Found mainly in the peninsula area of Michigan, the Petoskey Stone is not actually stone, geologically speaking, but fossilized coral.  Long ago, during the Devonian Era when glaciers were moving in the Great Lakes Region, rock beds and coral heads were chipped off and moved around. Over the centuries, and under the pressure of the ice masses, the coral heads became fossilized. Eventually, they became these beautiful coral-embedded stones. 

How To Use Petosky Stones

There are many ways this stone can be displayed and utilized in your home.  It can become a beautiful fireplace surround or unique backsplash. Accent the cabinets in your kitchen with Petoskey cabinet pulls. Countertops and floors have also been made using the Petoskey stone. 

Artisans use the Petoskey stones to create jewelry, carvings, lamps, and furniture as well.  Check with your local tile dealer, or your interior designer if you might want to include this natural beauty in Your Perfect House. There will be no end to the comments you’ll hear from your family and friends. Plus, you get to enjoy looking at it every single day.

A Pebble Can Become a Pearl

This “pebble” will become a “pearl” in your home. If you read my book, The Well-Centered Home, you will understand what I mean by that. Click on the link below to get yourself a copy.

I hope this information is helpful to you. You might want to get yourself a copy of my best-seller, Designing Your Perfect House. It is chockfull of valuable tips and advice that will save you many times the cost of the book on your house building or remodeling project. You might also like The Well-Centered Home: Simple Steps to Increase Mindfulness, Self-Awareness, and Happiness Where You Live. It will show you how to make your home a happy place.

The post Unique and Beautiful Petoskey Stone appeared first on Designing Your Perfect House.

In high-end houses, ten-foot high ceilings, and above, have gotten to be standard. High ceilings make rooms feel larger and more spacious. But in small rooms, such as a powder room, a room that might only be 6’x6’, a ten-foot ceiling or higher can make you look for the elevator “down button.” Did you know you can use mouldings and colors on a wall to make tall spaces appear more human sized? I recently received this question from a reader:

Question about High Ceilings in Small Spaces:

“We have a powder room with ceiling 12 feet high. What suggestions do you have so it doesn’t look like tunnel?”

My Answer: 

“Good question. You could use a trick people used in old houses with high ceilings in small spaces to make the room be more appropriately proportioned for people. These old houses, especially southern houses, had high ceilings to let the summer heat rise and make the rooms more comfortable. But often, the very high ceiling would make the room be too tall and “out of scale” for people.

But they devised a clever solution to the problem. What they did to limit the “visual height” was to place a piece of crown moulding with a small shelf on top, kind of plate rail arrangement, at the desired visual height of the room. The wall below this “cornice” was painted the wall color or wallpapered. They painted the wall above the cornice the ceiling color. There was no moulding placed where the wall eventually met the ceiling. This little trick would make your eye “stop” at the cornice and the uppermost portion of the wall would visually blend in with the ceiling thereby causing the viewer to perceive the room to be at a lower height than it actually was.”

Try this at Home

If you have an “elevator shaft” room with a high ceiling in a small space, in your house, you might want to try this tip to see if you can bring that elevator down a few feet into a more visually comfortable position.

I hope this information is helpful to you. You might want to get yourself a copy of my best-seller, Designing Your Perfect House. It is chockfull of valuable tips and advice that will save you many times the cost of the book on your house building or remodeling project. You might also like The Well-Centered Home: Simple Steps to Increase Mindfulness, Self-Awareness, and Happiness Where You Live. It will show you how to make your home a happy place.

The post Dealing with High Ceilings in Small Spaces appeared first on Designing Your Perfect House.

The first critical step in bathroom design is to do what architects call Programming. It’s an important part of House Planning. This is the process of listing your needs and desires for your bathroom. You might call it pre-planning. If you don’t set clear goals, your perfect bathroom will become a moving target and you’ll never know when it’s just right. Start by asking yourself questions about your bathroom. Prioritize your desires. Chances are costs will play a role in your decisions somewhere along the line.

