Haha. Funny that this thread resurfaces today. I am STILL dealing with the grout issue, though I think I am at the tail end. I have not done anything about the door because I was waiting to see what happened with the grout. Basically, original tile guy kept pushing us off and pushing us off til he started ignoring us altogether. Took me some time to find a few other tile guys to come out and have a look. The two tile guys who came out had differing opinions on what to do - one guy said use it, it's fine (which I didn't think it was because gritty bits of grout were running down the wall after every shower!). The other guy recommended painting this sealer on that the grout company sent -- it had to be hand applied -- two coats! -- with a freaking artists' paintbrush (only on the grout lines, not on the tile at all!) so I didn't want to do it myself and he would have had to charge a lot for his time. I decided to test out the sealer to see if it would even help in a few different spots -- some of the threads on the internet from fellow suffferers of this problem said they had spent the time to carefully paint on the sealer and it didn't fix the problem! So the testing took a while cause I kept getting sidetracked (plus I was dreading what I was going to find at the end of the testing so I was kind of procrastinating -- a lot.) But when I finally buckled down and focused on it, I discovered that while the sealer didn't seem to fix the problem, the areas that I had scrubbed really hard (while trying to see where the grout was "loose") weren't running down the wall anymore -- I guess I had gotten off the loose stuff that didn't cure right. So I tested a small area last week by scrubbing the crap out of the grout lines with a stiff grout brush and letting it dry. I rechecked it today - all good! So just this morning I embarked on the process of super-scrubbing every grout line to get off the loose surface stuff -- so far underneath everything seems ok though I'm expecting that I might find a few spots that need touching up as I go -- which will involve getting a tile guy back again - ugh. It's slow going -- all that hard scrubbing is kind of tiring so I can only do so much at a time - I did maybe a quarter of the shower this morning and now my arm is killing me, LOL! But it's better than tediously painting two coats of sealer with a tiny paintbrush!!! Anyhow, thanks for the compliments! I have not hung any towel hooks either, though I did replace the stand with one that has towel bars on the side -- I thought that would work at least for my sink (the one on the end closest to the stand) but since the towel bar is behind me, I didn't end up using it. We've just been folding the towel up on the counter. I'm such a slacker LOL!

What great ideas. I am so grateful for all of your valuable input. I do want to see outside daytime and nighttime. That is important as there is a zen garden I would like to create there. I have 2 new photos from today! The wall helps with privacy quite a bit...I just realized it is about 5 ft., maybe 6 ft. high. It is the second wall on the side of the home a little peak of the window at the top can be seen. So the cover does not need to have texture, just a bit of privacy just in case (I'm a NYer)...so I'm excited about creating a simple application that maintains privacy! We will be creating a pathway on this side of our home that will be used daily for the people who will be assisting with the care of our elderly parents. Thank you so much for your contributions!!!

The best way to approach this is to first have an accurate diagram of your entire floorplan with dimensions of everything. The last thing you want to do is to spend a great deal of $$$ adding onto your home with a dysfunctional layout that will reduce the value of your property. I've seen additions that turn a functional floorplan into something that is not at all functional and you don't want to go there. None of us can give you any advice with the information provided other than seek out an architect. You could get better advice with the floorplan and its dimensions including doorways and windows and closet areas.

@Beth your plant wall is amazing! The towel bar seems attached fairly permanently. Until the day that I renovate this bathroom completely/remove the tile, I think I'm stuck with it. The only place that gets *any* natural light in the bathroom is right in front of the window. So I don't think I can grow anything on that wall. I *think* that a hanging basket or two is all that I have space for. Even that window doesn't get direct sun - there's a 3 story house 15' from this 2nd story window. Pathos & philodendron are about the only plants that will survive in that bathroom, and really I don't like either (and, no, I won'd do fake plants.) :-(