We are just getting prices from contractors in NYC for our 35 sq ft (actually a little less since it's not quite 7 x 5) and prices are $7,500 - $20,000 from 4 different places. The bathroom is over 50 years old and we have just been living with it for a while. It's all contractor work, no DIY. We cannot move plumbing so the layout won't change. I'm not really sure what the $7,500 price includes since the contractor would really not elaborate beyond "a basic bathroom" that includes wall to wall new tile (what we have now). One vendor who did not do a site visit (only looked at photos) came in around $15K. I am waiting on formal proposals from 2 contractors that visited this week and I gave them the wish list below that does not include any fixtures choices or finish choices but they are steering us toward custom and semi custom. One vendor said not to spend too much since we could price out the market for resale (we are not selling anytime soon, if at all) so he came down to $20K from $25K. There is one more contractor on the list that we plan to call for an estimate. A neighbor spent $40K on her bathroom. I have not seen it but just heard the price this week so I will make it a point to visit to have a look. replace bathtub/drain & replace fixtures, adjustable rain shower with separate handheld replace medicine cabinet make laundry hamper area into storage (framed with shelving) demo wall to wall tile, replace tile add recessed storage on rear shower wall install new lighting paint entire room (replace bathroom and bedroom doors - only two doors in the apartment so they should match) replace metal towel bar in shower replace storage cabinets (towels & other products) install vessel sink and fixtures add handheld sprayer for toilet (may get washlet seat if elongated toilet will fit) cover and tile over pipes; add mesh venting remove shower door (install curved shower rod) replace ceramic towel bar (8 hooks?) & switch plate add vertical toilet paper holder upgrade & add electric outlets (2 x 2); not on same circuit as lights Labor only estimates so far: $12,650 $13,200 Materials $3,355 (low) - $7,355 (high) One GC sources and stores the materials which seem to be at least 25% -50% higher for some items than I've seen locally. This post was edited by kdnyc on Tue, Jun 3, 14 at 15:24

I like your choices, too. I would continue searching for the right light neutral color, myself. I'm also not sold on blue in there... It does take time to get the right color! My usual procedure: 1) bring home about 10 different swatches from the store. Hold them up in the room in various places, sometimes right on the wall, sometimes holding it out at arms length so it's "bigger" in your field of vision. Narrow your swatches down to say 5 or 6 that look OK. 2) Look at them at different times of day, different weather, different locations in the room. Next to whatever different materials they will abut IRL. 3) Narrow it down to a handful. Buy testers of those colors or whatever the smallest amount you can buy is. Paint ~2'x2' blocks on various walls (or paint pieces of poster board that you can move around) and again, look at them in different light situations.

Thanks guys! This is the clawfoot tub I am considering: http://philadelphia.craigslist.org/atq/5280827575.html. It is pretty - look at those legs! I would paint the outside a different color though. And if I went drop in, it would probably look a lot like the one in JLC's last picture -- in fact, that picture basically encompasses the whole look I am going for - wainscoting, the closed in shower, the little mosaic tile on the floor. So thanks for that picture! I'm still torn on the tub issue - JLC's post had convinced me that I want drop in (especially the part about it being easier to get in as you age) but amberm is swaying me back again with the prettiness factor. When I look at my inspiration pics, there's a pretty even split between drop-in and clawfoot. One other factor that I didn't mention is that we currently have a laundry chute built into the side of the tub deck -- in my original picture, you can see the hinges where it opens near the floor -- the front of the tub deck pulls open and I can toss laundry down into the laundry room. This is an awesome feature. If I go with a drop in, I will keep the chute where it is (well, it will move back a few inches with the rest of the deck but that will actually make it fall in a better spot in the laundry room so that is fine). But if I go with a clawfoot, I am either going to have to put a trap door in the floor or build some kind of cabinet...and since it would look odd to have either of those right in the middle of the room, I will have to move the whole laundry chute back under the center of the window, which drops the laundry in a less convenient but still workable spot in the laundry room. But then I have to figure out if I want a trap door in the floor or to build some kind of little cabinet or flip out wall thing to serve as the door to the laundry chute -- I'm a little nervous about just making a trap door because it seems dangerous if someone accidentally left it open. So if I went with a clawfoot, I would probably build some kind of cabinet that ran from the edge of the window back to the corner -- the full top of it could server as a ledge for plants and holding stuff you'd want while in the tub while the part that is exposed (not behind the tub) could open for the laundry chute. But this is seeming very complicated and hard to visualize vs. just replicating what we basically have now....and have I mentioned that I'm bad at visualizing?!? I guess it would look something like the way the ledge runs in JLC's Charleston Beach Cottage picture....but looking at that pic, I can't imagine how they are going to get back there to clean the floor under there and I'm worried about having the same problem. To address the counter space concerns, the vanity width is just shy of 80". The current plan is to have a neighbor custom-build my cabinets (that's what he does for a living), so I was going to go with 2 29" sink base cabinets and a 20" drawer unit in the middle. I am also planning a recessed shaker-style built-in medicine cabinet unit that should give me a ton of storage for the stuff that is currently sitting on the counter. So hopefully I wouldn't need a bunch of counter space. I envision it looking something like this: I want it to run the full width of the vanity area. I think I worked out the math and it should be doable and line up with the sinks if I use 20" doors and 4" spacers in between (6" on each end)....but here's where my issue with proportion comes in -- is that too much space? Who knows! Hopefully the cabinet guy has some kind of visualization software where he can dummy it up and I can see what it will look like. There is another window over the back of the tub that isn't visible in this picture so I'm not sure I could make a vanity over there....but I do think I should keep the tub. It is not our only tub but the other one is a regular small tub/shower combo in the kids' bathroom and it would be nice to have one that is a little nicer/bigger. Please keep the feedback coming...you all are bringing up things I haven't thought about before and I really appreciate it!

"Inexpensive to operate compared to an electric heater." No, I don't think that's true. As I said above, a 1500 watt resistance heater (which all portable heaters are) would use 1.5 KwH of electricity in one hour and would produce 5000 BTUs. They're all the same. If an electric radiator stays warm for awhile, then compared to a radiant heater that would emit 5000 BTUs in an hour, maybe this one if unplugged after one hour would emit 3500 BTUs for the first hour and then another 1500 as it cools off. Electric resistance is heating the liquid inside and one kind of electric resistance of an equal wattage is the same as another. If something is rated at fewer watts, it gives off less heat. A 750 watt heater (half of 1500 in the example) would use half as much electricity and give off 2500 BTUs (half of 5000)