My parents house is like that, but there’s a wall with a wide doorway into the area with the vanity, so it’s open but also easy to close off by just putting a curtain rail up. It’s also oriented to the room such that if you only use enough light at the vanity to wash your hands for a midnight potty run, it really isn’t enough to bother someone in the bed if you place the bed sensibly. Getting ready in the morning would be trickier if you needed to do makeup and so on so needed proper lighting, so that’s where a screen or a curtain would come in.

thanks to all who have posted so far, especially Eric. We can probably save/budget down the road for a kitchen redo, or do part of it ourselves. Additions would be a little harder for us except finish work (floors, tile, etc. Can do drywall even but would need to find time to do it). What that kitchen has is a U shaped layout, not too bad except there are overhanging cabinets between a small dining/family space and the kitchen. It's a counter/pass through kind of setup where someone can sit at stools and talk with the person in the kitchen....except the cabinets hang down so the person in the kitchen has to look under them. We would likely tear those out and relocate the stovetop to the perimeter wall and make that pass through an island. Then that entire space could become kitchen/dining. It is possible we could still move out a wall on that (kitchen) side of the house down the road too, we are in Hawaii so all the construction costs are much, much higher than mainland. So jealous of all the posters here who can put on a large extension for less than 50K. Plan A or Plan B will cost us about the same. We don't plan to sell and move anytime soon, but should we need to we're leaning toward sq. footage instead of just extending current bath and upgrading the kitchen. Our neighborhood is about 20 years old so people are beginning to redo those rooms as the fixtures and appliances are ageing. We redid all the appliances about three years ago with stainless finishes, new faucet/sink, and redid the countertop Corian, so the kitchen is livable - just need to clear out some clutter and make smarter usage on available storage space. We could paint or restain the cabinet doors to freshen it up. A few neighbors are creating the "big bang" kitchen now but I'm not certain a 70K upgrade will improve the value that much as a new neighborhood is planned about 5 miles away within the next couple of years. Would we love to live in a "WOW" kitchen, of course. But as with most people we have to make a decision on where it is best to spend the money for now. We could feasibly also add on a 2nd story in future years, but we prefer the single story and if we age-in-place as planned, the new bath will include wide accesses and no-curb shower.

I think it will look fine either way....if it is lower, you have a dedicated/defined area as your makeup vanity. If it is the same height, that space may or may not be used as a vanity and will just become part of the overall sink area. Only you can decide which will work better for you. A counter-height stool COULD look a little strange in your bathroom and is not the norm, but if you like it that's all that matters.

Millworkman, I think I must have read somewhere that you shouldn't use granite on MDF cabinets Patricia Colwell Consulting, the vanity does not come with a top. It was just shown with a top. The Hayneedle website description said it was just the cabinet and it is just the cabinet (arrived this past Friday). Siamesey, I hear ya but since I spent a ton of money converting the tub to shower, I have to save where I can. Unfortunately, when you combine the needs of my mother (the main user of this bathroom), the style that I would like, along with the need to work around the plumbing location, I actually don't have a lot of choices. It's been really hard to combine the first two of those and find a vanity with drawers on the left hand side (the plumbing dictate). I looked at custom made and even semi custom made and no, I can't do that. Even though the vanity is made of MDF and is RTA, to me it has better quality than some of low end all wood vanities that I've seen. Also, most of the cabinets I've looked at still seem to have MDF in them somewhere, especially white cabinets which is what I wanted for this bathroom.