Gray grout!

I've always found cleaning the base of the toilet a major PIA. I'm buying one with a covered skirt in the hope that this actually makes cleaning easier. Also, vanity to the floor - I have a small "furniture style, legged" vanity in my smaller bathroom and cleaning underneath it, also a PIA.

A wall-mounted toilet makes the floor easier to clean. Tile the walls around the toilet area. Solid surface for the shower base and maybe curved corners where the base meets the walls.

My ideal home has a concrete floor with a drain in the middle so it can be hosed down.

Fully agree with bpath on the wall mounted toilet. You'll never have to climb around behind the toilet to get between the wall and the porcelain. The same goes for the sink. Ikea has some sink options that hang on the wall; HOWEVER, they require a little different plumbing. In the US we seem to have our water supply oriented equidistant from each other outside the drain pipe in the wall. With the Ikea sinks, it would be easier if the drain were to one side and the hot/cold water were together on the other side. Ask me how I know.

The curbless shower will be a huge (HUGE) mistake. I lived in hotels for 8 years with a traveling crew of researchers. The one thing everyone complained about was getting the handicapped enabled room with curbless showers. They said the floor was wet after every shower. If you currently have a tub, use the entire area for the shower, but put a curb at the bottom. I have glass side and door at 6.5-ft high to allow for full air flow. I clean the shower daily with a mix of vinegar (100 ml), alcohol (100 ml), and water (to make 1 liter/quart) sprayed after every shower. If that gets away from me, I use a 50/50 mix of vinegar and liquid laundry soap to clean the walls. Spray it on, let it sit for an hour, and wipe it off with a Scotchbrite pad DURING a shower. The floor will be very slippery, so be very careful.

We used large format tiles for our master.

If you decide to mix/match tiles, you have to see them side by side in the store. We carried the greenish tile over to the wood-toned tiles and found only one in the store that had a greenish cast to it. You'd never know in this picture, or to look at it in person, but all the rest looked awful next to the greenish cast on the riverbottom tile.

We also used 12x24 tiles for the floor. Concrete is the most porous solid surface you can have. Eventually all the stains it picks up will be called, "patina" and you'll go on not hating your decision. You might be able to avoid that by sealing and waxing continually, but for a low maintenance bathroom, concrete is not what you're looking for. Porcelain tile is much easier to keep clean even with the grout.

Get a high efficiency ceiling exhaust fan. They are silent and will keep the bathroom from getting too humid during a shower. I get one rated for about 1.5x the size of the room, so for a 100 square foot room, I get a fan rated for 150 square feet.

I always use whitey white grout so I can tell when the grout is dirty. You cannot tell when you use dark grout. If you just want it to look uniform, use colored grout. If you want it to look clean, use white grout.

Encourage him to sit down to pee. There's no splashing when he sits.

Also encourage him to wipe up water spots around the sink before he leaves the bathroom.

This tip is not so much for cleanliness, but more for longer term maintenance. Consider using Moen faucets. Why? Because Moen has not changed their cartridge design in decades. If one leaks, you can replace the cartridge from any hardware store (and some grocery stores) for under $20. You don't need a plumber to come in. Delta, Pfister, and other brands change their faucet designs every year, so they have catalogs of parts for every year model. Before you can get the parts to fix a Delta you have to know what year model it is and have the exploded parts diagram for that model. Then drive to a specialty plumbing store (always closed on weekends) and wait at the counter for help. I've had various combinations of Moen faucets over various years amounting to 115 faucet-years and only once did one of them leak. If you keep a spare cartridge on hand you can replace it in about 20 minutes.

No curbless shower for a teen who may spend a long time in there and who may not be thinking about cleaning hair and gunk out of the drain with every shower. I have a curbless. I installed a floor drain in the room a couple feet in front of the shower stall and I still managed to flood water into the hall the other day! I had 1.) not bothered to check the drain for hair and 2.) left the cotton bathmat between the shower and the drain, so water was directed away from the drain. If you are not willing to make the entire room into a shower by having a floor drain in it, do not get a curbless shower. Mine is a solid surface shower pan where the trench drain is to the outer side of the pan, so water flows toward the room to drain, but you could still flood a bathroom if a trench drain got plugged by hair, even if the whole room slopes toward the shower drain. (I have been losing a lot of hair lately. Doc says everybody is complaining of this right now.)

