A shower in the middle of the room

Most bathroom layouts have a bad corner. This one had a bad center. A glass block shower stood mid-room with framing and a soffit built over it, the tub sat where the vanity belonged, and the vent fan switch lived nowhere near the other switches. The vanity itself was in good shape. It was simply in the wrong spot, and everything plumbed around it followed the same broken logic. We see this pattern often in bathroom remodeling in Ann Arbor: the finishes look tired, but the real problem is routing. Water lines, wiring and walking paths all sit where a builder left them decades ago.

The kitchen had its own list. Four hanging lights did all the work in a room with a vaulted, beamed ceiling that deserved better. The cabinets and countertop dated the space, the flooring was worn through the kitchen, dining room and pantry, and the electrical panel had no capacity left for what a working kitchen asks of it. Washtenaw County houses reward this kind of correction because the bones are usually worth it, and this house has very good bones: exposed beams, wood plank accents and porthole windows high on the kitchen walls.

One thing the owners were clear about from the first walkthrough: no beige reset. The palette in these photos is theirs, picked on purpose, and it runs through both rooms and the trim between them. Our job in kitchen remodeling in Ann Arbor is the part behind the paint. That is where this budget went, and our kitchen remodel cost calculator shows why routing changes, not finishes, drive the number when a project reaches this scope.

What a kitchen and bathroom remodel in Ann Arbor should fix first

Preconstruction came before demolition. Two plans were drawn in-house, one per room, with no architect required, and permits and inspections ran through the city while selections were finalized. Then demo opened both rooms at once: every square foot of tile out of the bathroom, the glass block shower and the framing above it removed, all kitchen cabinets and the countertop pulled, and the old flooring lifted from three rooms. The one thing demo protected was the vanity, set aside in good condition for reuse. That decision alone is a fair preview of how Wright’s runs a job: nobody sells you a cabinet you already own.

The bathroom, reorganized around the tub

The new plan swapped the vanity and the tub. That meant moving most of the drain and supply lines, removing the old shower lines entirely, and reframing where the soffit came out above the shower. A freestanding soaking tub and surround went in against the window wall, the saved vanity was reinstalled where the old tub sat, and new GFCI outlets landed beside it. The vent fan switch moved next to the door with the rest of the switches, and the existing lights went on dimmers. It is the kind of bathroom design change that reads as obvious afterward, which is the point. Grab bars at the tub and a handheld shower head keep the room usable for every decade the owners plan to stay, the quiet version of the accessibility modifications we build into many Washtenaw bathrooms.

The kitchen, rewired before it was refinished

Electrical capacity came first: a new sub-panel on the existing service, then four canless black-trim LED wafer lights in place of the pendants, under-cabinet lighting over the dishwashing area, a fixture over the back door and a new overhead fan. A hookup for the electric oven and range went into the peninsula, so the cooktop faces the room instead of a wall. New maple shaker cabinets were set and leveled on a $15,750 cabinet allowance, counters were templated and installed by our stone subcontractor, and floating vinyl plank flooring ran continuously through the kitchen, dining room and pantry. Our kitchen remodeling service treats lighting and circuits as part of the design, not an afterthought, because paint cannot fix a dark room.

The back entrance got the finishing touch: built-in cubbies for shoes and a row of coat hooks, a small version of the mudroom storage builds we do as standalone projects. The microwave and refrigerator were reinstalled once counters were in.

How it turned out

Both rooms now work the way the owners live. The bathroom has one clear path, a tub under the window and switches where hands expect them. The kitchen holds light at night, the panel has room to grow, and the teapot collection finally has a stage on top of the new uppers. The green is theirs. The straight tile lines, level cabinet runs and code-clean wiring behind it are ours.

While the crew was on site, two rusting jack posts in the basement were replaced with new adjustable steel posts. Not glamorous, but structure rarely is, and it spared the owners a second mobilization. If your lower level needs more than posts, our basement refinishing in Ann Arbor page shows what a full lower-level project looks like.

Every project here follows the same rule: the client reads the same line items we build from. Our bathroom remodels and kitchen projects across Ann Arbor all start from a proposal a homeowner can audit at the kitchen table.

The scope, line by line

Four phases, priced in the approved proposal before work began. Final invoices reconcile against these numbers, and changes happen only by signed change order.