Well, phooey. I taped it out in the bathroom with blue tape last night and it looked like it would fit, but with too many nos, I'm back to the drawing board. Interesting thought, Vix. Right now we don't actually have a toilet room, so much as a separate toilet "area" (there's no door, and the closet takes up too much room to add a door), but it's on my agenda to create one. In our house, it's very necessary. I generally use that bathroom to try to FIND privacy, only to have 3 people (and sometimes the dog) follow me into the bathroom. I'm looking forward to having a door that locks and a fan so that I don't have two little people handing me the TP and asking whether I'm doing number 1 or 2 (oh, and the 1 year old likes to flush while I'm ON the pot; so I've got my own special cold water washlet), while DH decides that he absolutely has to shave and brush his teeth at that exact moment. Now if I take a hike to the guest bath on the other side of the house, all three just follow me AGAIN. Sometimes when I have insisted on locking the door in the guest bath (no way to do that with our LOUVERED -- why??? -- pocket door in the master), my one year old plopped down prostrate outside the door and cried until I open the door. For my W/C, I want to put in a LOUD fan; no whisper quiet for me. Maybe I'll even add a radio. :) The way I'm seeing it, I can either get rid of the long vanity altogether and live with a fairly small vanity, plus a tub and shower, I can skip the tub and live with the kids' bathroom on the third level as the only room with a tub, or we can bump out that weird corner jog, which would give us an additional 49'' X 27'' space -- enough to fit a 5X3 tub, 5X3 shower and keep the two vanities. But that sounds very expensive and will require carefully removing and replacing the siding to match the existing. DH's response to all this was "why do we need a tub?"

I like the look of a simple backsplash using the countertop material rather than using a mosaic there. We used a 6" tall splash instead of 4". We just finished our master bath last fall and we used the Emser Lucente Lazzaro for one shower wall and the niches. Lazzaro has a lot of light greenish-gray-marble colors in it. Lucente comes in a lot of colors. My local showroom only had 2 colors on display, but the Emser website shows a lot more options. If you use Lucente I have one suggestion regarding installation. I don't know if this will occur with a different color, but with the Lazzaro color, there were some marble pieces that had black dots in them. That was fine as long as these dots occurred randomly, but it just so happened that some of them lined up in one area when being installed. The installer was so close to it that he didn't realize. His helper was standing further back and noticed. While things were still wet, he cut out the offending pieces with a utility knife and replaced them with a piece from another sheet. Just an installation detail I thought I'd mention. Our colors were: Emser Uptown Sugar Hill for field tile in 12 x 24" (it's a light gray/concrete color with some variation), Lucente Lazzaro linear mosaic for one wall and niches, QDI The Rock 3" x 3" floor tile (charcoal gray), marble countertop and tub surround with marble splashes, white vanity cabinet and tub skirt panels, a large linen cabinet stained in a medium brown tone and some floating shelves also stained, and existing wood floors. We thought a white and gray color plan might be too cold so we incorporated the greenish-gray mosaic and the stained cabinet, plus a teak bench in shower to bring in some warm elements.

Towel rack and art work. And where you currently have that large plant I would put a nice cart with shelves and on it put the things you need for your bath- soap, shampoo, bath oil, scrub brush, etc. and the fun stuff, like a candle, and a scent diffuser oil with sticks, perfect for an area that gets warm and steamy, and whatever decorative accessories that make you feel relaxed and "spa-ish." With regard to the art work, rather than worry about humidity rusting a frame, or getting inside and causing deterioration of the art and or the matting, why not just paint something directly on the wall itself? You can do a landscape mural if you like that, or a line painting, or whatever suits your fancy. Just remember you will be right next to it, and without your spectacles, so that will change how you see it. If it were me, I would find a talented high school student or middle school student to do a line drawing of something. Too old, and it costs too much. Keep in mind, you can't ask a middle school student to do a nude. Well, I wouldn't. I find the younger they are, the less inhibited, the less bogged down by the "I can't do this, I am no good at this" stuff adults are, unless they have already been assaulted by it. They can do a drawing on paper and you can blow it up on the wall and paint it. Or you can ask them to paint it, either one. or you can just copy a line drawing of one of the greats. Kandinsky, Matisse, Picasso, etc.

I would either leave it empty or just a large vase or piece of art I never undestand why builders did these