Thanks for the replies. KGSD we actually did move our door in our current home to outside wall - put mirrored sliding doors. Not sure if I'd do this in this situation or not, depends on how I work the furniture in the floorplan. Would love to see anyone's bathroom photos that are similar in the layout. Need ideas! I have no vision, need to feed off others ideas.

weedyacres, thanks for all the advice! :) I don't know why everybody thinks I'm jumping into this tomorrow but this is something I don't plan on doing for another 3+ months, maybe not even for another year. Who knows. But by nature I'm very proactive and like to start planning so I can prepare. The kitchen is a different story because I am literally moving into a house with ZERO appliances - I don't want to live off take-out every night, and not even be able to take home leftovers! I appreciate everybody looking out for me in terms of budget and experience, I really do, but there's a lot of (personal) details I haven't added in my original posts. My mom updated her bathroom all by herself, and has done MANY other bathrooms for other people. This bathroom is much bigger than mine (the photo doesn't show it all). All new flooring, wall tile, mirror, faucet, shower fixtures, etc. She did this bathroom for $600, so I think my 2k tile budget is conservative. Oh and she is a house wife (no job), so she just spends all day doing this type of stuff. My budget outlined above was meant to include everything that is required (additional materials and tools if I don't have them already - I also haven't mentioned that I worked for SB&Decker for 3 years and have literally a closet FULL of Dewalt hand and power tools). I also have other friends who have just completely renovated their entire home by themselves (and were in my shoes less than a year ago). They had help from their plumber uncle but other than that they basically gutted and re-did their whole house themselves. We're all Engineers too, so we have a sense of structures. I might not understand house terms but I have a good sense of math and physics and have done a lot of research, calculations, and budgeting that I'm confident in. My GC is also a great guy, and has even offered to lend me his tools if I want to DIY things myself. I don't get into these details though in my original posts because I'm just looking for design guidance, not necessarily how-to's. You're right about my lack of knowledge with home DIY and construction, I'm a total newb! But I've been reading, researching, and watching a lot, so I'm learning every day. Houzz has just been another great outlet for me to learn, especially coming from people with firsthand experience! Fori is not pleased, I definitely plan to now. That's great advice. I'll look into what current code is and how my bathroom (now) meets it, and what would need to bring it up to code. My GC called out a few things during the initial walk-thru and he seems very familiar with the codes in the area, so he can help. I'll do all this before I start any renovating. When I say "new layout" I don't necessarily mean moving stuff around. Maybe I should re-phrase and ask how to design the bathroom. Mostly I just don't know what to do with the inset wall. Do I put cabinets all the way from the (current) sink to the door or do I leave empty space underneath and put a bench? What's practical? What would look nice? etc etc.

This is an interesting topic, how best to use the large format tiles we have today. 2Little Fishies, firstly, I love your kitchen. I want to go sit on your built-in and take it all in for a few hours. I am thinking that the staggered, running bond style of tile setting better matches your home. Also, we do not know if the stacked look is going to catch on and become one of the regular choices people use in setting tile in the future or if we will be saying "that's so mid-teens" by 2025. So why chance it with something as permanent as tile when the traditional running bond pattern so matches your home? Look at Enduring' s shower. Do you love it? If yes, find yourself a tile setter willing to do the kind of planning she has done and chose a grout that matches best to make the tile look like a slab wall. She picked over her tile very carefully to get the flow to have that effect. I bet she spent several hours - if not a couple of days - choosing which tile went where, but look what she achieved! You can do that work on your kitchen floor (I can help direct from my perch on the built-in.) If you stack the tile, you may not be able to get the "faux slab wall" effect. Why not? The veins cannot be manipulated by matching the end of one vein to the beginning of one on another tile. Look at Enduring' s wall. She runs a vein through three or four tiles in places. One is at the upper right corner of the niche. Looking again at your tile, I see that most veins do go from side to side. So look at installation photos, if you can find some of your tile, and see if you are able to get that pleasing effect of veins matching up from tile to tile on enough tiles to get a "faux slab wall" effect. THAT is what makes a marble (or marbleain) installation for ME. If you can do that, if the veins mostly go from one side to the other side, then stacking the tile CAN get the pleasing effect and all you have to think about is whether the stacked tile will look dated in ten years.

I prefer two mirrors as well because I think it gives a more balanced look and it provides defined spaces, his and hers in our case. Your statement about wanting to make it so that 3 people can use it is what has me curious though, is this a what if type scenario or is a 3rd person actually going to be in there all the time? The reason I ask is because DH and I used to make choices based on the what if's a lot. We'd spend the money or compromise on what we really wanted only to never have those "what if's" materialize. We bought a crew cab truck so if we needed to we could tote people but never once did anyone sit back there. We turned a room (that could have been my craft room) in to a guest room and in 10 years it's only been used a handful of times and an air mattress would have worked just as well. So if you want the big mirror because it will actually be used in the context you're planning for, great...then there's a need and that would be the more functional choice for your situation, but if you're just thinking well maybe 3 people might need it, then don't focus on that and do what is more practical for your every day living. KWIM? (And Ida is right, about the two lights)