lauraella, I like your sliding door, but we don't have room to do that on the outside walls, either - one side is too short, the other has a thermostat. Thank you for the suggestion, housevixen. I'm not sure that I like the looks of the bifold door, with all those hinges. And I think there might need to be even more hinges without a tub; since the panels will be longer, they will be heavier, too. It occurred to me that since the external door is about 24", and I have 5' along the shower, I could set it up so that hinge point is past where the external door would hit,and put a transparent "stop" on the panel to prevent the door from hitting it. Then I'd only have to worry if the swinging shower door went well past 90 degrees - maybe this could be restricted?

Watboy, you choose the HTML CODE line beside each photo after you upload. It is in the stuff to the RIGHT of each photo. You click that line, it says "copied", and then you come to the open window of your GWeb post and do a "CRTL+V" And voila, there you go. Do not change ANY of the code. It looks to me like the ceiling rafters are turned FLAT, and very far apart. For strength, I think they need to be turned with the 2x4 standing taller, not flatter. How wide is your room anyway? And is that a shed roofline? Is there any insulation overhead? Taking out that center 2x4 in the door opening will put more stress on the two at the sides of the opening. You might can double them up beneath that beam. When my contractor took out a wall in our bathroom remodel, he doubled the beam across the top of the opening. In this picture, the opening will not have a door, but it will be about 7.5 feet across where the old exterior wall used to be. Can you tell that it has a doubled header beam there? It is still holding part of the roof load, and you see the roofing support 2x4s that he used to extend the roof on beyond the old exterior which is about 5.5 more feet.

plllog -- no I didn't! But it's still there... believe it or not. I'm sure it'll be gone this weekend when more people are out shopping. I was disappointed when we measured and found the usable height in the upper was 4.5, and there was a new GE Profile and a new Kenmore with 5.5" and 5" respectively. It's big enough for my casseroles, but I figure if I am going to kill my back I'd rather kill it with a better, larger upper oven - it would be easier to get things in and out. The low to the ground thing also really bugs me, so I'll probably decide against it. It sure is a cool design though, and a time and energy saver as well. I'm probably going to choose a freestanding. I was hooked on the slide in at first. I liked that the burner knobs were on the front. Walking up to them on display at Sears, I felt like I'd be Captain Kirk at the helm of my starship range! Then I realized I didn't want to pay so much more for that. On the stain - yes, the pine is browny/yellow, but being on the cathedral ceiling, it appears darker than it probably is up close. My cabinet maker came over last night and advised me to go darker, like you said - dark walnut, and put a little low sheen poly on my samples. After applying the poly, the dark walnut seemed good. His other advice was to get some steel wool and rub the beams with that, as that would remove enough of the old shiny yellow poly and cause less light reflection. After that, if not satisfied, I could buy the darkest Poly Shades I could find, and put on a couple of light coats of that. Instead, I went and got the darkest Old Masters I could find - Dark Mahogony, and voila - it works! It's not as dark on the alder as you'd think, and seems to have more gold than red undertones. I still might try the steel wool trick just to see! :)

extra wide stairs even if it is just to the basement, b/c if you are in a w/c and decide to put a chair lift in the person assisting in transferring you from chair to chair would have to straddle/step over you if you don't have a wide enough stairway to allow them to walk around you. I too work home healthcare as a hospice nurse for over 5 years and everything she said is spot on. The fewer types of flooring the easier/better. Less risk of fall, no throw rugs, and even area rugs become problematic if you have to navigate around them. Lots of low storage so they don't have to feel like a burden asking someone to get something for them. As far as the hand held shower goes the ones that are adjustable like these pictures [https://www.houzz.com/photos/adjustable-showerhead-phbr0lbl-bl~l_8151[(https://www.houzz.com/photos/adjustable-showerhead-phbr0lbl-bl~l_8151) are great then if someone using the ADA shower is able to stand up they can adjust the height to better suit them. Also don't let builders tell you 30" is adequate and meets ADA requirements for door way widths...while it is an acceptable minimum getting wheelchairs through are a PITA. I plan on using 36" in our build. A lot really like the rocker style light switches as they are easier than a traditional switch, lever style or even oblong doorknobs are easier than a round doorknob. How will they open the window if in a wheelchair, the hand crank windows are easier for them, though my experience is in end of life care I know a few of our families used them and really liked them. I have seen a bathroom in a patient's home that was very cool, they had a large bathroom and modified it to be accessible for her husband. The cabinet "vanity" was on caster type wheels so she could move it out from under the sink and he could roll his w/c under and shave himself. They had a decorative top they could put on it if they wanted to leave it out as a piece of furniture or remove it and roll it back under the sink to look like a standard vanity. Reenforce walls where you might want hand rails like at the toilets and showers, they have some lovely ones now that don't look as industrial and blend a little better [https://www.houzz.com/photos/aging-in-place-transitional-bathroom-los-angeles-phvw-vp~8286386[(https://www.houzz.com/photos/aging-in-place-transitional-bathroom-los-angeles-phvw-vp~8286386) this gets the job done, but screams handicap accessible, something like this https://www.pinterest.com/pin/26951297741626349/ blends but is just a functional https://www.pinterest.com/pin/394276142347540350/ https://www.pinterest.com/pin/132293307777113477/