So all summer we've been going back and forth over whether or not we should completely renovate the upstairs apartment bathroom in our house. It has a great original claw foot tub that we plan to keep no matter what, but the layout is just awful:
The door swings the wrong way and hits the tub, the toilet is squeezed into too small a space and the sink is wedged behind the door and doesn't really fit. But, moving fixtures (and their required plumbing) is expensive. And with an old house like ours, you never know what you might discover once you start opening things up and how much it will cost. So, we chickened out. We decided to simply replace the vanity and flip the door around so it swings against the wall.
Things were going along smoothly until Ikea lied. That's right...lied! You see, the vanity we bought claimed to be 23-5/8" wide. We measured over and over again to make sure it would fit and it looked as though we would have a 1/4" to spare. Ok, so maybe it was only an 1/8" to spare, but it should fit! But it doesn't!! The sink cabinet is nearly 1/2" wider than that Swedish guy claims. He seems so trustworthy on their radio ads... So, if any of you are planning to squeeze a
Godmorgon cabinet into a space, leave yourself an inch or so of tolerance!
So, rather than spending money squeezing some new fixtures and finishes into a badly arranged space...we've decided to bite the bullet and go for it, rearranging the layout so it works way better. It'll depend on what the plumber says and how much his quote is, but we're hoping to achieve one of these two layouts:
The top layout is our preferred one. It gives way more room around the sink and allows someone to stand there without getting hit by the door. The alternate layout below would still work for us though, and it would mean moving less plumbing since the sink more or less stays where it is. In either case, the beautiful claw foot tub is placed under the window and will be much more visible from the doorway.
And so, we have tentatively started gutting things:
Now we await our plumber to come let us know what the damage will be to get things rearranged...fingers crossed we can make this happen!
5 comments:
Hey Kyle glad to hear your keeping the clawfoot. And Ikea plumbing doesn't work here no matter what they say we had a similar problem when we renovated our bathroom in our old house.
In plan 1 the door is swinging very close to the bowl of the toilet. Are the building codes around the area needed around the toilet?
*Are there
The only actual code requirements for the space needed around a toilet is for barrier free washrooms. That said, there are best practices for a functional washroom - 15-22" away from a wall, 12-18" away from a sink or tub, and a minimum of an 18"x18" clear space in front of the toilet. With the door closed we would have a 33"x31" space...so it's all a matter of whether or not the door will be opening and closing while someone is um...doing their business! We'll see...we're still considering the 'alternate' layout instead of the 'ideal'.
Kyle; completely off-topic, but I left a comment to your RTH comment re: your M. Arch thesis. (Oh, and I love this blog...)
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