Bathroom Design Programming Questions

• What should your perfect bathroom design be? What will its feel and character be?
• Should it be spacious or cozy?
• What sort of Bathroom Layout will be best?
• Should it be large enough for two people to use at the same time?
• Do you want it “compartmentalized” with a separate room for the Toilet, or Shower, or Bathtub?
• Do you want two Sinks?
• Will the sinks be on the same Vanity or will they be separated and located in different places in the room?
• Do you want a sit-down makeup Vanity?
• What style of Cabinets will your ideal bathroom have?
• What type of Countertop is best for you? Material? Height?
• Do you want a Bathtub? Is it free-standing or set into a platform? Is it integral with the shower?
• What kind of Mirrors will your bathroom have? Will they be framed or a full wall of mirrors?
• What kind of Lighting do you want?
• Will the mirrors have built-in lights?
• Will your Shower be built for two?
• What kind of Shower Enclosure do you want?
• Will the shower have glass or Tiled walls?
• Will your shower have a door?
• Will your shower have a curb or be flush with the bathroom floor?
• What type of Flooring? Should it be Tile, Wood, or something else?
• What type of Towel Bars will your bathroom have?
• Will it be Handicapped Accessible now?
• Should the bathroom be set up to be handicapped accessible in the future with a minimum of alteration?
• How will you keep the mirrors from steaming up?
• What kind of Bathroom Fan is most efficient and quiet?
• How much storage do you want for linens, makeup, and other necessary items?
• Do you want a heated bathroom floor?
• Do you want a heated shower floor?
• Do you want a heated towel bar?
• Do you want a heated mirror?

The list can go on and on. It can help to use a Checklist to guide you. This will guarantee you think of all of the aspects of bathroom design you should consider.

It’s also helpful to look for photos of bathroom ideas and other Bathroom Tips. Photos and images of other bathrooms can help you visualize the style and character of your new bathroom. You don’t have to copy these images exactly, but as they say, a picture is worth a thousand words. But, your collection of photos and images will help communicate your ideas to your architect or interior designer.

Here are some general rules for a good bathroom design:

Plan enough space for each fixture and function

For example, plan for a place to dry off when stepping out of the shower. Plan a convenient place, and enough wall space, to hang towels within easy reach of the shower and tub. Make sure there is room to stand at the sink and not get hit with the door when your partner comes into the room. Think about where things will be stored near your sink. Is there enough countertop area? Do you need things plugged in for power? Can drawers open and close without hitting other things? Make sure to have enough room to maneuver around the toilet. If the toilet is in a separate room or “closet,” is there room to step in and comfortable close the door behind you? Consider how you would move if you have restricted mobility in later years.

Plan for daylight and privacy

A good bathroom design, like any room, benefits from natural light. Getting natural light into your bathroom while maintaining privacy from the neighbors requires good planning. Think about what’s around your house when placing your bathroom windows. One way to gain natural light with privacy is to create a private outdoor garden space with a privacy wall around it. You can then have windows without shades or even patio doors into the garden and never need to worry about prying eyes.

Think through your daily routine

If you and your partner need to get ready in the morning at the same time, you might want a bathroom that is split into zones. I call this a compartmentalized bathroom design. You could separate the vanities and sinks from the bathing area so one person could shower while the other is fixing their hair. Think about where you place the toilet. You don’t want to walk farther than necessary in the middle of the night.

Plan how your bathroom relates to the bedroom and closets

Some people prefer to have their closet accessible directly from the bathroom. They feel it makes dressing easier. Other people like to separate the bath and closet. They prefer to enter the closet only from the bedroom. Design your bathroom-bedroom-closet arrangement to suit the way you really live.

Consider your mechanical and electrical needs

Don’t place shower valves on exterior walls. They are more susceptible to freezing and harder to repair if they ever leak. Plan for access to whirlpool tub motors and isolate them for better sound control, if possible. Provide good ventilation for odors and humidity. Design in the lighting from the beginning. Light for the vanity should come from two directions, if possible. This will allow one light to fill in shadows cast by the other.

Plan for your future needs

Yes, we do all grow older. If you’re going to the expense and effort to remodel or build your ideal bathroom, make sure it will still be ideal when you are less mobile, susceptible to falling, and need more light for good vision. Make sure there is enough floor space to move freely. Make sure your doorways are wide enough. They don’t have to be huge to work. But a 24” wide door is not wide enough for a wheelchair. Plan for the placement of grab bars and other wall-mounted accessories. It’s easy to install wood blocking between the wall studs now to be sure these items are solidly anchored when they are installed later.

