Bathroom Renos

So we are in the middle of thinking about redoing our bathroom.  We had a few quotes, and none of them had us smiling. In fact, we just felt like we kept seeing more red.  our first quote was 9,000, and the last quote came in at 13K, and that was before we look at the actual fixtures and tiles we still need to buy.  We were extremely deflated.  Our dreams of redoing it for 5K were slashed like a fresh baguette being prepped for a sandwich. 

So we are starting over and rethinking.  Do we really need inlets in the shower?  Or would shelves suffice?  Do we need the built in shelving in the wall, or would do-it-yourself IKEA type shelves work?  Could we live with the shower tile?  Maybe just new floor tile and some great paint instead? 

Then we decided to price it all out.  Instead of looking at the quote and then having to add on fixtures, we are going to find the fixtures first, "purchase" if only by saving enough to have already "paid" for them come the time we want to redo everything, and the go from there.  This includes pricing out tile we want from stores like Century Tile, HOBO, Tile Outlet; bathroom fixtures from Kohler, Ikea, The Bathroom Outlet, etc; shelving from IKEA, Bed Bath & Beyond, and paint colors from Sherwin Williams.  Once all that is done and priced out, then we can look at redoing the bathroom with the things we actually need, versus those we have on our big wishlist. 

That's not to say that our absolute perfect bathroom wouldn't pull out all the bells and whistles, but without an inside man to give us "cost" pricing, as opposed to profit pricing, we may have to pull back on the extras and just stick with the basics.  Everyone knows the kitchen and the bath sell a house, so as long as it's gorgeous and beautiful, it may not need to be our perfect to still work.

What bathroom ideas have you rethought and how have they worked out?