I agree with the wall-mount toilet for cleaning.

Give him lots of storage.

Put a bluetooth speaker in the shower for him (they now come in light fixtures and shower heads.) For that matter, make sure the electrical outlets have USB ports so he can charge things in the bathroom (counters are so convenient to set stuff on) as he gets ready in the morning.

Plugs inside his med cab for shavers and toothbrushes, too. If they are charging there, they are put away. :-)

Thanks so much! I can't wait to get this project started. I am sure I will be back for more help.

I'm also into easy-to-clean. My thoughts:

- Keep it medium-sized. If you go with minimum size, it's not comfortable to use, and it's hard to move around to keep it clean. If you go too big, you're wasting space and you're cleaning more than is necessary.

- Avoid stark white or deep black. Mid-tone grays, tans, or other colors will be easier to keep clean than those extreme shades. This is true for tile, and it's true for grout.

- You said you want to avoid a surround -- they are the easiest to clean. Second easiest is a shower pan on the floor and a large-scale tile on the walls with small grout lines.

- You can toss a shower curtain into the washing machine; it's easier to keep clean than a glass door. And a shower curtain hides your shampoo bottles, etc., which aren't that attractive.

- I would give up the idea of a curbless shower. They're only practical for new construction (since you're renovating, you'd have to tear up the floor), and if your contractor isn't very skilled, it'll become a leaky nightmare. Consider that you only have to have a 2" curb on your shower; most are taller, so you'll have to specify a minimal curb.

- Definitely go with a hand-held shower. Makes it so much easier to spray the shower walls while cleaning.

- Plan a vanity with ample drawer storage. If you don't, you'll always have clutter on the countertop.

- If you choose a vanity that sits solidly on the floor (as opposed to furniture legs), you don't have to clean underneath it.

- Choosing the right faucet can make a difference in your cleaning time: consider a wide-spread faucet, and you won't have to "floss" between the handles. Or consider a single-stalk faucet.

- Go with a big mirror attached to the wall (rather than a pivot-type mirror that will provide more creases to clean). A solid wall of mirror will make the room look bigger and is easy to clean.

- As someone said above, cleaning around a toilet is a problem. Yes, a wall-mounted unit is easier to clean under, but it will cost more up front, so you're looking at a trade-off.

- If you decide against the wall-mounted unit, consider a one-piece toilet (that is, the tank isn't a separate piece). It's harder /heavier to install, but it eliminates a crease and is one less thing to clean.

- You can also get a wall-mounted toilet brush -- anything that's off the floor is easier for you.

- Consider where your trash can and hamper will be placed.

- Choose light fixtures that won't collect dead bugs; that is, choose a light fixture that's "open" on the bottom.

- Plan plenty of towel bar space. Larger towel bars allow you to "stretch out" your towels, and they dry faster.

These things aren't any easier to clean, but they will make the finished product nicer:

- Provide an easy-to reach electrical outlet near the sink.

- Place another electrical outlet (controlled by a switch) at the ceiling so he can have a string of lights as a night light.

- Build storage space into the shower so he won't have his shampoo bottles, etc. on the floor. One standard 12" square niche isn't much -- better to have too much rather than too little.

- Lights at "face level" are more flattering than over head lights. Your son may not care, but if a girl ever uses this bathroom, she'll notice the difference.

If you don’t want to use the standard fiberglass surrounds you could use surrounds made by USMarble. (Except I guess they don’t make the cultured marble product any longer. Is Onyx the name of one of their competitors?) This would avoid the issue with grout! I would absolutely use a shower pan instead of a tiled shower floor x once again, no grout. And finally, contrary to what others might say, a high quality sheet vinyl would be the easiest to clean. It is durable and, once again, no grout. Second choice for flooring of course would be tile.