The Remodel: random bathroom thoughts

Wow, y'all have great ideas! Thank you for joining in!! Here's the bathroom skinny so far. The house has 1 3/4 baths, with the toilet/shower/sink bath being off the master bedroom. The full bath is the "main bath". It's in the hallway amidst the bedrooms, and we started with the main bath just because it had a tub - we'd rather wrangle kids in the tub than the shower. (It also turned out to be far less structurally damaged than the other bath, thankfully.)

It was a small bathroom (5'x8'). When the door was open, it cleared the toilet by less than an inch (never open that door if someone might be sitting!!) The vanity was just to the left of the door (the 5' is the depth as you look in, and the 8' was the width). The vanity took up all the space from the wall to the door jamb, front-to-back, side-to-side ~ a vast expanse of counter with one lone sink in the middle. The toilet was *right there* to the right of it, in front of the door. The tub was hidden behind the door when the door was open, and the tub spanned the width of the bath on the far right-hand side. That was it. Step in, scootch one hiney cheek onto the vanity counter so you can shut the door, and then step into the tub. Small, compact, and considering everything (except for the rot and such) pretty efficiently laid out for the space constraints.

What we've done/are doing now:
1) That door? Gone. Putting in a pocket door so we don't hog space in the bath or seal off the hallway. Yay!

2) Everything else is gone, down to the joists and studs now. The back wall to the right, which housed the back of the tub, was removed and a new one built a foot farther out. That took a foot from the fourth bedroom, but eh, we'll use the bathroom more often than a fourth bedroom. No regrets, there.

3) The 24" deep, single sink laminate vanity will be replaced by a 22" deep marble twin sink vanity. We'll have to shave a half inch off the ends of the top to make it fit in the 5' space, but that's better than going with one sink instead of the two we'd really like (there'll be a lot of people at the sink every day for the next umpteen years). To get a double sink in a solid surface counter that isn't custom made *cha-ching*, it has to be just a hair over 60", minimum. We're shaving the hairs off right at 60", so we're getting creative. This will give us just a bit more cubic space at the entrance, double sinks, a solid surface counter, and I can get a stock 60" vanity cabinet to put in there. WOOHOO!

4) Toilet. Well, it's a toilet. I know there are myriad options, but this isn't one I wanted to wrestle. It's going to catch urine. The urine of four teenaged boys. And their friends. We went with the one-piece toilet, for obvious reasons. :-)

5) Bathtub/shower. I started with the standard, "what'll fit in there that's in stock?" approach. Zorak, however, had other plans. I like his plans much better than mine. I do love a bath. I do love a deep bath wherein I don't have to roll from side to side to keep warm. Bless him for thinking of that. We'll use the tub/shower combo daily. It's a good investment. And there's already a second shower via the master bath, which is going to get the whomperdine Tuscan Villa Resort treatment in the spring sometime. *cheesy grin*

6) Flooring. It was molded (as in green, not decorative) vinyl over rotted MDF. Lovely, cushiony sensation to walk on, but not much to look at. Not terribly inspiring for those with a chronic fear of falling through the floor, either. We have to jack the floor up about 1/2" over the next few days (another surprise, but not too bad - we'll work in the kitchen while the house is getting it's, erm, tummy tuck). When that's done, we'll put in tile flooring.

*decadent sigh* This is so. much. fun. hee hee. Although, honestly, I much prefer the planning over the shopping. Ugh. Too many faucet choices. Too many things to consider that I didn't ever think about considering (and would rather not start now, but there's that whole "matching accessories" thing going on in there...) However, when you find the CSR at Home Depot or Lowe's who really enjoys the projects and his area of expertise, it's quite painless.

Oh, Lighting. Lighting has me a bit stumped. I think we'll go with a sealed, recessed canister light in the ceiling over the bath/toilet area. And I'd prefer to do the side-lighting on the vanity than the glaring overhead circus bulbs we've always lived with. However, with such a span, I'm not sure if maybe we'll need lighting in the middle, too? I don't. It's tempting to buy eight dozen of those round touch lamps and hook 'em all up to The Clapper or something. Something that doesn't require more shopping in order to plan. *grin*

Anyhow, that's the thing on the bathroom. It's not "This Old House" quality remodeling, I'm sure. But it's ours. And it's safe now. Y-a-y.

(Patty, the back deck is a prime spot for a hot tub!! It's not in the immediate future, but it's on the map, definitely! Mmmm, that sounds so heavenly right now...)

Thank you for sharing your great ideas and suggestions and - as always - cute stories. This is a fun phase in our life right now, but it's exhausting. So it's nice to come home at the end of the day, plop down with a cup of coffee and enjoy being greeted by your comments and emails. Thanks!

Kiss those babies!
~Dy