The Villager is the standard Kohler that you would see in most houses in the kid's bathroom. It's 14" high and a good compromise height for a tub where Mom or grandmom has to lean over to give baths and older kids will take baths by themselves. In other words, it's more than a puddle. A model with a wider ledge is available and that's what we ordered since we always find the kids needed more room for all the products they use (not to mention toys when they were younger). The Memoirs is a very formal looking tub IMHO and this is what we ordered for our guest bathroom that must do double duty as the dinner guest powder room. We do have a powder room by the laundry but that would rarely be suitable for guests. I don't know anything about the Mendota or the Dynametric. Hope this helps.

This is a tub for a teenager and in a hall bath that guests might use.

The installation is in a three-sided alcove, tiled, with a shower and shower curtain (possibly the curved rod kind). I don't expect her to take a bath every day, but would like it to be comfortable. Our current bathtub is non-standard, so it's only about 4'9" long and 28" wide, but it is the standard approx. 16" deep. It sounds like the Villager would have been right for when my children were young, but now a deeper tub would be preferable.

Does Toto do cast iron? I will go look.

We put a Memoirs tub in our hall bath in the old house. It was used as a shower tub combo. Our kids, who were 6 and 8 at the time had no problem stepping over.

I loved that tub! I am a big bath person. Hot baths beat drugs for good sleep. I bathed in the Memoirs every night. Our master bath was too small for a tub.

Our new bath will have a Kohler Tea for Two tub! It is gigantic. It is up there now, waiting for a tub deck and plumbing.

Bethesdamom,

Good to hear about that Memoirs not being too deep for kids, either. When you alter a house built in 1936 you try to think long term about your house's future.

I just printed off the specs for the Tea for Two and the Kathryn for the master bath. The only difference I could spot between them is that the overflow is higher on the TfT so it holds more water. How did you decide? Does the the TfT require extra framing support?

And do you mind replying with how big your planned tub deck is? Our architect has drawn a 6' by 4' tub (or something about that wide), but that's a whirlpool size and that's not us. I'd rather get a 5.5' length and have an elegant marble deck mounted over. In the space he's allotted it looks like I can put a shorter and thinner tub (that will still hold two like the TfT or the Kathryn) and get more deck space.

P.S. DD and DS were both born in Bethesda when we lived in DC!

so, we used to live in california as well...before we move to bethesda! how funny. anyway, bethesdamom, from whom are you buying your tea for two? and are any of you getting a whirlpool, by any chance?

No whirlpool or air bath here. I love them, but I don't want to worry about maintenance. It's one way I'm not spending money.

Hope bethesdamom checks here and says something about the size of her TfT tub deck.

Hi all

Californiagirl
Sorry to make you wait for a reply. There was a problem with the deck build this week and I had to wait for a resolution. The deck is 72"x 44.5". They originally built it too short to accommodate the size of my tub filler.

I went for the Tea for Two because it holds more water, and is therefore deeper. My friends Mom has one and loves it!
How do you like living in CA after Bethesda? After this renovation, I am never moving! I always wonder about California. I almost moved to Palo Alto in 1989.

Starfish24
We are not getting a whirlpool. I don't like the noise from the whirpool jets and motor. It disturbs the zen experience of the bath. I am buying it through my contractor from Ferguson on E.Gude Drive in Rockville.

Hi, we recently installed the Tea for Two whirlpool bath in our kids' bathroom, and we use it as a shower as well. We love it. It's the 5.5' model, alcove installation, left hand drain.

I was originally concerned that it would be too hard for them to get into -- they are not little kids -- (three girls, ages 17, 13 and 12 when it was installed last year) but so far they have no complaints about having to climb into the tub to shower. I love it too for the occassional bath, as our master bath has only a shower. Here is a picture of it.

It has subway tile on the walls and the apron of the tub, and a minimal deck. Our contracter initially put in a more gigantic deck, and I made him tear it out because it overwhelmed our somewhat small bathroom. It has a marble shelf at one end and niches at both ends to hold the girls' many bottles of products. I'm so glad we built in that much storage.

Instead of a shower curtain, we went with a partial frameless glass door, because I thought it would give you more of a feeling of openness when you took a bath.

We bought it through Expo, back in Nov. 2006 (it was not installed til last spring though because construction took so long). The price at the time was more reasonable, although I notice they keep going up in price.

I don't find the whirlpool too noisy at all. It's probably quieter than other whirlpool tubs, and also more gentle, which suprised us at first. I love how deep and roomy it is. Hope this helps.

Here is a link that might be useful: The rest of Hmsweethm's kidsbath

Bethesda -- I'm a Californian who married and had my kids in DC but now live in DH's home state of Wisconsin. What did I do wrong? We had over 100 inches of snow this winter, a record since they've been keeping them. Yeah, I need that zen bath experience in the winter here.

Back to bathtub issues. What was a too short deck and for what tub filler? Sounds like something I should be watching for and since this tub fits between two vanities the deck can't be made longer.

Great pics, hmsweethm. What was too big a deck? And has anybody done the TfT in an undermount? Now that I look at the overmount pics I realize that when you undermount a tub that raises the height you have to swing over without increasing the amount of water that the tub holds. Here is a link to a vignette I have seen at the Kohler center where the Kathryn tub is undermounted. This is one of my inspirations for our master bath, just done in dark colors.

I would like to do something similar but with white (cararra) marble and painted cabs and get that hotel/spa look. Don't know how many slabs you have to use to get that right but the master bath tubs we are talking about here are pretty darn big. That's a big hole to punch out of one slab -- enough to make a countertop, maybe? Can you even get a slab big enough?

Here is a link that might be useful: Kathryn tub undermounted.

Thanks for your compliments, Californiagirl. You make a good point about the height of the tub if you undermount it; in the Kohler website, that deck is almost as high as the toilet next to it -- almost but not quite.

We didn't want a deck at all around our tub simply because it is a relatively small room -- about 6.5 by 10.5 feet. Any deck at all would have overwhelmed the space. This Kohler Kathryn display is stunning; if we had had the room, maybe we would have done something like that.

Very elegant.

Californiagirl: I just picked up the July issue of Traditional Home Magazine, and right there on Page 53 I saw a beautiful bathroom with an undermount Kohler Kathryn tub, with a Corian deck. It made me think of you.

Is this what you're looking for? It's very beautiful and elegant.

Here is a link that might be useful: Kohler undermount: Traditional Home

Oh, that's beautiful. I love soft blues, grays, greens and creams in baths. And the Corian lets you choose a broader range of color than natural stone would.

I'm pasting the pictures here so everybody can see what we are writing about:

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