Bathroom Redo - Science Experiment to Pristine Clean for Around $400

KrysFL
by KrysFL
I love my house... but I HATED the master bath. The tile was an ugly matte grey and the glass doors were dated and hideous. I honestly do not think the previous owners ever cleaned it either. My hubs hated the outdated tile as well so our initial thought was that we would replace it. However, the quotes we received were over $5000 - cant afford that.
So I decided I would just make it work. But no matter how hard I scrubbed, what chemicals I used or how many curse words I said - I could not get the 20 years of grime off of the shower doors (and we have super hard water so you can imagine the disgusting buildup)!
I decided it might be easier for me to take off the shower doors and clean them outside (what did I have to lose at this point) but when I did I was nauseous over how disgusting everything really was. I called in the hubs and we decided that yep - something has to give.
So that's when I suggested we at least replace the glass door. Hubs agreed and off to Lowe's we went.

Here is what I did:
Remove old door and caulk.
Cleaned EVERYTHING with Comet Bathroom Spray (this stuff is awesome). $4
Sealed all the tile with 511 Impregnator Sealer (Home Depot) $35
Installed new Sterling (by Kohler) door $355
Applied Silicone around the door frame and any places in shower that needed it $6
Installed shelf above toilet (already had it)

$400 investment

I was shocked at how AMAZING it looks just by doing the little things I did!! In fact, the gray tile doesn't bother me at all now and the new door makes it look completely upgraded. I am so glad we decided to do this "small" upgrade saving us thousands on a tile job.

What do you think?
New Shower door... notice the clean paint lines? :)
Soap scum and scale galore!
See the one clean spot? That was using a rotary scrub brush for about 10 minutes... and its still not completely clean! ugh!
So yea, this is what was living in our shower. Actually, this is after cleaning it. Apparently the black stuff is aluminum rust. The track as very pitted and etched so really there was no way to clean it to my standards.
So this is what was in the center of the track... the part under the doors that's impossible to reach/clean. YUCK!!!
The other side... just as bad :(
Doors removed... see the white scale on the bottom tiles? Yea, no matter what I did I could not get that off until I used the Comet Spray.
Pet Peeve #632 - uneven paint lines/paint on tiles... this was cleaned up finally.
Just in case you were wondering... this is the original paint, trim colors. We actually painted it before we moved in though so I didn't count those costs into the $400.
Before we moved in...
New shower door! YAY! It was so super easy to install.. we drilled a couple holes to match our existing ones (easier than drilling new holes in the tile) and used a hacksaw to trim the top and bottom pieces.
New door... hard to even notice the outdated tile now.
LOOK! NO RUST, MILDEW, CALCIUM, SOAP GRIME AND HARD WATER STAINS!! YAY!!! :)
Comet Bathroom Spray is awesome!! Look how shiny the metal is and how white the grout looks now.
Impromptu plant (I took them out of other arrangements I had around the house. Installed on a shelf I had laying around that didn't fit in our other bathroom.
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