1.) The seat. I don't consider corner seats comfortable. I would do a bench seat. If you plan on sitting and relaxing I think you will want to be able to put your feet up.

2.) The door...I would make it 32" unless you add fixed panels.
"Why is the door 80" high?" That is a standard door height. I wouldn't go shorter.
"Is the intention for the shower to be curbless?" I have no idea. Is curbless allowed where you are? What is below the shower?
"We had pictured the glass area as being wider with a panel & a door pivoting from that. It is a frameless shower door, but they make those with the panel, don't they?". Yes, you could do a 30-32" door and have fixed panels on either side. More money, of course. I would also add a tilt panel above the door.

Why is the hallway in front of the shower so wide (6')? That seems like a lot of wasted space. In fact, the entire bathroom seems to have a lot of wasted space.

I would make the shower deeper and add the bench. Make sure the showerheads are not positioned so they are directed at the door.

What does that 2' doors go to? That is too narrow for anything but a reach-in linen closet.

What is the ceiling height in the shower? I would have them drop it to 8' or 8'6".

How are you going to vent the shower? You need a fan right outside the shower door (one powered adequately and vented outside) and then possibly a tilt panel above the door (our shower plan has a 32"x80" door with 12" tilting panel above it, I think).

You need ventilation for the toilet room since there is no window. I don't think 36" is wide enough for a toilet room.

Why is there a 2'8" door going into the bedroom/bathroom vestibule area (I assume that is what that is) but then a 3' door going into the bedroom? The 3' door does you no good if you need t get through the 2'8" door to get to it.

Can you post the entire floor plan, it is hard to tell what fits with what.

1.) OK, but the bench needs to be deeper than 12", right? I don't think it would be very relaxing to be perched on the edge of a 12" bench.

2.) Well, that's what I was wondering about the side panels. Can't we have side panels to get in more light? I've seen some steam shower doors with the tilted upper panels. What are they for? I'd never be able to reach it if the door is 80" since I'm only 5'2".

The Kohler Purist frameless doors are 72" high. Isn't that OK since the door isn't flush with the floor so there are a few inches for a 6'+ tall person to get into the shower w/o ducking? I don't know if curbless is allowed, or not, but it isn't what I want. The lower level future bedrooms are below this.

The 6' in front of the shower is the width of DH's closet. The intention is to put a small bench under the window to have a place to sit to dry off toes, put on lotion, etc. I know y'all are going to get on me for a closet that is only 6' wide, but we are ok with that. The closet we have now is similar & that isn't even 5'-6" so this will feel fine. We've mocked it up & it will be just fine. We're not the type to dress in the closet so we'd rather "waste" the space in the bathroom than in a closet.

I can make the shower deeper by stealing room from the guest bedroom. But, this shower is twice the area as the shower I have now, which already seems spacious enough, to me. I could add a deeper bench & do a door with a panel that is shorter at the bench side.

I don't know what the height of the shower is. Thought we would figure that out with the tile guy & plumber. I thought steam showers had venting fans in them.

Well, I think a fan in the WC room is required by code. Again, this is at least as wide as the one we have now so I think we're fine.

The 2'8" door is from the hallway to the rest of the house. There is a little vestibule with another 2'8" door to the bathroom and the 3' cased opening, not a door, to the bedroom. Its pushed into the bedroom to add some interest & give more of a niche effect for placing the dresser.

The other 2' door is into my 6' wide closet which runs the length of the bedroom. There is a window that matches the one opposite the shower to give some natural light and balance the elevation. I have some much hanging space that I could afford to give some up to the window & still have drawers or multiple hampers for sorting underneath.

I would post the whole plan, but DH doesn't want me to, so I won't. I can push interior walls here & there, but the foundation is poured.

Thanks for the help - Jo Ann

Jo Ann,
I second the vote for increasing the size of the shower and putting in a full bench. Although 4' 8" is a pretty good dimension, I think you need to borrow a few of those inches for the toilet room. At the size it is shown it looks like it is the same size as a public toilet stall that you have to lean to the side to squeeze the door shut. Of course another remedy to that might be to have the toilet door swing open. As far as the "dungeon effect" I personally like to be closed off in the shower and actually prefer not to have a large glass opening, but that is me! If you want more of a view (in and out) then definitely opt for glass panels beside the door.

I know you've worked hard on your house plans, so I hope you get the bathroom the way you want. Sorry I'm not more help. Maybe someone else will come along and offer a better suggestion. By the way I love the sink wall! Are those windows all along there?