Think about your luxuries

Do you want heated floors or towel bars? Do you want a steam shower? Do you want a spa experience in the shower with body sprays and a rain-head shower? Should your perfect bathroom include music, a television, a fireplace, or aromatherapy? This is your chance to make your bathroom design exactly what you’ve dreamed of.

Consider cleaning and maintenance

What type of flooring, countertop, and wall finishes are best for you? Some finishes look great but require constant maintenance. Make sure you know all the characteristics of each of your selections before finalizing your choices. Chances are you will make different choices for your master bathroom than you might for your children’s bathroom.

Your other bathrooms require proper planning and design, too. Even though they might be less elaborate, don’t neglect them. Every bathroom design is important, including the powder room. Doing it right will make your house better.

I hope this information is helpful to you. You might want to get yourself a copy of my best-seller, Designing Your Perfect House. It is chockfull of valuable tips and advice that will save you many times the cost of the book on your house building or remodeling project. You might also like The Well-Centered Home: Simple Steps to Increase Mindfulness, Self-Awareness, and Happiness Where You Live. It will show you how to make your home a happy place.

The post The Right Bathroom Design Is an Important Part of Your Perfect House appeared first on Designing Your Perfect House.

A simple remodeling or “sprucing up” of a bathroom could simply be a matter of replacing the sink, faucet, and vanity. Add some paint and a new light fixture and mirror and you’ll have a completely new look. Other bathroom remodeling projects can involve rearranging everything to make the bathroom work better, or it might involve adding space to make the room larger.

The key difference between a less expensive bathroom remodeling and an expensive one is whether or not you are moving the plumbing fixtures. Moving toilets, sinks, tubs, and showers means moving the pipes and wires behind the walls and beneath the floors. The time and cost involved in doing these kinds of changes to the parts of the bathroom you don’t readily see can be significant. Be sure there’s something important to gain before making these changes. It’s easy to move the toilet over a few inches on a piece of paper. It’s hard to do it in real life if it means the floor has to be ripped up to move and extend the pipes beneath it. Some relocations of fixtures can even require some alterations to the framing of the house to rearrange drain pipes.

Don’t casually plan on moving plumbing fixtures if you don’t have to. If you are on a tight budget, there really is no justification for taking on that added expense. Instead, devote your energy and resources toward developing clever solutions for any of the issues you’d like to resolve in your current bathroom. This might be a good time to pay for an hour or two of consultation time with an architect to help you evaluate other ways to achieve what you want in your bathroom remodeling project.

But even if your budget can handle a bit more expense, you owe it to yourself to do a good job of planning, (architects call it programming) to determine exactly what you need and want in your new bathroom. This process sets goals and priorities for your bathroom remodeling project.

Make a Plan

List the things you want in order of priorities. I like to divide these into three categories. “A” priority items are the things you must have and cannot be compromised or it’s not worth doing the project at all. “B” items are ones you would like to have but they can be compromised somewhat if it means achieving your “A” priorities. “C” priority items are the things you’d like to have, but they are not critical. These are the things that make the final bathroom nicer, but you don’t need them if it means you can’t achieve another higher priority objective or if they destroy your budget.

I suggest starting by asking yourself questions about your bathroom “wishes” and how you would like to use the room. Use your answers to create your list of priorities. For instance, do you and your partner use the bathroom at the same time? Do you need separate vanities and sinks? Would you like a “sit down” makeup vanity? Should the floor be heated? What kind of storage do you need? I have a list of programming questions like these in my book, Designing Your Perfect House, that might help you along. By the way, I can guarantee that you will find a number of tips in my book that will save you the cost of the book many, many times over. The book is pretty cheap compared to a costly bathroom remodeling or house design mistake.

Don’t forget to make notes about the character of the new bathroom. Finishes and colors will affect the feel of the room and your goal for the character of your bathroom remodeling will influence your choices and decisions.

Now for the Graph Paper

Start by measuring your existing bathroom. If your plan is to enlarge the bathroom, be sure to measure the other areas of the house that it may or will grow into. Then draw the existing spaces out on graph paper “to scale.” If your paper is lined at a ¼” grid, consider each square to be six inches. This will make your drawing end up being drawn at ½” = 1’-0” scale. That is a comfortable scale for working on a bathroom remodeling plan. Include the doors and windows in your sketch. These items can be relocated during construction. But moving them raises the cost and what started as just a bathroom remodeling project will grow into a larger home remodeling project before you know it. So try to resist the temptation to change doors and windows unless it’s critical to the design of your new bathroom. Remember, everything you decide to do should provide a benefit that is worthy of the cost.

