@apple_pie_order We will likely do the laundry room/guest bathroom renovation before we do the blue bathroom for my mother. That way, when we do start working on Mom's bathroom, there will be one she can use. I need to clean up my room. It's got too much junk in the way for her to easily get to the bathroom. My brother using my bathroom is short-term, but I eventually want to add some shelves, possibly cabinets, etc for more storage. I want to have storage for toilet paper, wet wipes, tissues, etc. It's so nice to be able to take a shower whenever I want instead of having to drive over to my friend's house and hope no one is doing laundry or having people wanting to come in to use the bathroom while I'm showering (friend only has the one bathroom). I made a To Do list for the bathroom (in no particular order) Remove tools & junk-- find storage for them Clean up floor & counter Install robe hook Move or trim peg on board with pegs that interfere with door Fix cut joist under the tub Cut access panel under tub from closet Change out overflow & drain for tub Replace faucet & lavatory drain Replace S-trap with either in-wall vent stack or AAV Open up wall behind toilet to examine any pipes (possibly merge tub vent) Sand & paint vanity Install new hinges & pulls on vanity + magnets to help doors stay shut Sand & paint dresser Install new knobs on dresser Sand & paint door Put mirror on door Sand & paint rough wood trim all around room (door, window, ceiling, etc) Replace trim on vanity with pvc cove moulding Install beadboard, chair rail, and baseboards Replace triple toggle switch with new 20Amp triple rocker switch Replace old GFCI with new Add light switch next to GFCI for vanity light Install vanity light Install light over shower Install bracket to hold mop and broom Build new mirror frame & install new mirror above vanity Figure out some storage for bath slippers It seems like a long list, but hopefully it won't be so bad. I'm thinking shelves or cabinets over the laundry cart will help. I might make cabinets though. It can start as shelves and I can add wood to make them in to cabinets. I was going to raise the toilet up with a platform, but it seems to be ok for now. I might add a small grab bar later on to help me get up if I start to have problems.

Hello, I am Chris from ND, and I have been reading both Chris, and Melle,s posting regarding more room in their bedrooms. I too moved from WA state from a 2000+ house to ND to a 1200 foot house, and have stuff stacked up all over the house. No storage here except for the standard sliding door closet in each of the three bedrooms. We are retired, 68/71 but have family coming and going. Our guest bedroom has boxes, and tubs stacked in it against the wall across from the foot of the bed. Boxes stacked in the closet too. The middle bedroom we turned into an office, and my hubby built me floor to ceiling bookcases to store all my books, and DVD's/Videos. This room too is crammed full of STUFF! Now our master bedroom. It too is only 11' wide from the outside wall to the front of the sliding door closet. It is 12' long. There is a little space at the end of the room at the end of the closet where the door opens into the room. We have a king sized bed, two night stands sitting under the east window, and at the foot of the bed against the west end of the room there is a double dresser, and a single taller dresser. Also in the closet is another three drawer dresser. All these are overflowing, plus stuff stacked on top of them. I have gone through things over and over, but don't seem to make a dent. I am so frustrated. I looked on this site to see if anyone had done a bumpout on their room? If we could make a three or four foot by 11 foot closet bump out along that east wall, we could tear out the exsisting closet, and the room would then be 16'x12'. There is a second window in our north wall. This may be beyond or expertiese, and finances, but I am at my wits end. We have two sons here who maybe could help if we knew how to do it? I too could put some floor to ceiling cabinets where my night stands are I guess, and noticed someone had built floor to celing cabinets in place of their dressers. We still would only have a walk way around our bed, but at least we could maybe have room to put stuff away? This house has no storage other then those three little closets which are overflowing. I could not see the pictures you posted of your rooms, could you send them to me so I can see? Any ideas for me what to do. My hubby does not want to get rid of the king sized bed. We have an unfinished full basement, full of junk, and I was told there is a floor in our attic too, but the opening is tiny, and above the basement stairs so not easy to get to, or in and out of. Just a small hole covered with a board? We also would like to install a 11' x 4' bumpout in the dining room end of our kitchen. Make a walk out bay so more room for our round oak table. This is a load bearing wall so not sure how hard that would be. Also thought about tearing out this middle bedroom and incorporating it into our master, but then what do do with all this stuff in here? Also we live out on an 80 acre farm, and someday if we sell would most likely need to have three bedrooms? I just want to cry everytime I look around at all the clutter. Not normally me, but I have become so frustrated, I have just given up.

