(MONEY Magazine) – JOHN HANSON BOUGHT HIS 1½-story bungalow in Minneapolis on April Fool's Day in 1994. That was fitting: The 1926 house had all of its original detail, but like some sort of cruel decor joke, a badly constructed bathroom-dormer addition had been slapped on the second story in the 1980s. When the poorly ventilated bath caused the attic to rot last year, leaving the cramped room with exposed drywall, crumbling tile and damaged floorboards, Hanson decided to update and enlarge it and the rest of his 1,400-square-foot house. Though he lived out of the first-floor bedroom during the 4½ months of demolition and construction, the downstairs bath has only a tub. So Hanson rigged a garden hose to a faucet in the basement for short showers. That comical (and cold) situation is a mere memory now that there's a multispray shower to enjoy in the painstakingly replicated period-style bath of Hanson's expanded 1,570-square-foot house.

Seems like old times Duplicating the look of a 1926-era bath was easy, thanks to the first-floor original. Buying tiles ($2,900) online at subwaytile.com saved the owner about $200. Another Web purchase, a Rejuvenation medicine cabinet ($456), mirrors the downstairs model. The windowed shower has a ceiling-mounted Rohl rain head ($504) and a wall-mounted Kohler showerhead ($186). Seven feet of custom cabinetry ($3,750) provide plenty of storage.

THE NUMBERS

BOUGHT IN 1994 FOR

$119K

RENOVATION COSTS

$139K

WHERE DID IT GO? Besides the bathroom addition (which cost $50,000), a study and mudroom were added along with a finished basement, and the staircase was rebuilt.

MARKET VALUE TODAY

$438K

WORTH IT? "I've seen lots of cookie-cutter redos, and this isn't one," says local realtor William Thompson. Without the renovations? Lop $100,000 off that new valuation.