Next, note where the toilet, shower or tub, and sinks are now. If you think you might move them, draw them in with dotted lines. Also note where lights, switches, heat vents and exhaust fans are located. These are easier to move than the plumbing fixtures. But anything you can keep where it is will save you money.

This drawing is your “existing” drawing. Make some photocopies of it and save the original without any marks. You may need more copies later. Now you can sketch out new layouts to your heart’s content on the copies. The more you sketch, the more ideas you will think of. We call it “thinking with your pencil.” It is not possible to imagine all the possibilities for your bathroom remodeling while staring at blank paper. Just start. Draw out your first ideas, no matter how bad or incomplete they might be. The simple act of drawing them will get your imagination going. And you’ll also learn what restrictions you’re dealing with and hopefully find a few solutions.

I might add here that an architect or house designer can do this for you or with you. And the cost might be less than you think. By hiring an architect, you will be buying a lot of experience and expertise for not much money when you consider what you’ll be investing in your house. You don’t have to hire them for the whole project, either. After you have done your plan of the existing bathroom and sketched out a few ideas, make an appointment with an architect and hire them for a couple of hours of consultation. They will see things you can’t. And they might find opportunities that can make you bathroom even better. After that, you can proceed on your own or possibly ask them to continue helping you.

Creating a Layout

Bathrooms don’t come in just one size and shape. Great bathrooms can be created in hundreds of layouts and arrangements. Your layout will depend on the space you have available. Of course, each fixture and item for your bathroom remodeling has certain area requirements. You can’t fit a bathtub in a four-foot space, for instance. If the space for the toilet is too narrow, it becomes unusable and may not meet the  Building Code.

(Example space requirements coming soon)

Learn what space requirements you need for each fixture and the space around it. These area “blocks” become the pieces of the puzzle you must fit into the space you have available. You might consider using another piece of graph paper to draw your fixtures and the space they need and then cut them out, kind of like paper dolls. You can then move your paper dolls around on your “existing” plan to quickly see where they might fit or not fit.

An important part of your bathroom remodeling design is the relationship of each of the room’s features to the others. These relationships will have a lot to do with how the room will feel as well as function.  What do you want to see when you first step into the room? When you are in the tub, can you see the toilet? That might be a distraction that will detract from the “spa” experience you might be trying to create. Where will you hang towels? Will your bathroom need to accommodate a person with physical restrictions now or later?

Your layouts must answer all your “A” priority requirements, at least. Evaluate each layout you do and see how it performs. You’ll probably find yourself eventually combining parts of several layouts to create Your Perfect Bathroom.

Some Design Basics

Become a student of bathroom design. It can be helpful and educational to look at bathroom plans in books or in sample houses. But don’t just glance at them. Look with a critical eye. Evaluate them based on your own list of priorities you made while doing your programming. You’ll see that there is no single “perfect” bathroom. And that is not what you are striving for. You are trying to create YOUR perfect bathroom.

Here Are Four Suggestions that May Help You with Your Bathroom Remodeling

First, try to create some privacy for the entrance to the bathroom. For instance, don’t position the toilet in a place where it’s the first thing you see when you enter the room. Or worse yet, don’t place it where you see it when you are in the adjoining room or hallway and the door is open. If you can arrange things so there is a bit of a transition space before the bathroom door, that’s even better. This transition space could take the form of a small hallway that might even have room for a dresser or some cabinetry.

One way to enhance the privacy within a bathroom is to compartmentalize it. If you have room, consider placing the sink and vanity in one room and the toilet and tub/shower in an adjoining room. This will let the vanity area be less sterile feeling and serve as more of a dressing room than simply a bathroom. It is a more elegant arrangement. It also let’s two people utilize the bathroom at the same time and keeps steam off the mirror after showers. Many master bathrooms in higher end homes now provide a separate small room for the toilet. This further enhances the privacy aspect of the bathroom.

Second, try to use the wall space efficiently. Vanities, toilets, and most tubs and showers all need to sit against a wall. You’ll find the biggest challenge will be satisfying all of these wall space demands while still providing room for towel hanging, doors, and windows.

