I have a clear picture in my head of what this bathroom will look like when it's finished ... getting it to that point is going to be challenging. The space is 61" x 92". It is the original bathroom to our 1848 house, added as a one-story addition outside the back door when the house got plumbing in the 1920's or 30's. This is the right side of the room: and this is the left: The door is 28", opening in and to the left toward the tub, almost centered on the wall. Everything in this room except the basketweave tile floor is leaving. The toilet is old, the finish on the cast iron sink is worn through from years of dripping water, and the ceramic sink base has a crack that was repaired with packaging tape. The clawfoot tub will find a new home ... I plan to build a step-back cupboard in its place, to provide some much-needed storage. We have 4 other full baths in this house. Having a clawfoot tub in the basement is cool, but not very practical. The tub was added by the previous owner, so we don't feel guilty about removing it. We are going to remove the window, too. This bathroom addition is buried inside a larger 1960's era addition, and the window looks out into the garage ... with a lovely view of our water system. By taking out the window, I'll have a bit more depth to work with to build a better cabinet where the tub was. And I'll have a place to hang my inspiration poster. The electric is finished. We removed all the scary old wiring and the seriously illegal junction box behind the sink. Now we have a box for a yet-to-be-chosen light fixture, a new switch, and an electrical outlet (which the room didn't have before). For plumbing, we have to replace all the supply lines. The original galvanized supply was discontinued when the bathroom was remodeled during the 1960's construction. The copper replacement lines were run in the weirdest way, and the toilet supply leaked, so we're replacing them. The galvanized sink drain was still in use, but it has rust on the Y that connects to the elbow of the sink drain ... so it looks like we will have to see if we can cut it and attach a modern drain to it. Removing the whole thing doesn't look to be an option, because it goes down below the floor that we want to save. I have to call a plumber. I really want to reroute these radiator pipes, and put them into the wall. They were running outside the wall ... across the wall over the toilet, down the left-hand corner, and across the baseboard to the radiator under the window. This means that we'll have to shut down the boiler ... sigh. This is the my inspiration for the stepback cupboard. I know I got this photo from a decorating blog, I just don't remember which one. I love the size and proportions of this piece ... mine will have 4 doors, no drawers, and no glass. I haven't decided what color it should be ... maybe a vintage-type red? We're going to use this medicine cabinet. I bought it years ago at a thrift store, and I've been holding onto it until I could find just the right place for it. It has a beveled mirror, which I removed before I remembered to take a 'before' photo. I've stripped more than my fair share of paint off of things during the restoration of our house, and restoring and repainting this piece should be pretty straight-forward. BTW, if you're working on something and you're tempted to just paint over the hardware .... don't. Here's where I could use some help. I have my heart set on using a sink like this: (without the side extensions). Though I can't find one right now, I know they're pretty readily available if I'm patient in my search. I want to build a vanity to coordinate with the stepback cupboard, install a maple top (I have a bit of old maple basketball floor stashed away for just this type of project), and inset the sink. Has anyone seen a sink like this done this way, does this exist only in my imagination? There are two new sinks that may give me a similar look, if I can't find an old one in good shape. A new sink would be DH's choice, BTW. The Kohler Gilford, which comes in 24" and 30" widths. and this sink from American Standard, which only comes in 30" I haven't seen either of these sinks in person, but I lean toward the style of the AS sink from what I've seen in photos. I'm concerned, however, that 30" will look like I've plunked a kitchen sink into the bathroom, and the 30" sink only leaves minimum toilet space in the 61" width of the room. For this reason, I feel I should investigate the Kohler 24" model. Wall color? Probably some sort of ivory beige with white trim. I'm not a beige sort of person, but it feels right in this room. Any thoughts? I'd sure like to hear some other opinions. I have this sneaky suspiciou that there's something I may be missing. Thanks, Connie

Wooo!!! Cat, I am stuck at home because of the snow storm so wandered around here not looking at anything in particular and came upon your thread. I totally agree with you on the shower curtain choice. Regardless of whether I have the money to spare or not, keeping those suckers clean is a nuisance over time. We have a glass shower door that was installed back in 2003 and I can't tell you how much I hate cleaning it. Not that the door is all that dirty, but a shower curtain is way easier, and you can change the look/style whenever you feel like it. Can't do that with a pricey shower door. Anyway, everything looks lovely as usual, including the "prom" dress :-) Love, love those circular tiles, and the floor tiles that look like fabric. Gorgeous. What colour is that again? It looks greyish on my monitor.

For paint-grade cabinet boxes, I usually recommend 3/4" birch plywood. It handles well and takes paint well. For door and drawer fronts, I recommend poplar for the stiles and rails. Poplar mills well and again, it takes primer and paint very well. For the door and drawer panels you could again use birch plywood; 1/4" to 1/2" thick depending on things. 1/4" is easier, but the doors may seem a little bit too light. Half-inch provides a more substantive feel when you operate the door, it can make a stronger and sturdier door too, but the added thickness of the panel can require a few extra cuts around the perimeter of the panel to get a nice recessed reveal for the front of the flat panel. On the flip side, the extra effort can give you a bit more detail on the inside of the panel when the door is open. But I'm getting ahead of myself. If you want nice quality shaker paint-grade cabinetry: Birch ply (3/4") for the cabinet carcasses, tops, sides, and bottoms. Half-inch birch ply for the cabinet backs. Poplar for the drawer and door stiles and rails. Half-inch birch ply for the door and drawer panels. If you decide to use 1/4" ply instead of 1/2" ply for the door and drawer panels, then you could use 1/4" for the cabinet backs too. By using the same thickness ply for both you can minimize waste when you make your cut lists. Poplar and birch ply are available at Home Sleepo, etc. I usually recommend staying away from MDF for kitchen and bath cabinet cabinets. If you do source the fronts yourself, yes, you can get them unfinished and then prime and paint them yourself.

You are correct. Bathrooms have for the past decade or more been required to be served by 20A circuits (anybody with teenage daughters knows why, hair dryers trip 15A breakers). Unfortunately, nobody can answer the questions you are asking. This is not set addressed by the electrical codes. The local inspectors pretty much decide how much of a change requires bringing things up to the new code. Frankly, around here, doing what you're talking about would DEFINITELY require a permit and inspection, whether they'd make you upgrade the circuit or not depends on the extent of the rest of the renovation. The 20A GFCI on a 15A circuit is 100% illegal. You should get rid of that (replace it with a 15a one if you like). Nobody will get worked up if you do that without a permit (on your own single family house). Since this is the basement and you're ripping walls open anyhow, I'd bring things up to code. Pulling a new piece of 12G cable in is not going to be that difficult. This post was edited by ronnatalie on Mon, Dec 30, 13 at 11:04