It looks like you have FRP - fiberglass reinforced plastic - panels on your walls and around the shower. They should be installed with the recommended trim pieces and silicone caulk. I have been looking into using these to convert my garage into a dog kennel. They are used in food service and commercial interior environments. Food for thought - your DH wants to cut corners which is not good. Maybe he is not really cut out for remodeling or is tired. I would be concerned about moisture damage behind your tub walls. If it were me, knowing that DH was not going to caulk, I would get my tush in that tub with a caulk gun and get busy. Caulking is very easy, there are even youtube videos out there. I suggest that you really research how to install sheetrock and cement backer board. How to install a tub and reconnect the plumbing. How to tile and grout. There is a lot of information on this forum if you search for hydroban or hydro ban and Redguard and kerdi. Mongoct and bill Vincent have great threads on the topic. Redguard is available at Home Depot and is cheaper. Mongct has 2 great threads on plumbing fixtures. If you go to the Terry Love plumbing forum, there is a great thread on getting a Kohler cast iron Villager bathtub in place. There are both good and lame videos on youtube. Get to Home Depot and actually look at the building materials and tools and start getting familiar with them and their prices. Draw your bathroom out on graph paper with the exact measurements so you can actually get a feel for the room. Even if you hire the work out, you still need to know how to direct the work to get the best finished product. But you will find more women on this forum who hire out the cement board and sheetrock work and do the tile work themselves - that is what I'm doing. As for the medicine cabinet, when you redo the walls, you can cut out the studs and build an opening with a header like a window for the medicine cabinet, and other recessed openings such as niches. Save your money and start learning and planning this remodel. Start itemizing the material costs - cbu, thinset, Redguard, cbu tape, sheetrock tape, sheetrock mud, grout, tile, paint, tools, etc if you think you can do some of the work yourself. If not, get 3 quotes for the tub/plumbing and the framing/cbu/sheetrock and the tile work - whatever part you and DH think you don't want to tackle. You may need more money to replace rotted wood. $500 is just decorating chump change. Plan the remodel in stages - tub and tub surround first, the rest later. Also plan on getting at least the bathtub and tub walls completed quickly so you can use it. Tear out the ceiling too. Bathrooms take a lot of detailed work and more money than other rooms. No, the tile on the walls does not have to match the floor. Folks do like to use a tile that has end pieces with beveled edges in the collection to finish the very top of the wall. Anything goes these days based on personal style = that's where browsing Houzz is great for getting inspired. I would use the same tile around the whole bathroom including the shower. I have 16 year old stone looking tile on my floors and I cam going with Daltile white 3x6 and 6x6 ceramic tile from Home Depot. I can cut it with a manual tile saw and run back to Home Depot for more pieces, or return leftovers. I still don't understand why you have to have a 13 inch deep vanity if the sink is going to protrude past 13 inches. Why can't the vanity be deeper than 13 inches. You will have to build one to get the maximum storage for your space. this is when having a picture of your floorplan with the exact measurements would be helpful. The forum could give you some good advice on the size and placement. I still think a wide pedestal sink is your best bet. Have you looked at the Kohler pedestal sinks - the models come in a variety of widths. There is not much storage in small retail vanities. To really maximize the storage, you really need to have a custom vanity made. Check out cabinet shops in your area because the prices are really not that bad - especially if you pick it up and install it yourself. This post was edited by Anna_in_TX on Mon, Mar 17, 14 at 18:46

