Nowhere are regrets and wish-I'ds keener than in bathrooms. As much as I love the bathrooms, I'm struck with problems in all three.
Bathroom 1 ("Downstairs main bathroom"). We should have just done a granite backsplash. The tile is beautiful, but interferes with bathroom accessories, and the granite is so pretty by itself. And I think a half-inch of granite would have been better to keep water at bay.
Bath 1's shower. I love the fixtures, but what's with the wall union? (Where the missing shower hose connects into.) It should have been on the other side of the volume control (the shelf would have gone elsewhere), and it's not at the same level as the volume control.
DANG! I know what happened. The plumbing was planned for the other wall, but there turned out to be too much structure that couldn't be cut into. So all the plumbing got moved to the opposite wall -- only the plumbers didn't reverse the layout of fixtures. So instead of being tucked against the wall, the wall union is on the outside. DANG. (There's always one sub you end up not being thrilled with, and in this case, it's the plumbers.)
But I love the chrome fixtures. Chrome was a last-minute decision, it was going to be satin nickel, but something (I forget now) drove the whole bathroom to chrome. Turns out, the lesser-expensive finish saved us about $800 all told. Yow!
And this bathroom is really, really, really small. I mean, so small I'm regretting there's an elongated toiled in there. Every inch will matter. It's really small.
Bath 2 ("Guest bath"). I love this one, and here the tile backsplash works perfectly (as opposed to a granite backsplash). But I wish I'd planned for this medicine cabinet to begin with, so we could have recessed it. As it is surface-mounted, it's too high and makes accessories (handtowel, anyone?) troublesome.
The shower is great. I'll regret having to cover this with glass!
Bath 3 ("Upstairs kids bath"). This medicine cabinet is adorable, but has several problems. The main one is that the mirror area, made smaller by a hefty bevel, isn't tall enough, and doesn't serve a wide enough range of heights. Mounted as it is, kids won't be able to see themselves for a few years, but it's too low for grownups as tall as Dave (5'10" if he's standing REALLY straight and needs a haircut).
With regret and irritation, I ordered another medicine cabinet today, a simpler one with just a wood frame around it (less molding to block the light fixture) and more mirror area (and crummy 3" shelves, I hate those).
The kids' shower. This has been the most trouble-free one yet, though unfortunately the glass tile border forced the handshower bar up higher than I'd have liked. Not the end of the world though.
My first impulse to paint this bathroom was blue, but then the vanity came in so dark, and green looked better with the dark wood. But now I wish it were blue.
Seems bathrooms attract the most regrets and wishes -- before they're used, that is. When hot water is running over me in any of these places, they will instantly transform into a sanctuary.
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