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

Looks like it was meant to be a door to the exterior that got converted to a window instead during the build. Would a door there be useful to you? Tearing down a wall could be a possibility, but you need to determine if that wall is load bearing first. That means you need a structural engineer's report. Just have him do that at the same time he's engineering the new supports for your new second floor bedroom above the kitchen. You'll need that stamped for the permits anyway, so kill two birds with one stone.

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.

When I looked at your room, my first thought was to get rid of the niches. But now that Pal has jumped in with some inspiration pics, I would think about tromp l'oeil (?sp)- you know, when painting on the wall that looks like the real thing. I like the idea of having something built in on the right of the door. Do you have a closet where a guest can put their coat? If not, I would consider a wall there, recessed back and framed but open, with nice hardware hooks where coats could be hung. Depending on how deep the recess, there could even be a place for boots. You would get some function of a closet and define the media area without losing a lot of space. I agree that the right area would be the place for media. That is the only real wall you have. On the left of the space, I would consider putting a small round table in the center, and then some comfortable chairs that can be used on their own for reading, but also be able to be pulled up to the table for games, projects, or eating. Kind of like how some people combine a library/dining area. I also like your idea of ladder bookshelves. I have my doubts about your backless chaise as I wonder how functional it really is. Backless anything is uncomfortable to me. Your window trim is gorgeous!