A Historic Saint Paul Bathroom and Laundry, Reworked Within Its Own Footprint
When a 1911 Saint Paul Craftsman came to us with a cramped, dated second-floor bathroom and an awkward laundry crammed into the hallway beside it, the goal was not to add square footage — it was to make the space they already had work far harder. We remodeled the bathroom and reconfigured the adjacent laundry and hall entirely within the home’s existing footprint: better access to the laundry, a more comfortable bathroom layout, and finishes detailed so the result looks like it has always belonged in a century-old home.
The home
The house is a 1911 Saint Paul Craftsman — three finished stories over a full basement, with the kind of original detail that makes these homes worth protecting. Directly below the bathroom sits a dining room with five-foot stained wainscoting, a wood-wrapped coffered ceiling, and an attached butler’s pantry. Preserving those finishes was non-negotiable and shaped almost every decision upstairs.
The project
This was a second-floor hall bathroom remodel paired with a reconfiguration of the laundry area and hallway. Originally the laundry was a long, narrow, windowless space with stacked machines that read more like a corridor than a room, and the bathroom beside it was tight — minimal clearance between the toilet and tub, little vanity storage, dated fixtures, and a long wait for hot water given its distance from the basement mechanicals. We kept every function inside the existing footprint and re-planned how the rooms worked together.
What it cost
Prima prices a project for the value it delivers, not by the square foot. The project costs $85-95K
What drove the cost — and what is included
The investment in a project like this goes into the things you cannot see as much as the things you can: relocating plumbing fixtures in a home where the rooms below could not be disturbed, removing and rethinking the heat, building up the structure for a flat and durable floor, and finishing the room with trim and materials detailed to match the original house rather than fight it.
Timeline
The work was carried out in 2023, with tile going in around mid-summer. The project took roughly seven weeks.
Living through it
A single-bathroom remodel means that bathroom is out of service for the duration, so planning around the household’s daily routine is part of the job. The family had another bathroom available and stayed in the home during construction
What the old house threw at us
The biggest constraint was what sat directly below the bathroom. Because the dining room’s stained wainscoting and coffered ceiling had to be preserved, dropping a soffit to route new plumbing was off the table. Before committing to a new toilet location, we cut exploratory openings in the laundry floor — finished at the time only in sheet vinyl — to confirm the direction of the floor joists and the location of the main stack. With that confirmed, our plumber could place the relocated fixtures without touching the finishes in the rooms below. We also removed the large cast-iron radiator under the window, which had been consuming valuable floor space in an already-small room.
Selections and craft
A remodel in a historic home should feel like it grew there. We matched the tall stained wood baseboards found in the adjacent hallway and throughout the house, replicated the existing window trim profiles, and laid a marble mosaic floor to bring a level of craft and permanence in keeping with the home’s character. For heat, we paired a thermostatically controlled electric baseboard with electric in-floor heat beneath the tile. We never rely on in-floor heat alone — once tile is set it is no longer easy to service, so the in-floor system is a comfort layer while the baseboard does the dependable everyday work.
The outcome
The finished bathroom and laundry pack a surprising amount of function into a small footprint while looking like they have always been part of the house. The best measure of the result: the homeowners later hired us to remodel their kitchen as well — a vote of confidence that means more to us than any review.
Frequently asked questions
What does a bathroom remodel like this cost? Prima prices by the value delivered rather than by the square foot. $85,000–$95,000
How long did it take? The work was completed in 2023, with tile set around mid-summer. 7 weeks.
Can you remodel a second-floor bathroom without disturbing the rooms below? Often, yes — but it takes planning. Here we confirmed joist direction and the main stack with exploratory openings before relocating any fixtures, specifically so we could preserve the coffered ceiling and wainscoting in the dining room directly below.
What happens to the heat when you remove an old radiator? We replaced the cast-iron radiator with a thermostatically controlled electric baseboard plus electric in-floor heat under the tile — the baseboard provides reliable everyday heat while the in-floor system adds comfort underfoot.
— Prima Construction