JDS, Thanks for your comment above. What was the purpose of lighting over the bed with those low voltage 3" recessed lights? Was it for ambient lighting (e.g. indirect wall washers) or task lighting (reading)? Did you use two over bedrooms that would have Queen/King bed's in them, and one for single beds? As per bathroom mirrors, we were planning on having two line voltage sconces on either side of the mirror and two medium beam low voltage lights set over the mirror (to cross light) . I believe with the four light sources crossing I have read that shadows would be minimal. Perhaps a frosted bulb in the recessed lights would also help. Virgil, Thanks for your advice too. We won't forget the dimmers, and will aim to light with pairs of recessed lights. Thanks for the pointers on positioning of recessed lights too. It seems, that there is no one set spot to position recessed lights -- too many variables. OP: What I would not want is the direct light from a recessed down light shinning over anywhere that someone would sit or lie down. I have read that being under a recessed light can age a person. What you want from recessed lights is indirect lighing such as wall washers, or in some cases task lighting (say over a desk) but not a light over your head. For task lighting near the bed, we are going to use narrow beam, flexible reading lights (hardwired) on each side of the bed. LED reading light would be the best as it is cool to the touch, We will aim for a narrow beam light that can be controlled on each side of the bed. It think having some can lights in the perimeter of your room, together with a centre light would be ideal. In addition, I would plan for task reading light near the bed. Finally, you might consider recessing LED floor washers into the walls leading to the MBath (or in the Mbath) to serve as a soft night light. Be sure to position these floor washers carefully, so you will not look directly into them while lying down. Carol

Let's deal with the Elephant in the room: floating floors have a hollow feel = BAD subfloor preparation. I'm going to tell you a little secret about carpets. They HIDE the WORST SUBFLOORS in the building industry. I mean people have found cigarette butts, gum wrappers, saranwrap, drywall cuts, etc under their carpets. And that's just the stuff you can sweep up. Now for the 'never flat, never level' subfloor. These builders use lowest of the low/crappiest of the crappy materials under carpet and sheet vinyl (I doubt you have linoleum...I'm guessing sheet vinyl...but never mind). They use PARTICLE board or OSB - the nasty stuff. Now imagine trying to tile over top of that crap. New subfloor anyone? And the other issue, if you have wood joist/wood subfloors...the DEFLECTION RATING! The deflection rating is only good enough for CARPET...or a floating floor. It might not be enough for regular hardwood (it all depends on where the joists are and the thickness of the subfloor). Whomsoever you spoke to at LOWES is telling you the truth (wow...a dude at Lowe's knows what he's talking about??? never happens!). Imagine you have a deflection rating that is 1/2 of what you need...and you have crappy OSB as the subfloor. Cement backer board does NOT add to the stiffness rating of the subfloor. You need REAL plywood (subfloor grade thick enough to get you to the Deflection Rating of the tile = could be VERY thick...depending on your joist distance). That stuff is not cheap. You are looking at $1.00 - $1.75/sf. Plus all the SCREWS (no nails...you need to SCREW the new subfloor to the old one...that's fun in with a capital SUCKS!). The screw pattern is tattooed onto the wood. Which is every 6 inches on the edges and every 4 inches in the field! That's A LOT of GALVENIZED SCREWS. Your screws will cost $50. Now we move onto the ditra/schluter system. And the spacer system (as you already know) and the thinset and the grout and the tiles. So far you could be into the tile job for $3/sf...now you have the other $3-$5/sf for the tile/thinset/mortar. Sigh. Now lets look at laminate. How does $2/sf for a decent midrange plank sound? Not bad right. Good. Now imagine the cost of 6mm cork UNDERLAY. That's another $0.80/sf. Excellent. Now imagine LOOSE LAYING the cork sheets (do NOT purchase the role...you loose 10% to the inside curl) DIRECTLY to the subfloor. No glue. No nails. Nothing. It just sits there. Now that you have the spacers at the walls (your expansion gap spacers = 1/2") and your cork sheets are laid up to the spacers (give the cork the same amount of expansion as the laminate). Now click together your laminate floor. Excellent. You have eliminated the BOUNCE of laminate (due to the subfloors being uneven) and the HOLLOW sound of laminate ('cause cork eliminates that as well). With cork underlay you can make a sh!tty $0.79/sf laminate feel like solid hardwood. And vinyl does NOT like underpad. You have to get that subfloor STUPID FLAT (sanding/patching/floating self leveler if you have the right PLYWOOD on top). Hmm...laminate with cork underlay sounds might nice right now.