I'd eliminate the door wall and create it in all glass. Do you not think that would enhance the space visually as well as physically?
By curbless do you mean a trench drain or do they create that some other way? What does the door then close against at the bottom to make a seal for the steam?
Casey

ncamy - Oh, cr@p! (so to speak) Now I understand about the WC room. The one we have now may not be any wider, but the door opens on the side, rather than directly into the "throne". With this, you have to scootch to one side to close the door.

OK, need to talk to DH about this. May need to change the swing of the door.

Yes, the sink wall will have 4 windows that are 2' wide by 3' high with the lower edge at 7.5". I think it will bring tons of natural light in since they won't need to be covered. Also, we each have a casement window at the side of our sinks so we can open then up to get fresh air. DH really wanted to have the natural light for shaving. He also wants to be able to peek out when brushing his teeth. The header is at 8' 3 1/2" & the designer put them on the plan at 42" high. As we finalized the window order, last week, I realized that I would have to stand on my tippy toes to look out so we added another 6".

OK, will look at changing dimensions of shower & WC room. Luckily, there is plenty of space to "borrow" from the guest bedroom.

TNX - Jo Ann

Casey - sorry we were cross-posting. Yes, I think that wall should be all glass. That was a big reason for the window across from the shower to give this sense of openess even though, of neccessity, a steam shower does need to be more closed in than the shower we have now. (Open at top since we have high, sloping ceilings & never any mold even in Houston.)

I don't know how curbless is done, but it isn't what I want. I was just wondering why the door would need to be 80" if it is going to rest on a sill that is a few inches above the floor level.

How deep should the bench be? I don't think 12" is sufficient.

Thanks - Jo Ann

Jo Ann,

I measured my "benches" in this house (the comfortable ones) and think that 12" is not quite deep enough for a relaxing bench. Those in my house that are backless are very comfortable at 14-15" deep, but considering you are talking about against a wall vs. backless, I think it is a it too shallow still at those depths. So, then I measured a chair with a back..with a seat depth of 17" - comfortable. But, how will you use this? If you are doing the corner seat, you can't put your feet up. The bench along the wall would allow you to put your feet up and lean against the side wall, but 12" would be a workout to stay on the "ledge". I'd go for 16-18" if possible. Of course, everything is a give and take. I am with you in that my shower in my plan is already 2x my current shower which I feel is more than adequate. I'd be happy to steal some of the space from the shower against all others' advice. So, at the end of all the comments, you have to filter down to what you know matters most to you!

So excited for you that you have a foundation! Can't wait to see more!

2' is too narrow a door for a walkin closet. I don't think I could get through it carrying a hamper without my elbows wacking.

36" is too narrow for a toilet room. My SIL's is that wide and the guys don't like it.

For the door to the master suite, I would make that door as wide as you can. You need to get furntiture through it, and around the corner. I would make the swing door into the bathroom a pocket door (going into the wall behind the cabinet).

I don't know, it just seems like there is a lot of wasted space. Without seeing the entire plan I can't tell, but it seems like with a bathroom that size you should be able to get a tub in there. (but that shows my bias, I wouldn't consider a house without a tub in the master). And there is no linen closet. It seems very lazily designed.

Another thought...why don't you post this over on the bathroom forum. I think they can give you a clearer idea of what size the shower and bench should be.

sue36 - I think we just have a different sense of how wide things need to be. The door to our current powder room is 2', so we're fine with that for the closets. Our current WC room is 2'8" and DH is fine with it. The vestibule to our current master bedroom is 3'7"x 4'3" so it is considerably smaller that the one on the plan. Also, it only has two openings & the moving guys were able to get all of our furniture in just fine.

I'll think about the pocket door since the reason we chose not to do the optional cabinet is because of the issue of the door opening into. However, that is a door which will get a great deal of use & I'm not sure I want the potential noise of a pocket door opening when one of us needs to get up in the middle of the night.

It was a requirement for us that the bathroom NOT have a bathtub. We don't use it, didn't want to have to dust it & preferred to put the money of a tub into a spa/steam shower. There is a linen tower between the sinks & the closets are so large that we intend to have shelving in there for overflow linens. That is sufficient for us & we preferred not to have another door in the bathroom.

Our current master bath is 135 sq. ft. excluding the WC room. This is 143 sq. ft. excluding the WC room. I think that is close enough to be comparable and I like the openess of our current master bath even if it wastes some space.

I think some of this is a matter of different strokes.

ncamy - thanks for the measurements. I really need to think about it. The only steam shower I was ever in was a pre-fab unit in a hotel in Noordwijk in the Netherlands, and it was heaven-sent after being all jet-lagged out. It was rather tiny, but had two, smallish, built-in seats. However, there was a decent light, so I sat in there, read a paperback & let all of the tension melt away. I need to do a mockup so I can tell how I would like to sit in my steam shower.

