A couple of things. With regard to the chimney stack, I recommend posting on the Remodeling forum of GW. With the existing closets in your bedroom and the guest room, could you totally take that space over and use part if it for an enlarged bathroom and the other part, a walk in closet oriented the other direction? The guest bedroom could have a closet built on the wall behind the toilet. Maybe thats workable maybe not. I would draw out all your dimensions on graph paper. Then taking tracing paper cut out to scale furniture (beds, vanities, nightstands, etc) and bathroom fixtures. Then place them around your rooms to see what fits and doesn't fit.

Just cross posting here to see if anyone has any advice for this upcoming bathroom remodel! We bought our house just over a year ago and the time has come to remodel the master bath. From crumbling tile to a rotting wood strip filling in a huge gap between shower enclosure and wall, this room was the most obvious negative about the house when we bought it and still is. It is also TINY - 6 feet by 6 feet, but with a (currently unused) chimney stack bumping out into one corner. Here's the current layout: As you can see, it's tight in there! I know there's no real hope of making this bathroom large enough for two people, but I'd love to have a little more space for myself. (Since it's just the two of us most of the time, my husband has basically made the hall bath his own - this actually works better for us than sharing anyway.) However, I don't think there's any other possible layout for the fixtures unless we either remove the chimney stack (which is on an exterior wall) or steal space from the closet that is next to the bath on the left. Here's the floorplan for the second floor, with the bath in question on the right side of the house: The closets to the left of the bathroom are a nice size, but I wouldn't mind losing a bit of that space and/or reconfiguring it to get a better bathroom layout. The bedroom behind the toilet is the guest bedroom and the closet in there is mostly used for linens - it is more than large enough for our needs. The walk-in closet in the master is nice to have but I'm not sure the space is used as efficiently as it could be. Anyway, I would appreciate any thoughts you may have on how to improve this space! I haven't gotten an estimate for removal of the chimney stack yet, but we did have someone come out to look at it last fall to see if it could be made functional, since the fireplace attached to it is in the living room. He said it was possible, but given the age and condition of the stack and the size of the fireplace itself, it would probably be quite costly, and recommended that we simply seal off the chimney instead. Personally, I would prefer to spend the money having the stack removed (if it's not a structural element) to reclaim the space. Thanks in advance for your thoughts!

Oh dear, Kim. Just don't fall over in a dead faint when you get the demolition bill! That's a lot of tile. In a room that large, I would keep the tiled areas to only the wet areas. No matter how warm the color of the tile, it still looks cold to have that much hard surface. Here's some photos containing elements from the Craftsman style of your home. Some of these baths are much smaller than yours, but the ideas are there. The last photo is of a dual vanity with tower.

We started with one smaller idea..., but as we found more things that we wanted to replace— each possible solution has come with additional little problems... Welcome! Yep, that's how it goes. It's fine to realise this in the beginning. You can assess things & plan properly now. After you've ripped everything out is not quite a great time to start planning. Project mushrooming sometimes means saving & starting at a later stage, for a better result. We have realized now that we need to step back and start at the beginning with a directed vision and goal rather than just slapping together ideas and hoping it turns out well. GOOD! Any tips for choosing a good designer and questions to ask would be appreciated. A lot of people will have a lot to say on that one. You might consider starting a new thread on that specifically in fact. Check referrences to find people, and check referrences after you've found people. Check actual work, check work that's been done some years back. Do not go for the least expensive. They will provide the least pleasant experience, and your actual cost will be more. Check referrences. A good few. Take overly glowing or overly bitter referrences with a pinch of salt. Find imaginitive & knowledgeable people. People who find solutions, don't avoid issues, people who bring up matters you hadn't considered, people who don't just agee, but tell you straightforwardly when things aren't good or realistic choices. Check actual work... Ask what common issues or flaws are, and how they work around them. Get things written down, everything. Pricing, time frames, who sources fittings, specs of e.v.e.r.y.t.h.i.n.g. Ask who'll be actually doing the work, who'll be overseeing it. Don't work with the guy who'll check up at the end of the week. Find out what they actually do. Design, contracting, both... Check those referrences. Find out how long they've wrked with their employees & subs. Avoid working with friends or family. You think you have a good relationship, so you should. That good relationship is the reason you shouldn't. Check work that's been done some years back. Don't expect a free consultation in the beginning. Some pros do it. A lot (of good ones particularly) are far too busy to spend time in that way. They'll send you some pics and contacts of old clients to start off. Ask when they'll be available to start on your job. It's alright to wait a few weeksfor a good pro busy on other jobs. Once you have a good pro, deal with them straightforwardly, and trust them. If there's something you're unsure of, ask them, before asking the neighbour's cousin's dentist's brother. Oh yeah, and check referrences. It's the most preached, least practised tip. Guess how I know... For a project like this, what is a ballpark estimate for designer fee? There, I can't help, in the least. I'm a continent away, I assume, and things are... different. I do like that design with toilet immediately to the right upon entering bathroom. It’s in the master and would be fairly far to the right from the door so would not be visible easily from outside the bathroom The concern of a toilet near the bedroom is more regarding the sound, than unpleasant sightlines.