Disclosure: I was sent a Danze showerhead in exchange for writing this post. The opinions expressed in this post are my own.
You would think that I would love my bathrooms. Considering that I am the original owner of my home. I should love my bathrooms, right? I designed them from the plans. I had the house built. I spent hours scrutinizing plans with my husband. Spent weeks talking to the architect. Gave the go-ahead for changes (mostly small ones) to be made. As the person (with @DadKnowsbetter) who commissioned the builder to build our home, I should love my bathrooms, kitchen, garage, family room, hallway, and every other part of my home. Right?
I love my home. It’s true. I’ve lived in my home 20-plus years. I’m pleased with the house construction. I’m thrilled that we had minimal construction issues with this builder. The builder and his crew did a great job. So why don’t I love my bathrooms, kitchen, garage, etc.? Well, we were very young when we built. We were in our late 20s with a bare bones budget. We built the “most” home we could afford. We made tweaks here and there, but could not afford to upgrade to the more expensive model homes. We had to make do. I don’t want to sound ungrateful. I love that we were able to build a home in a great community with great schools, but with 20/20 hindsight I would have liked the master bathroom to be bigger with a separate shower, stand-alone hot tub, and two bathroom sinks, not one.
The master bathroom, has a hot tub (which is a very nice, and a much-used feature). Since the shower curtain is always closed, the hot tub looks like a bathtub. In addition, the room is small and narrow. Looking into the master bathroom from the door, you can’t immediately see anything except the toilet and sink. The hot tub/shower is obscured by a small dividing wall. I will give the builder credit for maximizing space and outfitting the bathroom with reasonable bathroom faucets, tile, etc. Everything is crammed in and there is little space to move around. A remodel is definitely on my home project to-do list.
A bathroom re-design would change my bathroom from cramped and functional TO roomy and awesome. To make the bathroom of my dreams, I would need to build an extension onto my house. I live in a two-story home so expanding the upstairs would mean expanding the downstairs as well. I have a “too-small” kitchen, so expanding the kitchen would be welcome. But a two-story renovation involving kitchen and bathroom remodels would be astronomically expensive. I had sticker shock when a home remodeler came to give me an estimate. Home renovations are pricey!
Building on to a home is a big job. Expensive, too. Adding on a two-story addition to my home is prohibitively expensive, but a girl can still dream, can’t she? A less invasive and very much less expensive method would be to “carve” a little out of my master bedroom to make the master bathroom bigger and more pleasing to the eye. About the sink. I can live with a hot tub/shower combo, but having only one bathroom sink for two people is not acceptable. We share the sink because we have to, but the sink area is cramped and we can’t both stand at the sink at the same time. We have to brush in shifts! Having two sinks with gleaming bathroom faucets would be amazing! Think of all that elbow room. My husband and I would no longer have to joust for the “prime toothbrushing” position.
