Benjesbride, where does she lose the 2"? It appears that she is not aware of the loss. Rebeccamomof123, are you pulling permits to do the work, or do you live in an area where the city/town/county inspectors are going to become aware of the work and expect to come in and inspect it? Or is your area more like where I live and anything short of an addition is something that no one will notice and that inspectors don't drop in when workmen are around unless it is really obvious that a big job is being done? The reason I ask is that your clearance for the toilet-to-tub distance is right on the edge of being okay. Some towns will not let you get that close. If you could get inspected by the code enforcement officer, or if you are doing this with permits, you need to draw this up and get it approved before assuming it is going to be approved. If you need to steal back a couple of inches to make it fit, one option is a wall-hung toilet. Your contractor opens up the wall behind your toilet and puts the tank and flushing works inside the wall (not the stuff you have, it is custom made for this purpose) and then the toilet part actually hangs off the wall and never touches the floor. It is much nicer for cleaning. All of Europe has been doing it this way for years, I hear. http://www.geberitnorthamerica.com/en_us/target_groups/enduser/products_enduser/toilets_2/concealed_systems_1/for_toilets_1.html

I actually have several tea towels in bright colors that I normally put out. I have shopped around in our local home decor shops and the choices are very limited regarding ceramics etc. I also placed a small fruit basket with fruit to brighten things up a bit. Looking at my friend's homes done by local interior designers, we seem to have similar problems. We painted the kitchen the color that is on trend at the moment and also locally produced. It was either a blueish grey and then the warmer neutral. The grey curtains has since been replaced by blinds.

I used a linen-look 12x24" porcelain tile (Ann Sacks Texere) on the floor of both of the two bathrooms that I remodeled seven years ago. It feels good to walk on. I like the way it looks. It has a more contemporary look than subway tile, which I think is more traditional. It is challenging to clean because of the texture -- dirt seems to stick in the tiny grooves. It is very slippery when wet -- not enough texture. Ann Sacks would not provide me with information about the DCOF. I would not use it again on the floor.

The floor plan that is shown on grid paper is roughly to scale. 1 square is 1sqft (sunroom is 20 x 9, living room is 22 x 16, etc.) I can put sqft on the drawing when I get to my computer later if needed). As far as budget goes, definitely less than $100k (ideally closer to $50k). Labor is not very expensive where we live and I have discounted material options. That is why I initially thought switching kitchen and bathroom would be most economical since it’s off grade and would mainly just be removing interior walls that aren’t load bearing.