall of his master bathroom in search of the leak.
He found it. Then Mike and his wife, Donna, opted to tear down the remaining three walls and remodel the bathroom.
By themselves.
The Chanceford Township couple estimates they saved roughly $10,000 in labor by tackling their own renovations.
Six weeks after starting the project, the Webbs had invested about $3,000 in materials and tools, all bought at Home Depot and Harbor Freight Tools, Donna said.
"Now," she said, "they know us by our first names at Home Depot."
While Mike was tearing down the wall, Donna consulted design magazines and home-improvement shows for ideas.
They liked the look of the pedestal sink and wanted to rid the bathroom of its bulky medicine cabinet above the vanity.
They didn't have a budget, but they knew the materials they wanted to use wouldn't be the most inexpensive, Donna said.
Rather than take out a home equity loan, a type of second mortgage often used by homeowners to fund improvement projects, the Webbs applied for a Home Depot credit card that offered interest-free purchases for a specific period of time.
After the leak had been fixed, the next task was to find a material that had a better record of resisting mildew than Sheetrock walls.
The couple settled on ceramic
"It's a lot easier to keep clean," Donna said.
Once the Sheetrock had been pulled from the walls, Mike installed backer cement board, a material strong enough to support the weight of the tile.
The Webbs did away with their one-piece fiberglass stall shower and opted for a bigger shower.
"That's mainly my husband's bathroom and he wanted a bigger stall," Donna said. "The only way we could do it was to use tile, we couldn't get a bigger one-piece stall through the doorway."
After watching a home-improvement show, Mike installed a bench in the larger stall using cut pieces of backer board, she said.
In addition to new walls and floor, the Webbs positioned a pedestal sink and ripped out the bathroom's medicine chest.
In its place, Mike hung a framed mirror that sits flush against the wall.
The project took six weeks of evenings and weekends to complete, Donna said. What's next?
With the master bathroom complete, the Webbs have started to renovate their guest bathroom with ceramic tile.
However, the couple opted to keep the tub and ordered a $245 Mexican Sand-colored toilet so all the fixtures would match.
A new vanity will round out the four-week guest bathroom project, Donna said.
Since February, the Webbs have tackled other improvement projects throughout the house such as the installation of hardwood floors in the bedrooms and hallways, windows and overhead lights.
sadkins@ydr.com; 771-2047
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