I am going to be remodelling my master bath and wondered if anyone has any experience and opinions on the Franz Viegener Aranjuez collection and also the Jazz collection. The Aranjuez looks very beautiful in various finishes for both the widespread faucets and for the new whirlpool Roman Tub set with a hand shower. Needless to say, I greatly prefer contemporary to modern designs, but I am wondering if it would be better to go with The Danze Parma collection or the Danze Bannockburn (which is far more standard looking). It is so difficult making up my mind, as I have a Toto Soiree toilet with a Toto Lloyd bidet to be installed inside a pocket door section of the bathroom. So I even wonder if I should get Toto Soiree or Lloyd collections. Anything else I shouldbe looking at? Sign me perplexed-----Greg

thanks to all who have posted so far, especially Eric. We can probably save/budget down the road for a kitchen redo, or do part of it ourselves. Additions would be a little harder for us except finish work (floors, tile, etc. Can do drywall even but would need to find time to do it). What that kitchen has is a U shaped layout, not too bad except there are overhanging cabinets between a small dining/family space and the kitchen. It's a counter/pass through kind of setup where someone can sit at stools and talk with the person in the kitchen....except the cabinets hang down so the person in the kitchen has to look under them. We would likely tear those out and relocate the stovetop to the perimeter wall and make that pass through an island. Then that entire space could become kitchen/dining. It is possible we could still move out a wall on that (kitchen) side of the house down the road too, we are in Hawaii so all the construction costs are much, much higher than mainland. So jealous of all the posters here who can put on a large extension for less than 50K. Plan A or Plan B will cost us about the same. We don't plan to sell and move anytime soon, but should we need to we're leaning toward sq. footage instead of just extending current bath and upgrading the kitchen. Our neighborhood is about 20 years old so people are beginning to redo those rooms as the fixtures and appliances are ageing. We redid all the appliances about three years ago with stainless finishes, new faucet/sink, and redid the countertop Corian, so the kitchen is livable - just need to clear out some clutter and make smarter usage on available storage space. We could paint or restain the cabinet doors to freshen it up. A few neighbors are creating the "big bang" kitchen now but I'm not certain a 70K upgrade will improve the value that much as a new neighborhood is planned about 5 miles away within the next couple of years. Would we love to live in a "WOW" kitchen, of course. But as with most people we have to make a decision on where it is best to spend the money for now. We could feasibly also add on a 2nd story in future years, but we prefer the single story and if we age-in-place as planned, the new bath will include wide accesses and no-curb shower.

hhireno- Thanks for the advice. You made me feel better. :)I did ask my tile guy about a discount and he said no. I tried though! That is great advice to think of it as making the master special to set it apart. Thanks! My master vanities are on peg feet with a special molding on the ends, and my powder vanity is very furniture like. I wish I knew how to insert a pic here so you could see. I will include my link to snapfish so you can see my album. It's a lot of pics to wade through -- the cabinets are down at the end. pattycakes- (love your user name)I will have crema marfil just on my counter top - the floor will be a ceramic tile that just coordinates well. Your house sounds gorgeous with the black granite and crema marfil! bigdoglover- You are right that not everyone would love this look and it could very well scare off potential buyers. I plan to live in this house for a looongggg time. But you never know what can happen so resale is always at the back of my mind during the build. That being said, now I am afraid of my mosaic plan!! Here is a link that might be useful: cabinets

Finally! We heard from the builder and they are going to reimburse us for the cost to demo and rebuild the shower. Thank goodness... lol I swear this shower is cursed...we brought in a new team (not affiliated with the builder) to remodel our whole bathroom (install new floor, new fixtures, re-install shower and tub)...and what do you know the contractor installed our paper faced tiles backwards...it is literally a comedy show at this point - we stopped him in his tracks he will not be returning and will be reimbursing us for the tiles and the sub par tile job all over and the remainder of work that is still to be completed - told us, well this is our best work, so with us this is what you get...so onto a new contractor...