My small bathroom renovation in one month with a $25k budget

The project

• Home owners: Rachel, Phil and Charlie
• Location: Newtown, NSW
• The project: Small bathroom renovation
• The budget: $25,000 (for reno and accommodation)
• Rachel’s top tip for renovators: “If you’re project managing it and hiring trades, create a run sheet and a WhatsApp group where you update everyone at once.”

Twenty years ago, for Handyman magazine, I wrote an article about renovating the old, ugly and dysfunctional bathroom in the terrace I’d just bought. It was my first time renovating, and I learned a lot watching a team of tradies transform the space (although I admit, three months of bucket baths in the backyard took its toll!)

Fast forward to 2025: that bathroom now had water damage and mould that couldn’t be fixed. And when I could push the tiles in with my finger in places, I knew it was time to rip it out and renovate. Again.

The challenge was, we had a small budget and a tight deadline. Eeek!

The plan

Our house only has one bathroom, so we had to decamp to a nearby Airbnb and factor the cost into our budget. We could only get a booking for under a month, so I flagged the timeframe with tradies. We gathered quotes, hired the trades we needed and put them all into a WhatsApp group. In the group, I posted a run-sheet with dates, letting each tradie know when they’d be required. It was a control freak move I hoped would pay off!

As the reno loomed, my handyman Adrian helped me sketch and plan the new bathroom. Once I had dimensions, I went shopping – for tiles, vanity, shower fixtures and a mirrored cabinet. We got lots of materials from Bunnings too – the sliding door, the recessed shower niche shelves, waterproofing products, cornices and LED lights.

The build

Week 1
Demolition! Everything went in the skip that we couldn’t re-purpose, including mouldy gyprock, mirror, sink, wooden shelves and the broken bifold door. Adrian tackled the water damage and cleared out huge ant and cockroach nests behind the wall (thankfully, I wasn’t on site that day). The plumber also came to do initial plumbing.

Week 2
This was all about the foundation: timber work, battens, creating a cavity for the new sliding door. The walls were re-cladded and the wet area was waterproofed.

Week 3
Ongoing rain caused a few delays, mainly with waterproofing – it has to be bone dry to start tiling. Because tradies fit so many jobs in, you don’t want them to turn around and say, “I can’t come now for another week”, but luckily our tiler was flexible.

Week 4
The tradies only had three days before we moved home to finalise the plumbing, hang the vanity and cabinet, install the shower screen, lights and exhaust fan. Living with tradies as they wrapped up last-minute jobs – that’s renovating in a nutshell! But before long, our brand new bathroom was ready for that first shower.

The hiccups

Anyone who’s renovated knows to expect the unexpected. For me, I worried there’d be more water damage, but that was easily fixed. The only other issues were niggles – like having to buy extra time for the waterproofing to dry.

We also discovered right at the end that the custom pipework for the vanity hadn’t been delivered and I had to race to get a replacement to keep us on track. Luckily the plumber stuck around and finished the job the same afternoon.

The budget

If you’ve got water damage or other ‘unknowns’, quotes may be high, because trades won’t know what they’re dealing with. The quotes we received ranged between $45,000 and $60,000 – which wasn’t doable for our budget. So, with the previous reno knowledge I had, I decided to D.I.Y. where possible, hire tradies I trusted and project manage it myself.

Here were the costs:

• Demolition, timber work, cladding, waterproofing, waste disposal – $9500
• Plumbing – $2900
• Tiling – $3500
• Electricity – $960
• Vanity, tiles, mirrored cabinet, shower screen, fixtures, other materials – $4500

Renovation cost: $21,360
Accommodation cost: $5800
Total cost: $27,160

We were slightly over budget – thanks to having to pay for accommodation – but, if you have a second bathroom and can avoid moving out, then a bathroom reno for just over $20,000 is, in my opinion, a bargain compared with some of the earlier quotes I received.

The final result

It’s gorgeous! The dark mocha mosaics are gone, and the vertical white wall tiles and flecked terrazzo floor makes the whole bathroom look bigger and brighter. It also feels more spacious thanks to the new sliding door.

I also love the extra storage. Two recessed niches in the shower hold all our products. The huge mirrored cabinet conceals everything from toothbrushes to medication. I was glad to say goodbye to the open timber shelving I had before and embrace a new vanity with deep drawers. It’s much easier to store everything and keep the bathroom tidy.

Rachel’s top reno tips

Have everything ready to go
I made sure all the materials, fittings and tiles were purchased and delivered before we started. It saved time and money and made it easier to lock tradies in for specific dates, which kept the project moving along.

Check all heights
In our old bathroom, the sink was installed far too high. This time around, I checked obsessively. If you get it wrong, these are the kind of details that can annoy you for years.

Choose easy-to-clean solutions
I chose brushed nickel shower fixtures, which don’t show up water droplets. The terrazzo floor tile we chose was also preferable – high gloss tiles show dirt and smudges more easily, which means more mopping!

Decide where to save and splurge
I saved on the vanity and mirrored cabinet and splurged on bathroom fixtures and tiles. It’s only a small space, but it looks more luxe and will stand the test of time compared to cheaper options.