One comment on manure from farm animals. Recent research suggests that kids that grow up around farm animals are much less likely to develop allergies than other kids. The theory is that the constant exposure to relatively harmless bacteria causes the immune system to focus on infective substances rather than on harmless materials such as molds and pollens, etc. I know of no studies that show that exposure to animals and manures (certainly plenty fresh on the farm) causes an increase in the infection rate of children (or adults). If you have worked on a farm, you know that you don't wear gloves all the time to protect yourself from the bacteria. It is to protect the hands from injuries. Agreed that exposure to e coli and other organisms that one has not developed a resistance to or a tolerance of can produce significant disease in an individual whose immune system has not be "hyped" up by continuous exposure to bacteria and other organisms. It is also highly likely that that individual has allergy problems. In the military (the same things happens when one travels), people coming for training from other countries tend to pick up significant GI problems from exposure to the local e coli and other bacteria. If you go to their country for long, you will probably experience the same thing. Again, in general, to contact an infective agent, usually a certain "load" is required to cause infection unless a person is severely immunocompromised. An example is typhoid where a healthy individual will need to consume in excess of 4000 typhoid bacteria at one time to contact the disease. Washing lettuce will reduce but not remove all bacteria. But it is not usually necessary (or possible) to remove all the bacteria (unless you cook it to 160 degrees for 20 minutes or boil it, etc). Our bodies have over many thousands of years developed amazing ability to tolerate our environment. It is reasonable to disagree on this. I'll have to admit I have eaten all kinds of things out in the garden (usually wiping off the obvious dirt first), and have not noticed and ill effect. But then my body has undoubtedly has developed a level of immunity to the organism in my garden. A level of respect for the danger of eating possibly contaminate food materials is certainly warranted. For me, fish pond water would not concern if it had been applied early in the production of the crops. Just an opinion.

Maybe I can help. Our house was built in 1962 and, interestingly enough, we are just finishing a master bath with exactly the same dimensions as yours and pretty much the same layout. All that remains to be done is for the shower door to be hung; that's another story. As I said, our bath is 7 feet long and a smidge under 7 1/2 feet wide. We also have a window over the toilet, but our wall with the vanity is on an interior wall, so no window there. The layout for our bathroom is exactly what you have in your plans, with a couple of minor differences. Our shower is 48" long, but only about 32" wide. We put a half wall between the shower and the toilet with a clear shower enclosure on the front of the shower and above the half wall. That provides a little privacy for the toilet area and prevents it being seen from the bedroom while maintaining the open feeling of the clear shower enclosure. We put crown molding all around the bathroom since the shower enclosure doesn't go all the way to the ceiling and so we weren't concerned about the humidity and the wood. The shower enclosure is tiled to the bottom of the crown molding and there is a bullnose decorative tile with a black pencil accent tile right below it that runs through the shower and extends all the way around the bathroom at wainscot height. We used a white subway tile for the shower enclosure and below the bullnose tile around the remainder of the bathroom. The subway tile and decorative tile form the backsplash above the vanity. Our plumbing for the shower is also in the wall between the bathroom and the bedroom. We used a black and white porcelain basketweave tile for the floor, both in the shower and in the remainder of the bathroom. The black accent tile on the walls and the black "dot" in the floor relate well to each other. Since we don't have the issue of the window over the vanity, we put two sinks in ours and there is plenty of room for them. The countertop doesn't feel crowded at all. As far as the grout goes, we used white epoxy grout (I don't know the brand) on the walls, and a dark gray on the floor. I've been using the bathroom, other than the shower, for a couple of months now, and the floor is pristine. While white grout was also recommended for the floor, I was too skeptical for that. The dark gray actually adds some definition to the tile pattern and there is no worry about the grout discoloring. Our vanity is 21" deep which is one reason our shower is narrower. We used standard cabinetry and the cost was relatively reasonable. It was amazing how much this small room cost! Our bathroom door does swing into the bathroom and into the shower. The only place we could find for towel bars was on the back of the door so we had to be really careful that the height of the towel bars kept them from colliding with the handle to the shower door. We also put a stop on the door so that it doesn't swing into the shower. It isn't ideal but the only way it would work for us. I don't yet have pictures; I'll try to post some in the next couple of days. Before the renovation, we had a bathtub and a small linen closet on the wall which now contains the vanity and the vanity was where the shower now is. We, thankfully, didn't need to move the toilet. I hope this has been helpful. While the bathroom is cozy, my husband and I don't generally use it at the same time. But if we did, there really is room for both of us with the double vanity. Good luck!

I'm resurrecting this old post in hopes you can give me an update on your sink. How is it holding up? Any new issues with the legs? I'm asking because I'm about to purchase this exact sink. I guess I need to know which place to purchase it from with the best customer service in case I get shipped several sets of bum legs. I'm a little bit scared to take the chance, but I have loved this sink for years and I really want one.

That's pretty much how my bog works! Except because of the way we built ours, it's a challenge to get the water level below the gravel level, (waterfall is a little bit too high >.<). The bog water level is above the gravel in a few spots, and it becomes a string-algae-covered mess. But... I still love my bog =D Only thing is I wish it was bigger! Plants take off like nobody's business! We have a triple pond setup -- bog is at the top, then a waterlily/frog habitat, and then a small goldfish pond -- all told about 700 gallons. Note this year we will be expanding the lower pond, and our bog will likely be too small, but we have plans for a supplementary waterfall filter. Here's a photo from last year from our 2nd story deck. In the photo, bog is at the bottom, middle pond is top right and lower pond is top left. The pump sits in the lower pond, then tubing brings it around to the bog via perforated PVC and the water cascades down from there. We put in a check valve in the bog piping to keep backflow from occurring during a power outage, as well.