So, dear hubby is totally PO'd that I let it get like this and refuses to fix it. It's not your fault the builder cheaped out and put tile over drywall. There is no amount of caulking that could have prevented that from happening. Is the tub in decent shape? If so, stripping out the rotten stuff and installing new tile is not too difficult. If the tub is crap and it's cast-iron, buy a sledge hammer, put on a helmet with full-face transparent shield, and long-sleeved pants and jacket, close the bathroom door and give the tub a few whacks with the sledgehammer. They are brittle and will break into chunks in a spectacular mess of flying shards. Whack it until you have it in small-enough pieces to haul out. If it's enameled steel, it will dent instead of breaking. You'll need to get a SawzALL with a metal-cutting blade and appropriate protective gear to cut it into 2 or 3 pieces to haul out. When the demolition is done, you'll need a plumber for the drain and faucet hookup ... it's not easy.

Janieful: "The advanced toilet makes sense to me - at least much more than a separate bidet would. I have never used either, but bidets take up so much space. The one in all model is much more practical." The advanced toilet seats are not, strictly speaking, direct replacements for bidets, though one generic term for advanced toilet seats is "bidet seat." The first and foremost function of an advanced toilet seat is water washing a bit further to the rear than a bidet cleanses. Cleansing the anus with water is far superior to wiping (and spreading) with dry paper. Most current models of advanced toilet seat have a second washing function called "feminine cleaning," or a variant thereof, which has many similarities to the function of a bidet. As you may guess, that function directs the water somewhat further forward than the primary function does. However, in "real" bidets, the water comes from the front, whereas in advanced toilet seats, the water approaches from the rear, so there is a difference. The various brands of advanced toilet seats approach these functions in different manners. Inax, which invented the advanced toilet seat category, determined that the optimal angle of incidence of the spray on the anus should be 70 degrees from horizontal or, in other words, just 20 degrees from vertical. The Inax advanced toilet seats therefore have spray wands for posterior cleansing that extend out fairly far, so that the spray can be more nearly vertical. Toto, the biggest player in the market, was obsessed by the spectre of "backwash," the (small proportion of the) water that rebounds off the user's posterior, and accordingly Toto Washlets are designed to spray water at the anus at 43 degrees from horizontal, which reduces (but does not not eliminate) the amount of backwash that hits the spray wand. But spray directed at Toto's 43 degree angle does not wash as effectively as the 70 degree spray of the Inax models does. Inax addresses the backwash matter with an aggressive self-cleaning cycle for the spray wands, executed both before and after each use. As to the feminine function, Toto can get by with a single wand for both posterior and feminine cleansing, with two spray nozzles in the single wand, because the 43 degree spray angle for the posterior wash already is so shallow. Inax has to use a separate dedicated spray wand for feminine cleansing, because the wand that Inax uses for posterior cleansing would not be positioned well for the feminine cleansing function. But, whether or not you use the toilet seat for bidet-like functions, water-assisted posterior cleansing is a huge step up from dry wiping after a bowel movement. There probably is no way to upgrade your bathroom more effectively than to replace a passive toilet seat with an advanced toilet seat.

Is this the master bath? Do you want a tub and a separate shower? Do you want one or two sinks? A separate toilet room? The 12 x 15 size of your bathroom isn't really small and at many stage of my life I would have been ecstatic to have that amount of space but it depends on what you want to put in it. If you want a separate tub and shower that will limit your closet space considerably. Think about an arrangement with an aisle down the middle and what you can place on each side that makes sense to have each function (closet, sinks, toilet, tub, etc.) borrow space from the aisle. I'm not good enough with my computer skills to post a diagram but I will try to describe one possibility. Our new master bath will be 11' wide x 14' long with a 4' wide aisle separating a 5' side and a 2' side. As you enter the room we have an 2'deep x 4' wide linen/supply cabinet on the left of the aisle and a 5' deep x 4' wide toilet room on the other side. As you proceed into the room we have an open space next to the linen cabinet for towel bars, bathroom scale, wastebasket, etc. that is 4' wide. On the opposite of the aisle from the open space is a roll-in shower that is 4' wide x 5' deep (if you can follow this, the shower is the same depth as the toilet room and adjacent to it). As you proceed further into the room toward the very large window at the end opposite the door, a 6' double vanity is on the same wall as the linen closet and the open towel bar space and opposite that is a soaking tub on the same wall as the toilet compartment and the shower. If you do not want a separate tub and shower you could probably have a good sized walk in closet in the place where we have our shower and a reach in closet where we have our linen closet. Hope this helps.

What is your style? Those vanity doors are pretty contemporary, so might be hard to go traditional.... Thoughts: 1) If you like the vanity cabinet just fine, or just want to maybe paint it and add a top, you might hunt around for a stone remnant for the top. I was quoted about $300 to cut and finish a soapstone slab with cutout for one undermount sink. It would probably be about $400 for two sinks. Low-end granite from a remnant selection was around the same cost. But I wouldn't spend that kind of money if you don't love the vanity itself. 2) If you want to buy something pre-made that doesn't have that triangle at the end, why not just build the triangle section out of something else. For instance, it could be like a wood shelving unit that fits in there (maybe floating so you could still fit the trash can!) with it's top somewhat higher than whatever prefab vanity top you get, so that there isn't a funny transition of materials... so it looks more intentional. it could even be a little piece of some fabulous stone like marble or whatever, because it won't cost very much for such a little piece with only edge finish and no cutouts.... 3) How handy are you? You could build a simple open shelving vanity (many pics on line of these now) with baskets, and splurge on a gorgeous stone top from a remnant yard. Or not eve, one of the pics below has a wood top, you could use semi-recessed sinks or vessels if you like those. Even cheaper :) Something like these: 4) Personally, I'd probably take the whole thing out and replace with an inexpensive vanity like Ikea's Godmoron units, either with their vanity top with a filler piece as I just described, or with a custom-made slab top. But that's probably going to run $500-$900 all told to do that. What's your budget?