I'm poor in reading plans and making fast and smart suggestions accordingly. but i want to point out one important thing to you. empty space always, always feels much smaller than the one that's built already, and has stuff put in. it's a very well known phenomena. i noticed it first when i was a little girl..when they just dig a foundation for a new house you honestly ask yourself: how this house will fit in there, at all?

yet in the end it fits lol, and gets different rooms, and rooms get furnished, and you walk there with ease without bumping in the walls, and even have a bunch of friends for dinner.

so whatever you decide to go with-remember your current feeling from the space is skewed due to it being empty and partially unframed. it's just hard to judge the space correctly.

as for the hand towels. our space does have the wall where the hand towel hook can easily go yet i very consciously didn't want to spoil it LOL..it arches, you see. i didn't want anything in the arch. so i just put a hand towel on the countertop. true we're blessed with nice climate so no biggy. in NYC or Boston, I'd have a permanently wet towel. actually there, on some days, they never dry wherever they are.

9' feet ceilings is a great height.

we have an enclosed toilet too, the ceilings are 8'..i find it pretty roomy. but. yours is smaller. the city code here dictates 3 feet I think when you build the powder room for example. if i'm reading correctly yours is a tad smaller. it won't be as claustrophobic as it feels to you now though. you can go with either height wall. or you can do it partially glass on top as not to loose the light.

Thanks, Aprilneverends (love that name. So true) I've been enjoying feeling how things shrink and grow as the build changes. When standing inside there yesterday, my elbows did whack the sides, so it is a little tight, but definitely not as tight as what we have right now with a similar set up (4" narrower and a lower ceiling. ) It would solve the towel problem, at last on that side.

By the way, in case it matters, my style is transitional/traditional.

Could you attach a ring or rod to the vanity itself, on the left end? Looks like the door would easily clear it. If two people actually use the bathroom at the same time, I would stick with the floor to ceiling wall around the toliet.

I remember when my kitchen was demolished. I walked in the room after work and wondered how in the heck it had shrunk so dramatically!

I dislike glass enclosed showers. I love the feeling of being enclosed while showering, plus if someone walks in, they are not treated to a view of my soapy naked body.

umm..i might see what you mean..adding too much glass, right? We were not sure what to do with the shower because of that..the house is traditional and we took it to be even more so to pay more respect to the exterior..so we kinda weren't happy with the glass shower enclosure, we were afraid it'd intervene too much with the feel we're after. but we have low ceiling and not a lot of light, and not to loose this light was crucial. so we put two windows in the bathroom AND didn't put the door between the master and the bathroom so they both get more light..(we also put a skylight in the master, to address that) and I did insist on that glass even though I aesthetically would prefer a different approach. (something like Justina Blackeney did..as I've learned later lol..they also wanted to enhance their Spanish style little house)

And you know what, in the end that glass is not as bad as I thought. Actually it's much better than what I imagined it to be.

but even if you go with a drywall up to the ceiling..i believe you still will be fine. or maybe you want to finish it just a tad under..say not a pony wall and not a full fall either..that might be cool, actually.

Our 6' shower is totally glass (two doors with a nonmoving center piece) and we like that.

As for the toilet/pony wall/full wall/no wall question, it's really a personal preference. 2'8" is really narrow. On the other hand, I like to use the facilities in private and so an separate toilet room is an absolute requirement for me. I don't mind the shower being open--but I really prefer to have the toilet private.