Our Third suggestion is about natural light. Although bathrooms need privacy, and often it’s hard to handle large windows in that regard, natural light makes every room in your house more livable and friendlier. Plus, natural light makes colors look right. Windows can also provide additional ventilation. Consider the size and placement of windows carefully to maintain privacy.

Fourth, bathroom layouts work best if you place the sinks and vanities closer to the entrance to the room and work the toilet and shower further back. This enhances the psychology of privacy, if not actual privacy. And it’s a great idea to add sound insulation in the walls, floor, and ceiling, as well as to install a solid core door. Sound privacy makes a bathroom nicer from both inside and out.

There are many things to think about in a bathroom remodeling. I discuss much of this in greater detail on my  Bathroom Design  pages.

I hope this information is helpful to you. You might want to get yourself a copy of my best-seller, Designing Your Perfect House. It is chockfull of valuable tips and advice that will save you many times the cost of the book on your house building or remodeling project. You might also like The Well-Centered Home: Simple Steps to Increase Mindfulness, Self-Awareness, and Happiness Where You Live. It will show you how to make your home a happy place.

The post Bathroom Remodeling Will Update Your Home appeared first on Designing Your Perfect House.

The least costly bathroom remodeling upgrade is to change the cabinet hardware, towel bars, and paper holder. Although these are small items, the say a lot about the condition of the bathroom, especially if the ones you have are broken or missing. Colors of metals go in and out of style. Right now, bright brass is out of favor and bathrooms with all “yellow” metal look dated. Swap the brass out for brushed nickel and you will instantly be back in style.

Next in order of cost is fresh paint. This may be the single most effective thing to do when doing a bathroom remodeling on a budget. A fresh coat of paint in a new, trendy, and uplifting color can make a huge difference in a bathroom and does not cost much. But no matter what your budget is, please don’t go too cheap on the quality of the paint. Low quality paint is a waste of time and money. You want to use a paint that is durable, washable, and covers well. I usually advise my clients away from glossy paints because they will show every blemish in the surface and they are impossible to touch up. If you need to touch up a spot, you will be doomed to recoat then entire wall to get it to look right.

Changing Hardware and Painting are Effective and Relatively Cheap Tactics for Bathroom Remodeling on a Budget

I mentioned blemishes in the surface of the walls. This is a critical part of painting. Most of your work should be in the preparation. No paint will hide lumps and dents in the wall surface. Be sure to spend enough time spackling and sanding to get a super smooth surface before painting. Consider applying one coat and then check for more blemishes and spackle those spots again before applying the final coat. Check for blemishes at different times of the day. Different lighting will show different things. If you obsess about this step you’ll thank yourself in the end.

If you’re changing the cabinet hardware, you might want to change those plumbing fixtures, too. The faucets are the easiest to change and can have a dramatic aesthetic effect on your bathroom remodeling. Just be sure to select faucets that fit in the holes you already have in the countertop. They aren’t all the same. Some have one hole, some have three holes, and the holes might be spaced differently for different faucets.

For a few hundred dollars more, you can replace the toilet. This is the fixture that gets the most use and can look the worst. Consider a comfort height model. They are more and more popular. And NEVER get a round bowl toilet unless nothing else fits in the room. They look cheap and they are uncomfortable to use. Always choose the elongated bowl variety for more comfort and style.

Replacing the vanity cabinet can be a bit more costly and may not fit into a bathroom remodeling on a budget. Sometimes it’s possible to just change the doors on existing cabinets. But often the cabinet needs more repair than that. The drawers may not work correctly anymore or the hinges are shot. However, if the cabinet is functionally sound, replacing it just to change the look may not be worth the cost. Try cleaning it up and possibly painting it with a good alkyd (oil based) or acrylic paint, like Sherwin Williams Pro Classic to get a hard, smooth finish that’s almost as good as a factory finish. Here again, the prep work is the key. Fill blemishes with Bondo and sand, sand, sand.

New Countertops Have a Big Impact

Going further with the bathroom remodeling, you might think about replacing the countertop and possibly the sink. The sink will be the smaller cost of the two. A simple oval under-mount sink is less than $100. Solid countertop surfaces like granite, quartz, or Corian are expensive. However, the countertop in a bathroom is not nearly as large as in a kitchen. Since these solid surface products are sold by the square foot, a new top might just fit into your budget. Try looking through the “off-cuts” or remnants at the countertop company. These are leftover pieces cut from large slabs they used for bigger projects. Chances are you can find a piece you like that will fit your bathroom and come at a discount of up to 20%.

