I notice nobody has responded. There are certainly many many more people out there with greater experience, but I'll tell you what little I have. I'm new to large gardening, but we had windowboxes for a few years at a former house. My husband made them, as well. They were painted on the outside, can't remember if they were painted on the inside. We didn't use liners. The boxes were too small so liners wouldn't fit and it was always a challenge to keep things watered in the Georgia heat. Now we inherited wooden window boxes (commercially made) in our current house up here and they have the standard liner. I will say that the liners do seem to protect the wood from water damage. Without the liners the wet soil holds the water against the wood and accelerates rotting. How visible the liners are once plants get going depends on the color contrast between planter and liner and how many plants drape over. If your husband has some time, maybe it would be possible for him to add some type of trim around the top that would be the right height to hide the liners. Our current boxes are deep eggplant purple and the forest green liner just fades away and is hardly noticeable. If height isn't problem and the windowboxes are higher than the liners but you can see them up close because you're standing above them, then I have no suggestions there! Maybe try to paint the top rim of the liner the same color as the window box? As for shallowness and dirt, most liners have that water bin underneath to hold water. Between that and the fact that plastic isn't as porous as wood, I wouldn't be surprised if liners actually held moisture better, even thought they leave less room for good potting soil. Last year I put soil retention beads in our windowboxes as two are extremely difficult to water. Hopefully that helped keep them from drying out quickly. They certainly didn't get watered every day! As for ease, it certainly is easier to cart the liner around when it's time to remove dirt and change plants--that's for sure!

I pulled out the washlet manual. The 350e uses "e-water+" which is a hypochlorous water generated from chloride ions in tap water via electrolysis. Often used for cleaning and disinfecting utensils and baby bottles, "well water may not deliver required effect as the level of chloride ions is low." "Clean sterile water helps to minimize dirty surfaces, but does not make cleaning unnecessary". So the washlet uses this ewater+ or EO to clean the wand and also as a pre-mist (per manual "to make it more difficult for dirt to adhere") and also as an after-mist once the wand cleaning is done. If the wand or bowl has not been cleaned for 8 hours, the wand cleaning cycle and mist automatically run. All of these auto-functions can be turned on or off. I use a bowl brush on our Kohler at least weekly and usually more often if I'm in that bathroom, because the men in this house won't clean it to my satisfaction, leaving that essence of pee scent behind. The Kohler actually has a good flush but it's 20 years old and not particularly water-saving. There is rarely "residue/dirt" left behind. I expect I will swirl a toilet brush around in the Totos also just to freshen it up or sanitize rather than only trusting in "e-water+". I will have to go read the toilet manual next, probably no bleach or heavy duty cleaners allowed.

A2, just curious as to what kind of consulting you do and where A2 is?... now I understand why you said you could buy a toilet in Canada, but believe me (living in Canada), Totos are much cheaper in the US... as are almost ALL plumbing supplies/fixtures so I wouldn't think it would be worthwhile to shop up here! I'm approximately your age (A wee bit younger), and just got rid (well we started gutting over a year ago, left the toilet in as long as possible) of our avocado green fixtures! Though previous posters are correct about relative cost of fixing toilets (again costs more up here), I totally get your position. You can only fix things for so long until you begin to ask, shouldn't we just replace it? For that reason, we have a brand spanking WHITE toilet in our otherwise sky blue fixture BR (#3 and last BR to be remodeled). We had literally duct-taped the toilet seat down, cuz I refused to pay $60-$70 for a new one as I knew that toilet was going to be replaced. Unfortunately, there are unremoveable rust stains on the linoleum cuz the old toilet had a bigger foot print, but I have lived with this 'new' toilet in this old BR for 3 years now. So, personally I would start looking at toilets, replace the present one, and just reuse it in your new remodel. On another note, I just got back from visiting family, and I guess I haven't sat on a non-comfort height toilet for awhile, as I used my mother's BR I almost pulled a muscle, because for a second I thought I had sat down and missed the toilet bowl! I stayed with my sister, and really I thought I was using a kid's vanity and toilet, they seemed so low (I really do think her vanity is even lower than the normal low BR height) Our new BR vanity does have all drawers, top drawer is U-shaped to fit around sink. I had it custom made so it was deeper than sink. Since the plumbing was in the middle I had him make the 2 sides 2" longer. The other two drawers are 2" shallower to allow room for pipes in back. The second drawer has the U cutout to clear plumbing. As you can see, not installed yet:

That vanity top looks really nice, actually. I agree with going over to the decorating forum for paint suggestions (you'll get many, and very specific!). Would you also consider changing the shower door to a curtain? I can't tell what's above the shower tile - is that a trim tile in a different color? Is there wall above that? Personally, I'd just paint a really serene color that goes with the vanity, put in a nice shower curtain and rug, and you'll have a totally updated look.