When we interviewed people for our Real People, Real Remodels section, we received a great deal of interesting and insightful information about bathroom remodeling. But as with all articles, we couldn’t include every last quote from our remodeling subjects. So here are some of our favorite “deleted scenes” from the interviews we conducted. This Q&A was with Lori Borill. Read her entire story here.

What were the biggest sacrifices you had to make to stay within your budget? We learned from our last bathroom remodel (which cost us over $7,000) that things snowball. Replace one thing, and something else doesn’t look right, so you replace that which throws off something else. In order to bring continuity back to the room, you almost end up replacing everything. We learned that the first time, so this time we were cautious about the changes we made. I would have liked to replace the vanity, and new ones can be purchased very reasonably. However, the only light in the bathroom is centered on the wall, not over the sink. Replacing the existing vanity, which currently stretches over the toilet, would have put the light off center. We would have had to move the light, which would mean repairing the textured wall. Then the mirror would have been out of place, so that would have had to go. Those are the kinds of things you need to think about before deciding to make a change. Not just how nice the new item will look or how little it might cost, but how that new item might impact things you’d planned to leave alone.

Your new floor tile was faux stone, but what material was the tile itself? Were you happy with this material's ability to mimic the look of natural stone? Thrilled. They’re simply linoleum tiles with adhesive backing, and as long as they’re placed tightly together, you have to look twice to realize it’s not stone. My recommendation, though, is to go with a thick quality tile. I’d used thinner linoleum tiles on another project several years ago, and I had problems with them curling up at the corners. I didn’t have that problem with these thicker tiles. They’re harder to cut, but in the end, they’re much sturdier and the result was much better.

What is the one thing about your remodel that you would do over if given the opportunity? The only real mistake made was when I trimmed the mirror.  We’d bought picture frame molding from the home improvement store, and instead of replacing the mirror, simply framed the existing one. But when I painted the trim, I didn’t paint the back, not realizing that the back would reflect in the mirror. It looked horrible, and because the trim is what supports the heavy mirror on the wall, I’d already screwed it to the studs and puttied the holes before noticing the result.  Luckily, there was a tiny gap wide enough for me to fit a small paintbrush into, so I went around and touched it up. It ended up fine in the end, but I would have saved myself hours of hassle if I’d just known to paint the back!