I'm getting back to this REALLY late, so I apologize for that. Just in case anyone is still looking for answers on the questions asked, here goes: - Runtal Neptune towel warmer: I love it when it's working. Seriously I. LOVE. IT. Unnaturally. It's by far my favorite upgrade we did in our entire house renovation. But we've had issues with it. It just stopped working after using it for about 6 months. We sent it back and they fixed it and it came back (they paid for shipping and it was very easy). Six months later it broke again. Even though it was technically out of warranty at this point (which is irritating that it's only a year warranty), I called and they were very apologetic, and said they had an older version that had these problems and they thought they had gotten them all off the market by the time I bought mine. They sent me a new one within a week or two. So I love Runtal's customer service and I love that damn towel warmer like it was my child. - Teak floor in shower: why have it? Well, frankly, just cuz it's cool and I like the look. Well, it also feels amazing under your feet. It's hard to describe but it's very, very comfortable to stand on. For me, it's worth it because I really like the look and the feel. But I will say, it's a bit more work. I take it out about every 4-5 months and pressure wash or scrub it and if necessary apply another coat of teak oil. But it does get kind of gross under there. If I don't lift it up and scrub every few weeks it can be a bit of chore. And for some people that might not be very appealing. For me, I feel like it makes the bathroom (along with the towel warmer) so I'm ok with the tradeoff of a bit more work.

Manhattan42 - sometimes you say the craziest things. In my neck of the woods, every crawlspace is vented and unconditioned. Sealing crawlspace is a new thing but even then you don't purposely heat the space. There is R-19 under the floor - that does a pretty good job at keeping the heat in the house. Are you in NY? - if so it is possible that your codes are more like the OPs. But around here in crawlspace land - we vent and don't condition. Sealing costs some $ but does help some wuth heating costs. To the OP - you probably have a basement - so all this doesn't apply. Yes - you could heat the basement. This helps but tile is still cold and it is nice for the bathroom to be the warmest room in the house when you shower. We use supplemental heat on our 2nd floor bathroom. It really sounds like heat lamps or fan heaters are what you want. They both cost the same to put out the same heat. You can only beat that if you have a hot water heating system and can tap into that. Having had both - I prefer the fan because of the "baked" feeling of heat lamps. The lamps can be directed better for heat in one particular spot but the fan heats the room better. My father is a PhD engineer who wrote some pretty landmark papers on energy efficiency in the 70s - he agrees that using electric resistance heating in a bathroom for occassional heat is the way to go. If you use it for 5% of the time, it doesn't really matter that it isn't the cheapest way to make heat.

"Will you need a fan and or light in the enclosed area?" We actually have one unit in the ceiling above the toilet that has a fan and light built in...we might get a new nicer-looking unit to replace the old one but that should be an easy upgrade. "I like that last setup you showed." Me too, but I'm still not sure whether to go with a barn door or pocket door. I think barn door has the advantage of an easier installation, but a pocket door probably could be installed leaving more room in the toilet closet. A barn door would probably look cleaner from outside the toilet closet, since you wouldn't see the hardware or the door when opened. "It would be nice to have the toilet centered in that space, but if you can keep the center of the toilet 18 inches from the sliding glass door on the wall, you should be fine." That's my worry...the toilet is currently offset slightly closer to the closet...it is about 19" from the center of the toilet to that wall, and 22" to the other wall. With a barn door installed there I imagine we wouldn't keep 18" unless we shift over the toilet. I don't know yet how expensive that would be. A smoked glass insert across from the toilet as in that pic might be the way to go. Then I still have the question of whether that wall should be flush with the window recess or set in a little. I'm thinking maybe flush with the window would be best to leave as much depth as possible for the toilet closet, and fewer edges/angles on the other side of the wall outside of the toilet closet. This post was edited by Phaedrus29 on Wed, Nov 5, 14 at 16:33

Most of the tile that is being talked about above was made in the mid 1920's to about the early 40's I help my husband hand salvage these old tiles for over 15 years from homes and Historical sites that are being torn down daily. Most of the tiles are either Gladding Mc Bean or American Euncaustic Tile co. Sometimes we will even find some Pomona Tile co by Hermosa .These tiles were mostly done with a baked glass like glaze making them almost impossible to salvage. Often the same type of tile was used in the kitchen and or back splash area .I personally love the salmon color as well and there is an awesome lavender that looks like hard candy. There were also early American tiles that were used on the face of fire places and in fountains in the yard. All of these companyÂs can be found in the American Art Tile Encyclopedia it is a great source of education on early California Tile Company's. These tiles are worth keeping and make you a member of the Tile club. Wanda Saving History one piece at a time......