Best and Worst Decisions

Our house has a two car garage about 14ft behind the house and we had a large Mud room/sunporch which connected the house to the garage, with a solid wall on the back adjacent to our laundry room and one door into the garage and another door and windows on the front where if faces the driveway.

Originally our house had two bathrooms, one for the master BR and the 2nd centrally located for the 2nd bedroom and communal areas of the house.

By profession I am a Master Plumber and you folks would not want to know the kind of icky smelly things I get into during my work day, especially when I have been working in a beef or chicken slaughter house for the day.

Across the front of that mudroom I built a low, enclosed parsons bench with a vinyl padded top where I could sit as soon and remove my boots as soon as I came in. The parsons bench has a hinged seat top and a galvanized pan in the bottom so as soon as I take my work boots off I can set them inside the seat, out of sight, and the pan catches any mud, snow or other stuff that might drip or fall off the boots.

I thne built a partition wall from the garage to the house so the mudroom was then about 6' wide, and on the back wall of the mud room I built 4 plywood cubicle type lockers with a shelf on top where I can hang up my coats, hats,hardhat or whatever in one and the other three are available for other ppl and they don't have to worry about their coat hanging against my funky work coat.

Immediately behind that partition wall I built a small 3/4 bath and I put a small closet in the bath, where I keep a couple pair of clean blue jeans and shirts to lounge around the house. The closet is only 4ft high so I built it up high and under that closet space I installed two drawers where we store extra TP, toiletries and all those miscellaneous bottles & cans of modern chemestry that we all keep in the bathroom,

But my absolute BEST feature came as an after thought. While working on the bathroom I realized that the back wall of the bathroom was adjacent to our laundry room. I then cut a 12x18" hole through that wall, framed it nice and installed a flapper door that is hinged from the top like the flapper door on a commercial waste basket and I put a laundry hamper under that door in the laundry room.

I can now come in all funky, hang my outer garments in the cubicle, sit down and pull my boots off, then step in the shower, and put on clean clothes, and just push the funky clothes through the flapper into the laundry instead of carrying that mess through the house.

Now I realize that my silly ideas don't have much snob appeal but it sure helps keep peace in the family.

In fairness, we have not yet moved into our remodeled house, but the things I am looking forward to or might have done differently:

1. Heat mat on our bathroom floor - Our bathroom is located in the NW corner of the house, and it's all tile. These got a big thumbs up on this site, and although extra $$$, I think it will be worth it.

2. Agree with Herring_Maven, we did the same and installed a Toto that has a washlet.

3. A separate water closet -- We re-did our layout to make this fit. This will make a huge difference as both my husband and I are often in the bathroom together getting ready.

4. Ensuring our vanity depth was at least 22 inches -- This countertop was the only space we have for items, so the depth was important.

5. I splurged on expensive fittings and mosaic tile -- Nice to haves, but I probably would not have spent this money if I were doing this again.

6. Window in shower area -- Up high, so I have no concerns about rot, etc. I think it will be nice to get some extra, natural light in this area.

Smartest things:

* Found the right contractor that I could afford and who would accommodate my wacky ideas
* Used Craigslist, eBay and thrift stores for the majority of my finishes
* RADIANT HEAT UNDER THE FLOOR TILES

Favorite things:
* Mother of pearl vanity counter top
* Clawfoot tub
* Shelving built into the attic door
* Wrought iron look shower door and cornices

I'm sure there will be more before I'm done so hopefully, this thread will stick around for a while. Can't wait until it's finally finished!!

2. Hand shower.

3. Comfort height toilet.

4. Taller vanity.

5. Sheet vinyl floor - so easy to clean (Can you tell I have a thing about cleaning? I have always thought the bathroom should be all concrete and you should be able to douse it in bleach and bring in a fire hose to clean the whole thing!)

Also, adding a shower stall to our ground floor (guest) bathroom. Besides giving guests (my parents when they are visiting) their own place to shower, it was invaluable when we reno'd our upstairs bathrooms (both were out of commission at the same time).

- glass shower surround. Absolutely key to making our small 8x8 bathroom feel much larger
- outlet in the cabinet for charging toothbrush/clarisonic
- raised vanity countertop to 34 inches
- pendants flanking the mirror instead of sconces (I feel like it helps draw your eye up, making the ceiling feel higher and the room bigger.
- Put in a tilting mirror and a hand shower (Kohler Flipside) on a sliding bar because my husband and I are over a foot apart in height so it works great for both of us
- And my absolute FAVORITE thing: The towel warmer. I even like it better than the heated floor.

In teen's bathroom - a shower light that switches on with the fan - so they have no choice but to turn that fan on when they shower. And a 60 min timer on that light/fan combo so it properly vents the bathroom (the timer has buttons for 60, 30, 20 and 10 I believe).

In general - beautiful lights!

Best, too-late for us advice, have TWO sensors installed. You only have to connect one to the timer/switch, but you will have a back-up if the first one ever fails. I don't know how often that happens, but the sensors are cheap enough and better to have it and not need it....simple thing to do.

When that tip was posted here, by stacyneil I think (after we had completed our reno's), DH kicked himself for not thinking of it while ours were being installed.

Ours were installed by our tile guy as well.

Does the heated floor warm up the room any?

- Additional blocking in the framing stage to accomodate grab bars, towel bars etc. Additional blocking being the slidebar of the shower also makes it sturdier to use as a grab bar.
- Kerdi board for waterproofing
- Heated wires throughout the floor including the shower area
- Tall niches with shelves sized to fit the costco sized bottles
- Tile that is not too slippery for the floor. Also used epoxy grout to make future maintenance easier.
- frameless shower doors - we did pay a couple hundred dollars extra for the really clear glass
- U-groove frameless
- One of the bathrooms is curbless to accomodate access issues. Has nice looking grab bars and a folding teak shower seat that is ADA rated to 400lbs.
- LED cans (california code)
- Elongated Toto skirted toilets with sanigloss to make the cleaning easier
- the special lutron switches where the fans stay on an extra 20 mins to clear all the steam. we used them with panasonic fans which are much much quieter than what we had in the past
- wall mounted heated towel rods
- hooks instead of towel bars.. I just preferred the more streamlined look of hooks
- plug outlets inside the vanity to charge things.
- wheeled laundry basket with divers to sort laundry has a niche to be tucked in.
- separate toilet stall with a door. We did not do comfort height as we are not overly tall people. Elongated toto toilets with an integrated skirt to make cleaning easier and a GFCI outlet to plug in a washlet.
- paper towel holder from Moen that doubles as a grab bar in the ADA bathroom.
- accomodated for daylight (skylight or a window) in both the bathrooms to help people to wake up in the morning.. I love the daylight.
- radio for listening in the morning. We are big public radio fans
- wall mounted lighted makeup mirror
- mirror defogger to prevent the mirror from getting steamed up..
- vac pan at the floor level that connects to our central vac system to make daily cleanups a breeze. I am picky about hair on the floor
- solid core doors to prevent bathroom noises from being heard outside. I often have to get ready before dawn and the shower noise wakes DH up.
- recirculating pump for our tankless to avoid warm water delays. Ours is integrated into the tankless.
- Hansgrohe ibox to get the thermostatic control to preset the preferred temprature
- Ebbe integrated drain that has a hidden hair snare.
- Handheld shower with a longer hose to make it easier to clean the walls.
- rain shower on a longer arm so that you can stand away from the wall.