Bathroom renovation ideas/warnings

[cos]

I'm having the bathroom in my house redone soon.

One thing I worry about is the possibility of failing to specify or ask for things I may have always taken for granted, so they don't occur to me. I know what I'd like to gain, but I may not be aware of all the things I don't want to lose.

Like ten years ago when I got a car that didn't have map pockets on the backs of the seats, which I'd always depended on - I liked being able to store a few large atlases and laminated maps behind the passenger seat, and be able to easily reach for them when stopped at a light. It simply hadn't occurred to me that some cars may not have those. Or when I got some house windows replaced, and ended up with windows that don't have metal bars or little tabs near the bottom such that you can push them up from below to open. I'd simply taken for granted the ability to open a window next to my bed a crack while lying down, and it had never occurred to me that anyone might make a window you have to be standing up to open, so it wasn't something I asked about or looked for. I saw the windows before I agreed to have them, and just didn't notice that critical detail.

So, what am I not noticing about bathrooms? Any ideas?

Comments

[dphilli1.livejournal.com]

We just finished massive reno that included adding an entirely bathroom...


heat in bathroom - we have a toe kick heater to save wall space from a radiator
towel bars for bathtowels
hand-towel ring/bar
swing of doors -- can you easily get in/out of shower, bathroom in general? -- ours is a little suboptimal with placement of vanity
where are the light switches?
pipes do better if they're not run up an outside wall
height of hardware on shower doors
height of shower head
height of shower faucet
depth of counters/height of counter
outlet by sink for electric razor etc
access for pipes in case of repair
will your hands fit inside stuff so can you actually reach in and turn off the water
fan noise -- get the strongest exhaust fan you can stand as it will make your bathroom last longer
lights, lights, lights!
TP holder on the right or left?
cast iron tubs are a bitch to move, but can be sanded and reglazed if they start to rust. Steel, fiberglass, not so much. On the other hand, cast iron tubs take longer to warm up and suck heat out of the water much faster
tile design if you're doing something interesting -- standard white tiles in smaller sizes (6x6 and 8x8) are just not available anymore
shower niche storage is really nice (look up latticrete for example)
soap holder in shower
if >1 in the shower at a time, think about where the water will go when the door opens
tankless on demand HW heater is da bomb -- never run out of HW as long as you have gas and electric!
vapor barrier behind walls/ceiling -- keeps humidty from getting to studs/attic
do you want a waterproof (plastic membrane behind flooring) floor
will the floor need to reinforced to support tub + water + person (its about 600lbs total!)
glossy tile on the floor looks nice, but its slippery on wet feet
countertop materials
cabinet door swings
medicine cabinet door swing
insulation in the outside walls!

once you're doing plumbing for 1 bathroom, incremental cost to run stubs for another bathroom (even if you don't finish it at the time) is much less than having to run new plumbing if you decide to finish it later -- we have stubs for a master bath hidden in the floor/walls. It also adds significant resale value to say "If you want a bathroom in location X, all you have to do is open up floor, walls, ceiling and install fixtures"

do you want a jetted tub? the good ones take up a lot of space, use a lot of water and are very heavy. The ones that fit inside a standard tub footprint don't work very well.

how wide/long/deep do you want the tub?