I suspect that plain concrete slabs will be your best bet, as they won't break the bank and are easily reversible if you decide on another approach later on. Any big box store will have them in probably several sizes. My personal favourite is 24x24 as you can lay out a nice-width pathway or small patio with just a few, but they are &*(% heavy so you might prefer 18x18. Anything smaller and I think you'd have stability problems with them though if it's not really mushy, even 12x12 might work. If you're in a zone where it freezes while you have standing water you will get frost heave, but you might just be able to relevel them every year - the alternative is to dig down and put a proper base, which kind of loses you the "fast and cheap" advantage that these slabs offer. If you prefer natural stone to concrete, you can also get cut or hand-hewn natural stone slabs, bluestone or what have you. You're likely best off with a textured surface in case it gets slimy and thus slippery. That's why a wood surface there would not be advisable. KarinL

That gives me a lot to think about. I appreciate you playing around with my design. Option 1 doesn't give me counterspace, but I originally thought of a separate furniture-look linen closet with a bigger vanity. But we now prefer to put a linen cabinet like that in the open area that's between the bathroom and laundry closet. It's a squarish shape that all the bedroom doors open into, not a long hallway. A linen closet in that space is convenient to all the bedrooms and the laundry closet. Option 2 is one I would do in a heartbeat if it was the master bath. I would probably make the towers 12" and add some counter space to the sink. Might cut out the hutch drawers and save some $. The only thing I don't like is that it shifts the person at the sink almost opposite the door, and that just doesn't feel right to me for some reason. But I could get used to it. Now #3 is interesting because I could do 12" drawers to the left and it wouldn't shove me so far over in front of the door while at the sink. I could use sconces, which would give me some light at the mirrored hutch. I like the idea of standing in front of the hutch for grooming instead of leaning over the sink. I'm not too sure about the drawers below the hutch being a different size, and evening them up adds more small drawers I don't need. I wouldn't know how to divide the long bottom drawer in that scenario. But I got graph paper! Thank you, GreenDesigns. I'll see where this takes me.

You really need to put in footings that go below the frostline. But this seems to be a small stair landing. How big? 4'x6'? 4'x8'? You could try just resting it on the concrete pad, but depending on how thick it is, it could crack under the weight of the structure since the weight will be concentrated on two points. It would be easier to do it correctly the first time. Ron

The city building codes will dictate how you have to proceed. No inspection, no issue. However, in my area, if a job is done without city permit/inspection and the city finds out---you get fined and have to redo the job according to codes. Ask the city what they want and tell the contractor to do it that way. In my opinion, as a former small job contractor, doing jobs by code took priority over all else. I could do whatever I wanted making things better than code, but mkinimum code was the law.