I have a 5 burner Miele and I like it, but if I were buying a new model today I would definitely choose one of the induction units in the Thermador CIT365 family. For one, they are the most powerful on the market (they have the largest diameter burner--13") and this burner is capable of cranking out 4,600 watts, almost a 1,000 watts more than anyone elses large burner. Like the Miele, which has 5 turn-off timers, the Thermador also has 5 turn-off timers, but also has a 6th alarm clock timer. The 5 burner Miele (its top of the line) has a total output of 10,200 watts, while the Thermador top of the line has 10,800 watts. The Miele has 12 cooking levels, while the Thermador has 17 levels. They both have pot size recognition. The Miele has spill detection, while the Thermador one-ups it with anti-overflow system, which prevents spills by automatically shutting off and sounding alarm when liquids are detected on cooktop surface. They both have residual heat indicators. The Miele has a memory function that can store up to 5 procedures. The top of the line Thermador has a CookSmart feature that has 9 pre-programmed cooking modes. The Miele's largest burner is 11" and is 2.5 kW, with boosting to 3.1 and 3.6 kW's. The Thermador has largest 13" diameter burner with 2 smaller diameters. They have succeeding outputs of unboosted 2.2 kW's, 2.6 kW's, and 3.3 kW's, while with boosting it boasts 4.6 kW's. The Miele has a safety lock function and the Thermador has a child-proof lockout. I imagine they are basically the same functions. The Miele has over-heating protection, while the top of the line Thermador has a Sensor Dome which has a retractable sensor that measures the heat of the pot and keeps the temperature consistent. The Thermador function here is far more sophisticated as overheating becomes a non-issue when temperatures are kept consistent. Miele has a stop-and-go mode, which temporarily reduces all settings to low. While Thermador doesn't have this feature it counters with a more sophisticated keep warm function. Miele has an overtime auto shut-off. Not exactly sure what the purpose of this is, unless it is for if the cook falls asleep and the cooktop eventually shuts off. But with timers that perform shut-off functions on both cooktops, it seems like a redundant system. I think the Sensor Dome feature on the Thermador that measures the heat of the pot and keeps the temperature consistent is far more useful. This feature is great for long-term simmering and other heat levels that are required for longer periods of time, such as with soups, stock, stews, etc. With all these features it makes one wonder why anyone would ever want as their main cooktop one that is powered by gas. With induction there is no danger of Carbon Monoxide, which is always part of the incomplete combustion of gas. Nevermind some other volatile gases that are emitted from gas. And if you forget about a pot on the fire with gas, you will at minimum destroy the pot and at maximum start a fire. Of course there are a couple advantages to gas, such as roasting peppers over open flame and being able to more easily wok cook. If I had to do it all over again I would get the Thermador and a separate high-powered gas hob for wok cooking. Greg

I agree about living in a space for a while to figure out it's quirks, how you use it and how you like to store your stuff. I wanted to tear into this latest house when we moved in, but a loss of my remodel money in a stock market account forced me to wait 2 years. Yes, I hated the kitchen everyday, but I was able to pinpoint exactly WHY I hated it, like the only oven in a blind entry, no place under the counter for trash, narrow passage between pantry and peninsula that created a bottleneck in the traffic flow. Well, I know this isn't about me, but you get the idea. The list gets pretty long when you have time to really think about things. Is your "front" room going to be your main hang out with the den as an office? Or is it just a sitting room with the den as a TV area? How do you THINK you're going to use the space? Hmmm, the toilet thing is bothering me. I've got kids who almost never shut the door, so if it were my house, neighbors, UPS guy, whoever would get an eyeful LOL! Is there space on either side of the toilet where it can be turned? How about a wall where a doorway could be opened to the den? A top view floorplan would help. Or pictures from all the entries. Do you really want to trudge up and down the basement stairs with heavy baskets of clothes? An uninterupted lenth of counter top makes a great folding table. If you've got kids watching TV in the den, you're right there. Is the house a single story or two story with a basement? If it were my space, I'd keep the laundry there and get front loading stackable w/d. I'm not too sure about the back door though. Will it be used as the primary entry from the garage/parking? Does the Den door have better access? Maybe this one could be walled off. Or if it's the better entry, maybe stack the units and create a coat rack/shoe storage. I kind of like the range in that location as your main traffic looks like it is now on the right side, a continuation of the hall to the den to the dining area and front room. If you close off the back entry, that will limit traffic too, out of the main cooking zone. Most people work left to right, so food gathered from fridge, placed on an island or cleaned/prepped at the sink, then move to the range to cook. I'd center the range on that 67" wall. A 30" range centered would give you 18" of countertop left to right. Or a 36" range with 15". It's a little tigher, but still doable. That's mainly a personal thing, I'm not a fan of cooktops/ranges in the island, I love having A LOT of prep counter. I'm not sure the range would work in the old fridge space. It looks a bit tight, maybe only 48" or so? How about budget? To be honest, just about anything can be accomplished with a well padded budget, but for the rest of us... well, concessions have to be made. How about inspiration pics? What's the style or look you're going for? Here's some from my personal inspiration file. A LOT of white kitchens ; ). Here's one with a mudroom or similar next to the range. Here's one on a slightly larger scale. You don't have an issue with supports, but the walk ways are similar. Note the prep sink in the island and the fridge and pantry on the right. Here's one with the cooktop in the island and fridge on the wall. Here's one where the opening to the dining room is centered and they've added returns on each side. No island. Here's another one.

I remember after renovating my kitchen and bathrooms the first time, I had acquired all this knowledge and skill and felt that I should use it. It seemed so pointless to have gone thru and learned so much to get it done, to just throw that away. So I totally get that you are still keen to do another one. We had a house fire and ended up redoing everything (hard but fun). I got to fix everything I wished I'd done differently (I'd recommend the site finished hardwoods), but now I'm totally burnt out and am happy to live with what we have. It sounds like you still have the energy. If you get it at a reasonable price, I'd do it.