Ideal bathroom?

[KimJ]

@KimJ The floor that got replaced was tile and I never thought it was cold. The floor in there now was put in 6 years before I redid the bathroom and I think it is a viny tilel. The previous tiles were 2" square (on a mesh) and had grout in between them. After 40 some years, those were nasty looking in some places (like behind the toilet where it was hard to get to to clean). So I went with a larger size vinyl? tile. I kept that when I redid the bathroom 5 years ago since they were still in good shape.

As far as the counter... I'm only 5' tall. I could rest my boobs on the counter when I'm leaning over the sink to brush my teeth or wash my face if I wanted. LOL

LOL at your comment on the counter height! I wonder if tile being on a slab foundation makes a difference? I am also anti-grout after spending way too many hours trying to clean our current shower, and I don't want to translate that to the floor. The hardness of tile also bothers me. I just don't like the feel. Vinyl tile might be an option. I will probably end up going to the showroom at my contractor's preferred flooring place and see what they have available to see if that helps me decide.

We are wanting to remodel our bathroom to accommodate my changing needs with my chronic back pain and the intermittent issues with my legs not wanting to work.

My mom fell 3 weeks ago and fractured her right knee. She has a walk in shower with a short lip but even that is difficult to maneuver right now with a wheelchair or a walker. So Jay and I have been talking and I would love to have the zero entry shower. That way no matter what happens in the future, I will be able to have full access to a shower. I get really cranky if I can't be clean.

So sorry about your and your mom's health issues, Cheryl. ((((hugs)))) Even though we don't have any problems yet, the worry of future accessibility is a concern/consideration for me too.

I’ll try to attach a photo of the faucet that’s open on top. I don’t know how else to explain it haha the water comes out like a waterfall which is pretty but our hard water deposits are not pretty.

Oh, now that you say waterfall, I get what you mean. We have bad hard water here as well. I can see where it would be an extra nuisance with that type of faucet.

I dream of having a seat or step that I can use when I shave my legs. Currently I have to balance on one leg. Blargh! ...

Kim, have you ever heard of Houzz? They have piles and piles of photos of any time of house renovation you could dream up. It's super handy to browse through for ideas!

I lean my back against the wall now and just lift my leg to shave. It became much more challenging after I slipped on the ice in February and screwed up my hip, since that is the exact movement that caused the most pain. Thankfully, it seems to be mostly better now and only flares up once in a while. The lean technique won't be a good option in the new shower though, since the appropriate wall is the one that will be mostly window, so I will definitely need some sort of bench.

I have heard of Houzz and have been browsing around on there a lot lately. So many beautiful rooms! Many aren't my style, but there are still a lot I love. I tend to notice all of the impracticalities though. How can you have a bathroom with no towel bars!?!?

 

[LeeAndra]

The house I bought last year is only 1 1/2 baths and the 1/2 bath is connected to my oldest's bedroom in the basement... so EVERYONE uses "my" bathroom on the first floor. It's high on my list of rooms to renovate once my BF moves in this fall.

It does have a jetted bathtub and a generic/standard walk-in shower but they are both up against the outside wall. I'd love to put in a wider bathtub (one for people with big hips & butts like me!) that isn't jetted and not up against the wall and then modernize the shower and put in two waterfall showerheads. I'd also love to have heated flooring as I have circulation issues and usually have very cold feet. I like the look of the furniture-style vanities. Is there a kind of mirror you can install that doesn't fog up? That drives me crazy.

 

[KimJ]

I'd also love to have heated flooring as I have circulation issues and usually have very cold feet. I like the look of the furniture-style vanities. Is there a kind of mirror you can install that doesn't fog up? That drives me crazy.

Heated flooring seems like it would be wonderful in a colder climate - a little hard to justify in Texas. Our bathroom is big enough that only the top few inches of the mirrors fog up, but we do get enough steam up near the ceiling that the wallpaper is curling. The bathroom fan is in the water closet - nowhere near the shower - and it's very noisy, so we don't use it. I'm hoping to be able to install one of those quiet fans with a light either directly over the shower or more in the middle of the room when we remodel. I would think that would help with the fogged mirrors as well?

 

[bcgal00]

Since moving into our new house this is what I like about the bathrooms:
1. Quiet fan.
2. Linen closet in the master.
3. Double sinks.
4. Large powerful showerhead but two would be awesome.
5. Walk in shower in the master bedroom is great but hubs likes to soak in the other tub so each style has pros and cons.
6. The basement is heated but sure wish the upper floors were heated too but no idea how pricey that would be.

