I agree that modern toilets are better. I’ve been meaning the replace the toilet in the guest bedroom (it’s the house’s original master bedroom, and has it’s own bathroom) with a modern low-flow toilet because they work better.
I was talked into a higher toilet last time we bought a new one, and I had mixed feelings about it. But after buying a Squatty Potty stool, I’m happy with it. The stool is designed to tuck under the toilet when not in use, and takes very little space. There are non-name things that are exactly the same and cost less, but I didn’t know about them at the time.
Yeah, linear drains! Love those.
One thing I hate about our current bathroom: the floor tiles are pristine, smooth and white…don’t do that! If so much as an eyelash falls in there, the bathroom looks dirty, and god forbid you should step on those tiles with a wet foot. You *will *be hurt.
I came in here to say that the best thing I ever installed in a bathroom was a laundry chute; if the laundy is below the bathroom this is a time and back saver.
You might also consider a floor drain if the bath or laundry room is on an upper floor.
In the event you have a water overflow problem like say a pipe blowing you wont come home to find water all over the house. The water will (or at least should) safely drain away. Same with laundry rooms on upper floors.
Also if you have a sink installed in a cabinet. Put some sort of pan under the piping. Eventually some water will leak from them which will lead to water damage of the wooden cabinets. Hopefully the pan will catch the water.
Finally have external water shut offs for just that bathroom. So one valve to shut off that baths cold water, one for the hot. Otherwise you end up having to shut off the water for the whole house just because you have a leaky sink.
In my parents’ house, the shut-off valves are this type, with an oblong knob you have to turn several rotations to shut or open. That’s not easy, particularly if it’s been a while since the valve was exercised. If possible, I’d prefer the ball valve type, which requires only one-quarter turn to shut off. And the handle gives you more leverage.
Now, I have no idea what I’m talking about and there may be a reason, aside from cost, that ball valves aren’t used in residential water supply lines.
Also, make sure the tiles are non-slippery, especially when wet.
Also make sure that the grouting of bathroom tiles makes for a level surface. many tiles nowaways have sharp edges, and if the grout leaves small grooves in between the tiles, water and dirt gets in there.
Just found out that my sewer line needs to be replaced, and that’ll eat up not only the bathroom budget, but also the yard budget, the kitchen budget, and a few other budgets we hadn’t even budgeted for yet.
I have another company coming out for their evaluation and estimate this morning, and I’ll get at least one more this week. Company #1 wants to remove and replace all of my tile (70’) even though the real problem doesn’t start until 40’ from the house.
I’m wondering if replacing the end with the problem and seeing about re-lining the first 40’ is an option. They’ll have access to both ends, anyway. We’ll see!
Oh, that’s a bummer, Sicks Ate. Doesn’t your home insurance pay for the sewer repairs? Mine did. Not my insurance for my stuff, but the one for my house.
In unrelated news, I found out tile stickers exist.
Well, lots of discussion about the situation in this thread, but long story short it’s not nearly as bad as the original company made it out to be.
In fact, each time I had someone come out for a second opinion/estimate, the outlook got rosier and rosier. End result is no repair is needed. Thank goodness for second opinions and anxiety and depression meds :eek:
We didn’t get quite as much out of our refi as the bank thought we would initially, so we may not be able to go ALL OUT, but I can pull off something pretty nice anyway.
When that happens remains to be seen, though, since putting a dishwasher in the kitchen has bumped up the priority list above the bath.
Assuming you are still considering this, here are my two cents:
Two electronic things that I don’t have budget for are:
-One of those fancy Japanese toilet seats. My friend has one that has a butt warmer, a bidet and a hot air drier. Not for me, but pretty fancy!
-A ‘smart mirror’. I’ve seen ones with TV, weather, music, internet, etc. They’re screens that install in the wall behind the mirror. You don’t see them unless you turn them on and then they take up a small space in the mirror. They seem pretty easy to set up and are really cool.
Re: rain shower heads. Make sure this is not your only shower head. Men seem to like these a lot, but a lot of women don’t after they’ve used them, because it’s *years *to rinse the shampoo out of your hair with a rain shower. I
In a small bath space planning is critical. When we remodeled our bath, our contractor moved the toilet over 4 inches and turned the storage cabinet next to it 90 degrees (also made it shallower, which was great because the original configuration was deep enough that things would get lost in the back). Huge difference when you don’t bang your elbow on the wall sitting down on the toilet. He also expanded the shower about five inches. Small amount, but, again, makes a difference.
We started today on a minor remodel of our guest bathroom. Wish me luck, y’all!
In this bathroom, we are replacing the (orange formica) vanity, adding another sink, filling in the tiles beneath the vanity, removing the lighting soffit, and removing the wallpaper. If all that goes well, we’ll re-do the master bath, which will be a gut job.
I didn’t take a before photo, how about a during? We thought the eighties era pastel wallpaper was ugly, but check what was under it. Ermagehrd.
Keep us updated, we’ve bumped adding a dishwasher to the kitchen above the bathroom on the prority list. So that will happen maybe winter.
Maybe I’ll post some pics of that, too. I’m finishing up rewiring my house this month by replacing my main panel, so I also want to try to get a time - lapse video of the replacement to share on my thread about the project I started a couple years ago.
Well, our bathroom remodel is moving right along! I did find some before pictures, should anyone wish to marvel at orange formica or wallpaper from the days of Miami Vice.
In the last few weeks, the contractor has taken down that lighting soffit, filled in the missing floor tiles, done some plumbing, rewiring, drywall, etc. We’re finally getting to some of the fun stuff, with the installation of the cabinets (dark blue to match the shower tile we aren’t going to replace). Still a ways to go, but I fear I may be painting this weekend!
Ah, yes - the French Provincial fad. Where every roll of wallpaper had a teeny-tiny something repeated with large spaces between.
At one estate sale I went to, the teeny-tiny something was a bicycle.
And then there was the local grocery chain that redid all their store brands to have a french provincial design… with a grocery cart for the teeny-tiny dot.
Someone in my house was a mad wall-texturer - every room in the house has a different style of wall texture. I redid the master bath when I moved in, where they had laid an inch of wall texturing down then swooped around with a trowel. I scraped that down to a sort of rustic flat wall. But in one tiny corner under the sink next to the door I found a scrap of the original wallpaper