Sarah Chastain and her husband did not set out to gut a bathroom. They set out to stop a smell. The odor in the master bathroom of their newly purchased home was strong enough to make the room a priority before they had even settled in. What followed was a full DIY bathroom remodel that consumed roughly six months, about $5,000 and a great deal of patience — and it began with a decision to tear everything out rather than patch what was already there.
Why the smell came first
The house had another bathroom upstairs, which gave the couple room to work slowly. That second bathroom became the practical reason the project could stretch across half a year without disrupting daily life. It also gave them time to think through how far the remodel should go.
Chastain said the smell alone was off-putting. That single issue pushed the master bathroom to the top of a renovation list that might otherwise have waited. Before moving in, the couple had to decide whether to keep the existing drywall and modify it or to demolish the room completely.
They debated the two approaches, and Chastain said they ultimately decided to start from scratch. Full demolition was the choice — a decision that would soon look prescient once the walls and floor came apart.
What was hiding under the tub
Removing the tub exposed a large hole that led outside. Chastain said they could not determine why the hole existed. The opening was not something the couple had planned for, and it was not visible during the initial walk-through.
The demolition also uncovered moisture damage. Chastain said moisture had caused significant mildew and mold between the cement and tile. The floor underneath, she said, was black. Those discoveries turned what might have been a cosmetic update into a more involved rebuild, and they validated the decision to take the room down to its bones.
Because the couple did all the work themselves, there was no outside help to hire and no crew to coordinate. The upside was control over cost and schedule. The downside was that every surprise, including the hole and the mold, landed on their own to-do list.
Six months, $5,000, no outside help
The project took about six months and cost about $5,000 in total. No outside help was hired. The couple handled the demolition, the reconstruction and the finishing work on their own, leaning on the upstairs bathroom to keep the household running while the master bath was out of commission.
The timeline was long by renovation standards, but the arrangement allowed them to work at a pace that fit around everything else. It also meant the budget could be managed piece by piece rather than spent all at once.
Opening up the layout
One of the most consequential changes had nothing to do with fixtures. The couple removed an enclosed toilet room, a change that opened the space and altered how the bathroom flows. They also replaced the 1980s overhead lights, swapping out dated illumination for something that fit the room’s new direction.
The result reads as a moody vintage bathroom rather than a builder-grade refresh. The changes were not limited to surface finishes; the room’s footprint and lighting plan both shifted.
A secondhand tub and a chandelier
The new tub was sourced secondhand. Chastain found a clawfoot tub on Craigslist, and it became one of the defining elements of the finished room. Above it, the couple installed a chandelier — an unexpected touch for a bathroom, and one that reinforces the vintage character of the space.
The tub area also came with a practical improvement: the new installation had no hole underneath it. Whatever had caused the original opening, the rebuilt floor and tub placement closed that chapter.
Vanities built from family wood
Chastain’s husband built matching vanities from scratch. The wood came from reclaimed lumber sourced from her father’s ranch, which gives the vanities a personal history that no store-bought piece could match. Chastain said the vanities exceeded her expectations.
Building them by hand was one of the more demanding parts of the project, but it also produced the most distinctive result. The reclaimed wood ties the room to family property and keeps the material story consistent with the secondhand tub and the vintage-inspired lighting.
Exhausting, enjoyable, and a lesson in patience
Looking back, Chastain described the project as exhausting but enjoyable. The couple learned a lot over the six months, and they said they look forward to the next project. That sentiment matters for anyone considering a similar undertaking: the work was hard, the discoveries were unwelcome, and the couple would still do it again.
For readers weighing a budget bathroom renovation, the Chastain project offers a clear set of takeaways. A severe odor can be a signal of deeper problems rather than a surface issue. Full demolition can be the faster route to a lasting fix when hidden damage is likely. A second bathroom makes a slow DIY timeline realistic. And a mix of secondhand finds, family materials and hands-on construction can produce a room that feels custom without a custom price.
The final cost landed around $5,000, the timeline around six months, and the work was entirely their own. The smell that started it all is gone, replaced by a clawfoot tub, a chandelier and vanities built from ranch wood — a bathroom that no longer needs to be avoided.
[…] A Smell, a Sledgehammer, and a $5,000 Bathroom Rebuild […]