What I don't like:

1. Lots of drawers but could have used shelves underneath instead of big cupboards.

 

[KimJ]

Since moving into our new house this is what I like about the bathrooms:
1. Quiet fan.
2. Linen closet in the master.
3. Double sinks.
4. Large powerful showerhead but two would be awesome.
5. Walk in shower in the master bedroom is great but hubs likes to soak in the other tub so each style has pros and cons.
6. The basement is heated but sure wish the upper floors were heated too but no idea how pricey that would be.

What I don't like:

1. Lots of drawers but could have used shelves underneath instead of big cupboards.

Great list.

We have a linen closet in the bathroom that will probably remain as is, other than a fresh coat of paint. The problem is that it's 3/4 full of cleaning supplies, backup toiletries, first aid, etc. instead of linens!

I am not a bath person. DH does like one every now and then, but not enough to bat an eye at the idea of losing the tub.

One thing I am completely unsure about is what I would like the configuration of the vanity storage to be. Currently, DH's smaller but taller vanity has one big door under the sink and 3 drawers of varying sizes along the side. He doesn't make good use of any of it, other than a wastebasket under the sink, and just piles stuff on top. Mine has 2 doors under the sink on the left end, a wide shallow drawer over the unused center chair opening, and then 3 drawers on the right. I have divided trays in the shallow drawer and I like the way that works. I keep hair dye supplies, hairdryer, travel toiletry bags, and a few other random things under the sink. The side drawers are mainly used to store things I don't use often. Other than a hand mirror, I don't think I could even name what's in them without looking, and I imagine a good purge would get rid of a lot of it. While in theory I like the sound of more drawers, I don't know what I would use them for. I am interested in a large drawer with a built-in outlet that I could just leave the hairdryer plugged in all the time. I use it several times a week and it just gets left out on the counter most of the time since it's a pain to unplug and put away.

 

[AJK]

Me, I don't get excited about bathrooms. But they ARE necessary So I think I could say:
1. Walk in stone shower with rain showerhead and bench. LARGE shower. No chrome, no sliding doors (ugh)
2. Separate toilet area. I'll just leave it at that.
3. Heated floor would be cool but not vital.

 

[KimJ]

Me, I don't get excited about bathrooms. But they ARE necessary So I think I could say:
1. Walk in stone shower with rain showerhead and bench. LARGE shower. No chrome, no sliding doors (ugh)
2. Separate toilet area. I'll just leave it at that.
3. Heated floor would be cool but not vital.

We have a separate toilet area and it will be staying that way. The original builder design had no door on that area though, so we had them change that to add a pocket door. (The original design also had carpet in the bathroom. )

Sliding doors aren't really even an option with the space we are working with. It's going to have to be some sort of hinged/pivot dor. We had sliding doors on the tub/shower when I was a kid, and the tracks would get really gross and were very hard to clean. I think there are some simpler/better options these days though.

As far as chrome, we have that in the kids' bathroom and it's not my favorite. I prefer a warmer less shiny finish, and I think I might want to do mixed metals with black and maybe some sort of brushed brass/soft gold. It there a finish that's easier/harder to keep looking clean? Right now we have the shiny 1990s brass. It's on the faucets, doorknobs, shower fixtures, shower frame, and mirrored sliding closet door frame. I'm trying to decide how far to go with getting rid of it. It gets especially weird with the doors into the bedroom, since there's brass in there. I wonder how much it would cost me to get rid of all of the brass in the house.

 

[KimJ]

Any thoughts on wall treatment? Right now we have wallpaper in the whole room except the water closet. (Actually all 3 bathroom are wallpapered.) We have those giant frameless mirrors over both vanities, with just a very short solid surface "backsplash" below them. The mirrors look very dated, so I am planning to switch to smaller (but still somewhat large) framed mirrors, but that leaves a whole lotta wall.

As I mentioned, our current wallpaper is peeling, but I don't think it's the right kind of paper for a bathroom, and I'm hoping a better fan would help as well. I wouldn't mind wallpaper again, at least on the two main walls, but I have no idea what pattern I'd want and haven't seen anything in my inspiration browsing that I was especially drawn to.

Almost our whole house is the knockdown orange peel texture with light beigey paint. I'm fine with the texture, but I'd rather do a cleaner white or some other color if we are going to paint. (We have white painted trim, so we would need to pick a color that didn't make that white look bad.)

