Let's see...where did I begin. First I decided where the walls would be. If you're not moving any walls you know that. Draw that out on a piece of graph paper (or do it in excel) and start playing with the space.

I'd write down your "must haves". Toilet is one :) Now do you want that in a cubby with a door or is a half wall ok? Do you want a shower? If so, what size? Two sinks or one? Next to each other or across the room? Are there two people in the room at the same time? How does that flow?

Start finding where the put the pieces and then work with that space. I knew I needed 3' wide for the toilet area. So I started with that since it's not a negotiating area. I used what was left for the shower. I also needed a tub, but didn't have the space, so I took the 50" square space let and tried to figure it out...I found a 40" round tub that fit the bill perfectly.

I did know I wanted a shower that was tiled as well as the floor, but didn't want a bunch of "fancy" tile trims so I then had to think about the tile and the finishes. I ended using contrasting trims in my design (ie the baseboards are a different color of stone, but still stone, just cut down).

I'd start with the list of "must haves" in each room, then start playing on paper with the "would like" and "gosh to dream" stuff.

A good chunk of my budget was for the cabinets (master bath for instance was something like $10,000) then the shower glass....$6000 and then the tile came in around $3000 maybe? Oh countertops...I wanted marble...you see how it all starts adding up :) But really the cabinets were the biggest chunk. Then shower glass...so what do you want in shower glass????? It's shocking how expensive it can get!

ANyhoo, start there :) See what ends up on your list, and then work on how to work it all in...THEN start the design part!

I'm not planning on any fancy tile work...

Bite your tongue!!

:-)

Thanks i-chic--that's a pretty comprehensive plan. I think we'll be somewhat limited as to the vanity sizes because of space constraints, and as we're more into the straight, clean-lined type of cabinets (you've seen some pics of my kitchen cabs over in kitchens!), I hope that will work in our favor.

I really would like to have bathtubs in the two upstairs baths, so no glass there if we can go that route (shower curtains hide everything anyway!). One discarded idea was to convert an adjacent bedroom into a master bath, which might have allowed us a shower stall (with glass) as well as a tub. For the downstairs bath, we might do just a shower stall, and then that one would get glass (preferably frameless, but plain glass otherwise).

Bill--sorry about that! I've seen some of the stuff you've done and it's all stunning. I'm kind of a minimalist with that kind of stuff (you've seen my "simple" backsplash in the kitchen--and that still wasn't cheap!). Even if using trim and accent tiles was our taste, we just couldn't spend the level of money we did on the kitchen job anyway (even at that, we had thought about using some of the Mixed up Mosaics tile on the splash behind the range but ka-ching!!!).

I didn't find that the fancy stuff was any worse than the "simple" stuff I picked :) You have similar (high cost) taste to me missie, and I'd bet you can find the most basic tile in America...and it will be some stupid tile made from the dust of dragonfly wings by pixies...only under the light of a full moon ;oP And it will cost a fortune!

I'm not using any "accent" tiles, just simple travertine and ceramic. The travertine is running about $8.50 sq ft and the ceramic at $12.50 (which is a bargain considering what the SIMPLE tile in my kitchen cost LOL).

The glass cost I just mentioned is frameless. Frameless is very expensive, but higher if shipping is an issue so perhaps you can cut that budget a good 1/3. That figure was for a pretty small area (a half wall about 4x6 and a full wall about 4x8. It's amazing what the stuff costs.

Bill I still don't have a tile guy.....what ya doing for the holidays? :oP

I don't know about that i-chic--I didn't ship a range over from France in a fur bikini (or was that a fur-lined bikini?) for my new kitchen--LOL! You're pretty much dead-on re: high cost taste though.......!

Luckily, as I mentioned, we already have the tile (travertine) for the bathroom floor downstairs. Don't know if there's enough for any part of the shower wall or ? I would likely want to use travertine for the shower walls down there, but would have to look around first to be sure. For the upstairs baths I would really like to have a hardwood floor (yes, I know, wood and water....but I'm still considering that). If not, I'd probably go with travertine for the floor and either that for the tub walls, or a glass mosaic if I can find one I like that's cheaper than the kitchen tiles (or can save enough $ elsewhere to use the same type of tile in the bathroom!).

There are a bunch of places around here that advertise the frameless, so maybe it wouldn't have to be shipped. I might opt to do a tub in the downstairs bath, too if space allows. Then I wouldn't need any glass (shower curtains everywhere!).

I hope my taste and my budget aren't too diametrically opposed!

igloochic-- you want me to come up to ALASKA.... at the beginning of WINTER??? It's cold enough here in MAINE!! ROTFLMAO

Hey Bill, maybe she'll lend you her Lacanche's fur bikini...!!!! *chuckle*

Now there's a mental picture!!

Bill--oo-la-la!!!