I ordered towel bar, tissue holder, etc from Ira Woods. They were clearance items and cheaper than a lot of choices from the big boxes. I got my faucet from Deal Yard. American Standard Cadet 3 is also well liked/reviewed. It comes in both one and two piece. The pro to one piece is ease of cleaning behind the seat where the tank joins. Cleaning that, well, on a two piece is next to impossible unless you take it apart. The con is if you crack the porcelain, you have to get an entire new toilet instead of replacing the bowl OR tank. There could be other reasons, but these seem to be the ones to pop up the most. I'm considering a skirted, one piece because cleaning the nooks and crannies of toilets is one of the worst jobs! It wasn't like this before I married and had children, lol. Tile and grout is porous. We are having to remodel our master bath soon because water is getting under there. Whatever "water-proofing" they used when the house was built, has failed. I'm almost positive there ISN'T any water-proofing. I'm going with a solid shower pan to avoid this problem in the future and ease of cleaning.

I can't comment on the DIY either, Bill V. installed mine when he did the master bath at my former house :-) but it didn't look very hard if you follow the directions. I can definitely say HECK YEAH you should put it in. It's WONDERFUL not having to step on frigid tile floors and doesn't really cost that much for what you get out of it. Our master suite-lette was over the unheated garage and even though there was insulation under the floor the original tile floors in the Bathroom From H*ll were still icy cold - I had to cover almost every inch with rugs because it was literally painful to stand on the bare floor in winter. I had mine on a programmable thermostat, very convenient. Some companies like Warmly Yours even have radiant products that can go under the shower floor so you won't have a "cold spot" there - it was kind of an "ugh" to step from the nice warm bathroom floor to the cold shower floor. We plan to put radiant underfloor mats in this house's kitchen, mudroom and half-bath when we redo that area because of the cold floors, and some products can quite happily go under linoleum or vinyl as well as tile. However, with a floor area that small, you won't be able to fully heat the bathroom just with the radiant, just make the floors very nice to step on. There are wall- and ceiling-mounted electric heaters that can be turned on as needed or put on a thermostat, and they actually don't run up the electric bill too much at all (if you remember to shut them off!). Our single full bathroom here isn't hooked into the central hot-air heating system because there was no good way to run the ducts there (old house), so PO put in one from Broan similar to this one but when we redo the bath I am considering this flat-panel wall-mounted heater to replace it. Ditto on insulating as well. BTW, you can use floor tile on walls, you just can't use wall tile on floors.

Opinions on your questions: 1. Pocket vs. swing door: I'm not a big fan of pocket doors on bathrooms because they're more of a pain to close and lock. If you close and lock bathroom doors in your house. :-) 2. Benches are not mandatory. I prefer niches for storing shampoo and soap. Benches are usually to put your leg on when shaving. If you do have one in that corner, I'd recommend a triangular shaped one instead of square. There are pre-fab, ready-to-tile benches like this: I think the shower controls are fine where you drew them, on the bottom wall. Other thoughts: 4. code says toilet back to front should be 5' clear. Can you bump the wall a few inches to attain that? 5. I'd hinge the shower door on the other side. That will allow a towel rack on the bottom wall. You can easily fit a 48" vanity in that space. I'd definitely do it. On design, the typical "period appropriate" materials would be subway tiles in the shower and hex tiles on the floor. You could use natural marble on the floor if you wanted to splurge. I used larger hex porcelain in a powder room (not technically "period" but "in the style of"): With a neutral white/gray in the permanent stuff, you could pick your favorite splash of color for the walls. Or use that dark gray that's greenish, and use accessories, towels, etc. for the color. Your dining room is to die for, btw. Great work!

I screwed up - it's a master bedroom and bath in the basement with walk out. You are 100% correct with the confusion. What I've decided to do is to have this be more of a "guest master bedroom" or future inlaw place. Every home is initially designed for the current occupant but also with future occupants in mind. Therefore what I'll do is focus on the upstairs primary bedroom and then if I do decide to stay, I'll give this to my soon to be teen-age daughter and I'll build my primary bedroom in the basement. When someone comes to look at the home to buy, they can look at the downstairs as a large "room" which could be a bedroom (staged as such) and an awesome bathroom ideally suited for a bedroom or just an awesome entertainment room.