how much skill needed to gut and remodel a bathroom?

What was the contractor estimate again ?

 

full contractor bids were 17 to $28k.

i'm not so sure i would have ended up with a better product. i spent about $2700 getting some experts to do some of the work. elec, plumbing, etc...the rest of the $$ was my wife picking out higher end fixtures.

 

That's seems about right , generally it's about 1/2 and 1/2 labour and materials .

 

I hate too low shower heads. Big problem in older places, I see it a lot in older hotels. Good to see you got it done. Sounds like you did it right farming out some of it and taking on some yourself. Gives you the sweat investment, saves some money and the trickier stuff is still done right. As for the kitchen it's the most expensive room in the house so start saving up enough for a new Tacoma if you go all out.

 

just a lot of patience lol