Thanks for the comments. I do appreciate the help - Jo Ann

P.S. Was hoping for new pictures, today, but maybe, tomorrow.

ncamy - I did post this over on the bath forum, yesterday afternoon, but have not, yet, had any responses, so I figured I would try here. I was also asking about the vertical spa components, but I decided to separate the issues, here, in case I was asking about too much in one post.

TNX - Jo Ann

Seats: My bench seats are only 12" deep... way too shallow. That's okay for propping up your foot to shave or dry off, but not for sitting and relaxing. Go at least 15, maybe even 18 and bring an exterior cushion in to lay back against. :-)

Shower Doors: Get custom, go 78" high on the door. Open the shower completely with all glass. A panel on one side and a panel across the top.

Don't think I saw it mentioned, but make sure the ceiling in the steam shower is sloped.

36" wide is fine for a WC, but not with that door swing.

2-0 is an extremely narrow door. Please consider widening that to 2-4 at the very least. Most 2-0 doors are part of a double door. It's passable, but given the girth of most Americans, this could be a literal sticking point for resale.

I agree that a lot of this stuff is personal preference. We're not big closet people; so, our closets aren't huge spaces (well, relative to other room-sized closets we've seen), and we don't have huge open spaces in the closets. If you are ok with certain spaces, then it'll probably be fine. As we are nearing completion of our home though, and everything is really reaching a point of no return, I find myself wondering if I shouldn't have enlarged a space here or there. Oh well. Anyway, I really like lots of natural light. So, I would personally make the wall where the shower door is all glass, floor to ceiling with glass sidelights. I also agree that 3' seems a bit tight for the WC. Could you push into the master bedroom at all? That is, move the entire vestibule to the master a bit more into the master bedroom and widen the WC? I agree that if we could see more of your floorplan in that area, we might be able to give you some more suggestions. Exciting all the progress you are making on your house. As exciting as it is, I also find it scary too. Good luck!

BD-Peck - just wondered if you could explain why the ceiling should be sloped? I have never thought about ceiling details for a steam shower and you have me wondering (sorry to hijack, but maybe more info will be helpful to OP if she hasn't included this too).

Thanks!

The ceiling needs to be sloped so that condensate slides down rather than plopping in big drops on your head. I will make sure the guys doing the shower get the correct slope.

I think we originally had wider closet doors. We definitely had them "cheated" toward one wall so that they could just open to either the window (in my closet) or shelving for excess linens (his closet). Somewhere along the line they became 2' doors that are centered. But, no reason not to add 4" and position them as originally intended.

It may not work for everyone, but, for us, the width of the WC room is OK. Our current WC room is 2'8" x 5'2" and we are just fine with it. I've even been on crutches & used it w/o any help. The new one is slightly wider, so I truly think, for us, it will work. DH had already done this months ago, but last night, we went into our WC room and measured how the door would swing. With the change of the pivot point, it is actually better.

We will think about opening the WC door out. I'm not as concerned about whacking someone when it opens out as much as being able to reach the door to let in a dog that just wants to "visit" with me while I'm on the "throne". Yes, the deep dark secret is that I actually don't completely shut the door that often because I'm just some kind of free spirit who doesn't care if her husband sees her or the dogs want to join the party & rest on the tile. ;^) (I think that last sentence could be categorized as TMI.)

Isn't that the point of a custom home, especially one that they will take me out of feet first, that its built for the way the owners live? Yes, we do think about resale, to some extent, since we may not be well enough to stay in it for our whole lives or DD will have to sell it when we pass on. As a matter of fact, the way the bath fits with the bedroom is such that the access to my closet can be changed to be from the bedroom and a bathtub could be put underneath the window in my closet by a future owner.

I did try to talk DH into making the closets 7' wide since it wouldn't affect the roof plan. We mocked it up, & saw that it didn't improve things enough to warrant the additional 37 sq. ft. It finally comes to the point that we are ~2600 sq.ft. on the main floor, ~500 sq.ft. on the lower level, for now, & the whole house will be close to 4500 sq.ft. when all of the lower level is complete. That is more than enough for two people and when DD's future family visits, so we called a moratorium on additional square footage unless needed to fix a true "broke".

I will look into what we need to do to make the entire wall of the shower glass. That is how we originally envisioned it. I still have to cogitate on the bench. I looked at dimensions for teak shower benches so it should be somewhere between 15" - 18" deep.

