5 replies to this topic

[norma]

Hello everyone, We are in the beginning stages of a reno. What I need to know are, What is important to have/ or not have in my new bathroom and bedroom. My bedroom now is small and can only wheel around on the one side. The bathroom is small too. I've already thought of roll in shower,open bottom sink, heat light, and a pocket door from bathroom to bedroom. The new bedroom will have lower windows and remote fan and lights. Hardwood floor in bedroom and ceramics in bath. We are also putting a new frontload washer and dryer in the bathroom as well as it is in basement now. We are interviewing contractors now and don't have one picked yet. We plan to start this in the spring beginning of April. I have waited a while as I really want this planned out and thought through, I'm only doing this once! I realize that what may be a need right now may not down the road. I am 41 and plan to be in my house along time LOL. My house is a story and a half. Two bedrooms up stairs and my bedroom,kitchen,bathroom,livingroom and familyroom on the main level. Basement is laundry,workshop,and storage room. The family room is an addition that was put on by the previous owners. We plan to remove it and do the new rooms in the new addition. I realize it will be costly but cheaper than moving and I would still have to renovate a new house also. My kids don't want to move either, 14 and 10. They have been through enough this past year!!

Thanks Norma

[edlee]

Sounds to me like you have it well in hand.

The only things I could add are the things that I should have done when we had our remodel.

If possible,,,( and it is) have the roll in showerinstalled with no lip at the front or as low a lip as possible,,,,I have a shower/comode chair with 22 inch wheels and have a problem getting the front casters over mine.

Keep the sink as low as possible,,,,,lower than the standard cabinet height,,,, it should barely allow your knees to fit under. Mine is at cabinet height and tho it is usable, it would be much more so if it were only a few inches lower.

They make a sink whose front lip extends past the front of the cabinets and has the drain in the rear right giving more leg room underneath. I have one and like it a lot.

Hope any of this helps,,,,,,,, Oh,, and check the contractor's references closely,,,,,particularly his recent clients.

good luck
ed

[ems]

This is our bathroom, I'm T12. The bath has sides and nice wide corners for transfering. The basin is within reach of the toilet, and th toilet has cupboards around it for *things*. But the most important thing I think after doing quite a few houses up now, is Space. Space must be around everything.
This shower in the picture, we cant use, its for selling purposes only. If you look around our house, you'll be hard pressed to find any *adaptions*. Just Space. In the kitchen the worktops are tiered to allow for normal integrated appliances, the sink is one stage lower and the hob is one stage lower again.


http://www.symondsan...v...980&photo=8

Emma.

[Califanna]

norma, on Sep 27 2008, 01:57 PM, said:

Hello everyone, We are in the beginning stages of a reno. What I need to know are, What is important to have/ or not have in my new bathroom and bedroom. My bedroom now is small and can only wheel around on the one side. The bathroom is small too. I've already thought of roll in shower,open bottom sink, heat light, and a pocket door from bathroom to bedroom. The new bedroom will have lower windows and remote fan and lights. Hardwood floor in bedroom and ceramics in bath. We are also putting a new frontload washer and dryer in the bathroom as well as it is in basement now. We are interviewing contractors now and don't have one picked yet. We plan to start this in the spring beginning of April. I have waited a while as I really want this planned out and thought through, I'm only doing this once! I realize that what may be a need right now may not down the road. I am 41 and plan to be in my house along time LOL. My house is a story and a half. Two bedrooms up stairs and my bedroom,kitchen,bathroom,livingroom and familyroom on the main level. Basement is laundry,workshop,and storage room. The family room is an addition that was put on by the previous owners. We plan to remove it and do the new rooms in the new addition. I realize it will be costly but cheaper than moving and I would still have to renovate a new house also. My kids don't want to move either, 14 and 10. They have been through enough this past year!!

Thanks Norma

If you have the money try to put in a washlet. They really help for cleaning the underside. Toto is the toilet I purchased because it was the right height for transfers. They have a washlet that attaches to their toilet with push buttons and a remote if you need it.
http://www.totousa.c...age.asp?PID=134

I thought I researched everything as well when I did the remodel, which was prompted by a busted sewer line under the bathrooms. I put in a heater/light/fan for my bathroom. which I wish I had just put the fan/heater on separate switch. The heater really comes in handy when you are taking a shower.

Another thought is to make sure you have enough storage in the bathroom. I made so much room for the sinks, roll-in shower and toilet, that I neglected on storage. I like the design of putting some storage low to the floor, as shown in the pics. of house for sale.

Good Luck. If you have time ask around and see other peoples remodels in your area. They may have some good suggestions.

[Hapahowlee]

When my husband and I had our new home built in Arizona, we decided to buy a track home b/c of the cost of a flat piece of land and uprooting cactus and replanting them somewhere else was too expensive. We found a home that had a floorplan very close to what we already had in mind. The floorplan is very open so the changes we made only cost us about $3,000 for the entire home. As far as the master bathroom, there is just a very tall/wide doorway, but there is a door to the commode area, which we asked to make 2'8". I believe most commode doors are only 2'4". We had all doors except for rooms/closests that had double doors done at 2'8". I can't find my picture in my computer now, but on one side we have double sinks. My husband's side is taller b/c he is a quad and sits up high in his Quickie GP. We asked the contractor to not place a cabinet under his sink. They actually had to redo most of our bathroom after we moved in b/c they did a few things wrong. When they decided not to put the cabinet under my husband's sink, they made the entire vanity all one height, which was at the height of my sink that is supposed to be lower. So this is one long piece of marble (120 inches long). We think they were just being lazy b/c the male's sink according to the original model home is supposed to be taller than the females side. They also had to redo the shower, which has a fold down shower bench. In our old home, my husband used a transfer bench in our tub to take a shower. So this is what we opted to do, only the contractors didn't have the measurements correct and basically my husband had about a foot gap to transfer over to get onto his bench and that would not have worked.

I suggest you measure your chair and you sitting in your chair every which way you can measure, even from back of wheels to where your toes stick out so you don't bash your feet into anything like the wall when you pull up to your sink or if your are turning around in a particular spot. Another thing we had done in all 3 bathrooms was to get all tallboy toilets. I don't know if you transfer onto the toilet or not, but my husband does and this helps tremendously, b/c he cannot get off of a toilet that is at standard height. Grab bars are nice to have as well as a hand held shower massage.

Is your closet in your bedroom or part of your bathroom? We have a huge walkin closet at the end of our bathroom and the original design had 2 sliding doors, which we had replaced with double doors that open outward b/c hubby wasn't able to fit through one side of the sliders.

I would be sure to get copies of all specs so if your contractor makes any mistakes you'll have it in writing and won't be charged to redo anything. Fortunately, we had copies of all the changes to be made and although we weren't charged a dime, we spent a year of having workers coming to our home to redo some things that weren't correctly done. We lived in the Midwest while our home was being built and got picture updates from the builder, but hopefully yours will go smoothly b/c you'll be around to notice if anything is not being done as specified.

Good luck.

[Tetracyclone]

make sure light switches are chair height. Voice activated lights are fun for getting out of bed.

I can thnk of no reason not to have a pure roll-in shower. The finest hotels in Taiwan do their showers that way. Call it a European no-step shower. Concrete can be graded toward the drain and left as epoxy finished concrete or tiled to about 10 inches outside the lovely glass sliding door.

Yes it is more expensive than an insert.

Edited by Pwuff, 02 December 2009 - 07:12 PM.