I've seen some gorgeous tiled-up-to-the-ceiling backsplashes, and that is one area where I don't think I would mind the grout since it's not going to get heavy water/grime exposure. We have tile backsplash in the kitchen with no issue. There are 10-foot ceilings in the bathroom though, so that's a LOT of tile.

So.many.decisions.

 

[janedee]

We built our house just over 20 years ago and redid the master bath two years ago when the laminate countertops started to look really bad. We didn’t change the shower or tub but we did install slab heat under the tile floor, which I love!! The floor was always so cold before. We also put in quartz countertops with the double sink and are getting a heated towel rail.

 

[HavaDrPepper]

Couple more comments after reading others:

Fogging mirrors: When my bathroom was redone, I kept the fluorescent light above my mirror (more about that later), put in a light/fan on the ceiling and a light in the shower. The shower light and the ceiling light are on a separate switch so that they don't need to be turned on every time I walk into the bathroom. Even with my huge mirror, it doesn't fog!

Mirror: I have a huge mirror that covers most of the wall above the county so the light above it is a 5 ft fluorescent light. The contractor wanted to put in a smaller mirror and I said nope, I want the big one. Granted these aren't for everybody but having lived in apartments with small mirror in the bathroom, I'm glad I'm back to the big one.

Shower doors: Many years ago we had the sliding doors on a tub, then the type that folded back. Both were a hassle to clean. Now that I don't have the tub and have the glass on the shower, I have a door on hinges that swings in or out. Now this will fog up while I'm showering but the fog quickly dissipates when the water is turned off. The other thing I do is to use a squeegee and get the water off the inside of the doors after every shower. I tried the Clean Shower spray in the beginning but didn't like the way it built up and started using the squeegee. The cleaning lady cleans it as well. She has said that by me doing the squeegee, it isn't that hard for her to do.

Walls: Mom had put wallpaper in many years ago above the tile that went up the wall to just above the counters. I painted over it 12 or 13 years ago. I had the contractor freshen the paint job (same color) when they did the room. I again have tile on the wall to about 4 inches above the counter and with the huge mirror, I don't really have a lot of wall to worry about. Perks of a small bathroom

On a side note, I can't shave my legs in the shower even though I have a bench. I can't see well enough to do it and miss spots. So I use an electric razor and shave before I shower so it will get all the hair off.

 

[KimJ]

... The other thing I do is to use a squeegee and get the water off the inside of the doors after every shower. I tried the Clean Shower spray in the beginning but didn't like the way it built up and started using the squeegee. The cleaning lady cleans it as well. She has said that by me doing the squeegee, it isn't that hard for her to do.
...
On a side note, I can't shave my legs in the shower even though I have a bench. I can't see well enough to do it and miss spots. So I use an electric razor and shave before I shower so it will get all the hair off.

We used to squeegee when the house was new, but we got lazy! Hopefully, we can pick up the habit again, because getting soap scum and hard water off the glass is a huge pain.

I'm super nearsighted, and since I can't wear my glasses in the shower, I've never been able to see well to shave my legs. I do it by feel, and during shorts season I shave every time I shower so that if I miss a spot it's no big deal. During the winter, I only shave if something unusual is happening where I will actually have to show leg. So most winters that's maybe once or twice at most. I do break out the electric razor for that.

 

[HavaDrPepper]

I'm super nearsighted, and since I can't wear my glasses in the shower, I've never been able to see well to shave my legs. I do it by feel, and during shorts season I shave every time I shower so that if I miss a spot it's no big deal. During the winter, I only shave if something unusual is happening where I will actually have to show leg. So most winters that's maybe once or twice at most. I do break out the electric razor for that.

Even though I've always had dark hair, as I got older the hair on my legs got lighter. So light that I can't even see it with my glasses on! Just looked... had to get the magnifying glass to see it and it's been a few weeks since I shaved. In fact, I only shave my legs about 4 or 5 times a year. When I worked I wore pants all the time so nobody saw my legs and since I'm not married, it was only me to even worry about it. As I started shaving less, the hair stopped growing so fast and it has gotten a lot softer.

We had an exchange student from France when I was in high school. She was horrified that Mom and I shaved our legs. Don't know about now but back in the 70's French women didn't shave. She never did shave while here either. So that sort of changed my opinion a little about it. Even in my 20's/30's I didn't shave every day and my leg hair was dark back then. Yeah, I'm weird.