Thanks - Jo Ann

Speaking of teak shower benches, have you considered a fold down one? That would give you the extra floorspace in your shower. Some look better than others but somewhere recently (can't remember where) I saw a nice looking one!

athensmom - yes, I thought about a fold down teak bench, but I'm afraid that is something that will inevitably break & need replacing. I figure a tiled bench (not a cantilevered corner seat) is about as bullet proof as I can get. I did see a portable one that looked nicely ergonomic (see link).

I need to visualize how I really want to sit in the shower. I wish I could just have a nice enough seat and a foot stool. That would probably work the best for me, but I can't quite figure out how to do it.

Thanks - Jo Ann

Here is a link that might be useful: Curved Teak Stool

I think that I would bring the wall out in front of the shower and WC. You could bring it out a foot and still have 5 feet between the window and the shower, which is still plenty of space for a bench. You would also have more room in the WC for the door swing. Just think about walking in the WC room and closing the door behind you - there is not much room. I would also take a couple of inches from the shower for the WC room. Like this (my lines in gray.:

I would probably put a bench seat about 18" deep along the entire back wall of the shower.

Jo Ann, I am curious - how do you mock it up? I try to compare floor plan measurements to what we have now, but any other method could help even more.
Nan

We do all kinds of things like place boxes or pieces of cardboard in place to the measurements we are trying to evaluate and then sit or walk around in them. I came home one day & the small, "formal" living room was all rearranged so that it would be about the same size as our keeping room with boxes & cardboard as delimiters. It felt nice & cozy which is what we are looking for, so we went with the dimensions.

You can get huge rolls of freezer paper for very cheap so that you can cut out "windows" to stick up & see if they work. Painter's blue tape is useful for putting outlines on floors or walls. DH often uses one of those adjustable poles that you use to change light bulbs & sets it to a ceiling height we are trying to figure out. I'm really good at sliding two yardsticks along each other to get dimensions between 3' - 6'. I find it more tactile & intuitive than a tape measure.

Tonight, I will probably take the long ottoman & manipulate things (cardboard, tape, etc.) on it until it resembles bench ideas. This will vastly annoy the dogs, but tough. GGG! I dunno, we just use out imagination to take common items that come close to what we are trying to figure out.

I also have two different SW home design programs that allow me to do walkthroughs of the interior, but I tend to take those with a grain of salt. They are good for figuring out if furniture will actually fit and things like that. Also, if you have a friend with a feature in their home that you particularly like (or dislike) ask them to measure it for you. We love to irritate DH's brother with these requests. ;^)

I work in the aerospace industry & DH is retired from it, so we're all about "simulators". LOL!

"2' is too narrow a door for a walkin closet. I don't think I could get through it carrying a hamper without my elbows wacking."

We have a 2'0" door into one of our walk-in closets and Sue's right. It IS too narrow, and I have to carry the laundry basket in a funny way to avoid scraping the door jambs. A few extra inches will be appreciated.

"The door to our current powder room is 2', so we're fine with that for the closets."

The room with the 2'0" closet door has a matching 2'0" bathroom door, and that bathroom door is NOT a problem for us either. The closet door is. Why? I guess it's mainly the laundry basket issue -- that and going into the closet with armfuls of fresh laundry to re-hang. Seems I don't carry loads of bulky stuff into the bathroom. Can you live with a 2'0" closet door? Sure - I'm not changing mine. But I wouldn't do it again knowing what I now know. If yours can be changed easily, I'd suggest you do it.

Will your shower feel dungeon-like? Not if you have a nice light fixture in there -- or perhaps even a skylight or solar tube. Personally, I prefer a more enclosed shower, and don't want full-body visability to the rest of the bath suite. A lighter wall tile and an accent strip or tile feature at eye level will also help.

sweeby - thanks for your feedback on the closet door. I tried walking through our powder room door with a clothe basket & it wasn't as easy as I thought. They haven't even started framing, yet, so it is no big deal to change the closet doors to 2'-4".

Would you do what I had in mind - "cheat" the closet doors toward one wall? Or, would you keep them centered? This came to mind because my closet door opens into a window that matches the one across from the shower. I figured I couldn't hang anything where the window is so I can move the door in that direction. Of course, I would do the same thing on DH's side & he could hang belts, ties (what are those for, he's retired?), etc. behind the door.

I'm not sure a solar tube would work in the shower because it is a steam shower. I think it is neat that we all have such different ideas of what our comfort level is to "exposure" in the bathroom. But, all feelings in that regard are valid, because that is very personal. I just happen to be some sort of "free spirit" which I didn't even realize before this discussion. LOL!

Thanks - Jo Ann