If you do all of the things listed here, you would still qualify as doing a bathroom remodeling “on a budget.” The aesthetic effect and your personal enjoyment will be dramatic. Beyond these items, things start to get more costly and possibly more complicated. Changing tile is not an inexpensive venture. Neither is rearranging fixture locations, changing tubs, building new showers, adding steam showers, and such. I won’t discuss them here in Bathroom Remodeling on a Budget. You can read about them in my other articles about bathroom remodeling.

I hope this information is helpful to you. You might want to get yourself a copy of my best-seller, Designing Your Perfect House. It is chockfull of valuable tips and advice that will save you many times the cost of the book on your house building or remodeling project. You might also like The Well-Centered Home: Simple Steps to Increase Mindfulness, Self-Awareness, and Happiness Where You Live. It will show you how to make your home a happy place.

The post Bathroom Remodeling on a Budget appeared first on Designing Your Perfect House.

“What is the recommended vanity and countertop height for a 5 inch vessel sink?
The countertop we have is 3/8 inch, but the vanity base the company ordered for us is 34 1/2 inches tall which makes the whole combo roughly 40 inches tall. I’m only 4′-11” inches tall, but my husband who is 5′-10” said it feels high to him. Your recommendation is greatly appreciated.”

People don’t think this through and too often set a vessel sink on top of a standard height cabinet and top. This results in the sink being too high for comfort for almost anyone not in the NBA.

I like to refer back to a couple of “standard” sink heights. Kitchen sinks are normally set 36” above the floor to the rim and have been for a long time. This is the height of a standard kitchen countertop. Bathroom vanities used to be only 30” above the floor to the sink rim. That is typical table height. Granted, people were shorter in the past, but that was uncomfortably low and hard on your back for most people.

But that has changed and most bathroom sinks that are recessed into the countertop are now set at 36” above the floor. Much more comfortable. However, now with the growing popularity of vessel sinks that sit on top of the countertop and are not set down in the countertop, we need to rethink the vanity height and cabinet size.

Vessel sinks need to be set on top of lower countertops to get the rim of the sink to be at 35” to 36” above the floor, approximately the same height the sink would be with an undermount sink in a 36” tall vanity. Use the shorter cabinet. With a 5” or 6” tall sink on top of an “old-fashioned standard” vanity cabinet of about 28 ½” plus a 1 ½” thick top would set the sink rim at about 35” or 36” above the floor. This should be comfortable for most of us.

Very tall and very short people should make adjustments for their own stature. Don’t do things just because everyone else does. If you plan to be in your house for a long time, make it fit you rather than you accommodating it. After all, it’s your house. make it perfect for you.

I hope this information is helpful to you. You might want to get yourself a copy of my best-seller, Designing Your Perfect House. It is chockfull of valuable tips and advice that will save you many times the cost of the book on your house building or remodeling project. You might also like The Well-Centered Home: Simple Steps to Increase Mindfulness, Self-Awareness, and Happiness Where You Live. It will show you how to make your home a happy place.

The post Don’t Make Your Vessel Sink Too High appeared first on Designing Your Perfect House.

I always recommend that shower seats and benches, especially steam showers, be solid underneath. They should not be a simple shelf. Shower seats should be a box without open space beneath.

Why do I say this? After all, you might prefer the look of a simple slab floating in the corner of the shower. That’s a nice look from above, but not so nice a look from underneath. If left open below, the underside of a shower seat is the perfect place for mold and mildew to grow.

Mold and mildew absolutely love warm, moist places. Warm, moist air rises. As such, it collects up under things. Did you ever notice that the underside of your roof overhang gets mildewed? It never gets rained on. How could it grow mold? It’s the warm moist air rising and collecting beneath the overhang.

That same thing happens under your shower seat, but on steroids. If you just have a slab of stone imbedded into the wall, steam and humidity will collect under, creating luxury accommodations for mold and mildew to grow. Usually the underside of a slab of stone is unpolished and not smooth. There of plenty of nooks and crannies just waiting for mold to move in.

Consider also that the space under a shower seat is hard to reach making it an easy place to overlook when cleaning. I think it’s better to make the seat be a “filled in” box with no open space below. Put a tile facing on the front that goes all the way from the seat to the floor and then put the marble or granite slab for the seat on top of that. You’ll be glad you did in the long run.

I hope this information is helpful to you. You might want to get yourself a copy of my best-seller, Designing Your Perfect House. It is chockfull of valuable tips and advice that will save you many times the cost of the book on your house building or remodeling project. You might also like The Well-Centered Home: Simple Steps to Increase Mindfulness, Self-Awareness, and Happiness Where You Live. It will show you how to make your home a happy place.

The post Make Your Shower Seat Easy to Clean appeared first on Designing Your Perfect House.

I hope this information is helpful to you. You might want to get yourself a copy of my best-seller, Designing Your Perfect House. It is chockfull of valuable tips and advice that will save you many times the cost of the book on your house building or remodeling project. You might also like The Well-Centered Home: Simple Steps to Increase Mindfulness, Self-Awareness, and Happiness Where You Live. It will show you how to make your home a happy place.

The post Framed Mirror is also a Medicine Cabinet appeared first on Designing Your Perfect House.

You may not know what a pressure-balancing mixing valve is. But you have certainly experience a shower where one is NOT installed. We all have had the unpleasant experience of getting scalded when taking a shower and someone in another room flushes a toilet or turns on the cold water in a sink. All of a sudden your shower loses its cold water and all that comes out of the showerhead is scalding hot water, as happened to me in the cabin. You jump to the side to avoid getting burned and frantically adjust the temperature of the water. Of course, as soon as the other plumbing fixture that stole your cold water is no longer running, your cold water returns with a vengeance and you are treated to a blast of icy cold water that reminds you of a frigid mountain stream. This is both uncomfortable and potentially dangerous if the hot water heater is set at a high temperature, skin burns can result.

You don’t have to suffer like this. You simply need a pressure-balancing shower valve. Most manufacturers of plumbing fixtures offer these. A mixing valve is the hot and cold water adjustment apparatus on your shower. By turning the handle one way or another, you adjust the temperature of the water coming out of the showerhead by allowing more or less hot and cold water to mix together to get the temperature you want. In standard mixing valves, once you have found the setting you want, the amount of hot and cold water is set and does not change.

In a pressure-balancing mixing valve, the amount of hot and cold water can change automatically. When a toilet is flushed elsewhere in the house, it calls for cold water to refill the tank. That causes the water pressure on the cold side in your shower to go down. And that means all you get is hot water, thus the scalding effect. But a pressure-balancing mixing valve immediately detects the lower pressure on the cold side and equally reduces the pressure on the hot side to keep the same ratio of hot and cold water coming through the showerhead. You will experience a slight drop in water pressure through the showerhead and the stream of water will diminish temporarily, but the temperature of the water will not change. Once the cold water pressure returns to normal, the valve readjusts and the stream of water goes back where you originally set it. No scalding!

Pressure-balancing shower valves cost a bit more than standard valves. But the small added cost is well worth the comfort and safety you will gain. You can take the comfort and convenience of your shower valve up another notch by choosing a thermostatic mixing valve the keeps a preset temperature whenever you turn on the shower. But we’ll talk about those in another blog post.

Please read my other posts for more useful information about house design and construction.

I hope this information is helpful to you. You might want to get yourself a copy of my best-seller, Designing Your Perfect House. It is chockfull of valuable tips and advice that will save you many times the cost of the book on your house building or remodeling project. You might also like The Well-Centered Home: Simple Steps to Increase Mindfulness, Self-Awareness, and Happiness Where You Live. It will show you how to make your home a happy place.

The post Yes, You Do Want a Pressure-Balancing Mixing Valve in Your Shower appeared first on Designing Your Perfect House.

I hope this information is helpful to you. You might want to get yourself a copy of my best-seller, Designing Your Perfect House. It is chockfull of valuable tips and advice that will save you many times the cost of the book on your house building or remodeling project. You might also like The Well-Centered Home: Simple Steps to Increase Mindfulness, Self-Awareness, and Happiness Where You Live. It will show you how to make your home a happy place.

The post Pocket or Swinging Door for Bathroom? appeared first on Designing Your Perfect House.