Vanity
There are many things that need to be by the sink. I want a place to tuck them all away except for soap and a towel. I need storage for: toothbrush*, toothpaste, razor, shaving cream, skin lotion, cologne, nail clippers, tweezers, beard trimmer*.
For most of these things, a drawer makes the most sense. A silverware-style divider for toothpaste, razor, and so on.
I like the designs that hang off the wall, for easy cleaning underneath (or, alternatively, for lack of a wet and eventually rotting baseboard). But I saw a table with feet and a slatted shelf for extra towels that looked nice, as well.
A GFCI outlet in the vanity area, for a hair dryer, say, would encourage leaving a charging base on the counter. It must be less than 3' from the sink, so I would mount it @48" a few inches from the vanity counter.
A small wastepaper basket is nice to have, but it's clutter.
The sink can be one-piece (as shown), or under-mount with a quartz top. I like the look of a vessel sink, but in practice, stuff accumulates on the counter around it. The top of the sink rim (or counter) wants to be @35", so a vessel sink shrinks the cabinet below. Marzi makes a nice under-mount with a simple slope from front to back. The sink should be white porcelain to match the toilet.
The faucet must be a mixer and deliver water at least 3" from the back of the sink. There are many elegant contemporary single-handle designs in polished chrome and they are easily changed in the future. This Kohler model is one of the more expensive at $350, but nice-looking models from Home Depot are $50-$100.
I don't like typical lever-arm sink stoppers, and I saw a better design at Aurora Plumbing. You press it in to drain, press again and it pops up to stop. (Means you have to fish through standing water to open it, a negative.) It includes improved technology for filtering hair, etc. and you pull it up for easy cleaning.
The backsplash can be quartz or tile--perhaps quartz in Bath 1, where the vanity is in its own room; tile in Bath 3, where the wall continues to the toilet.
Above the Sink
A mirror is important, typically @50" to @80", more or less. I like the look of an unframed, plate glass mirror, but cabinet space is important. Medicines would be convenient here: Advil, prescriptions, Neosporin, bandaids, Pepcid, Nyquil, Dayquil. *Charging base needs an outlet, which I want out of sight.
Bunny trail: Putting an outlet in a typical recessed medicine cabinet is tough--it's tight against studs on two sides, so there's no room for an outlet box. The box can't go in the back--it would pop out in the next room. And putting it on the bottom would make it vulnerable to water. In a perfect world, the outlet would be inside a box with enough room for two chargers, so only the wires to the chargers would be visible.
I like the pull-out magnifying mirror we had at Foster Road, but it clutters the look and it's more to clean. If the distance from edge of vanity to mirror is 16" or less, we're good. That suggests a surface-mount medicine cabinet. A custom box with a mirror door would allow recessed lighting on the back of the sink, and could hide the outlet. Most cheap medicine cabinets use a magnetic catch, but we could have a push-release and use custom glass. Maybe half-silvered? Maybe mount the pull-out magnifying mirror in the cabinet? Mirror the back of the cabinet? There are lots of ideas here.
Lighting: Typical is a wall light @84" centered on the sink with a switch near the sink. Hanging lights would be okay, except for a swinging mirror door. If the cabinet is surface-mount, the wall light is too far back. We should probably build out a soffit to avoid a shadow, or make it a cove fluorescent.
Painted drywall is fine above the mirror (in Bath 1, especially).
Toilet
No need for a fancy toilet. An American Standard Cadet 3 is fine. The toilet must be 1.6 gpf dual flush with an elongated, soft close seat, preferably "high," meaning 16½" (as in Bath 1 currently), not 14" (as in Bath 2 currently). The Cadet has buttons on the top, but a similar Kohler model has two nested levers. Both are fine. The American Standard Studio model has a smooth skirt around the back and features a one-button removable seat. Toto is a good name, too.
Toilet paper needs to be at hand, not behind a door, and I like the kind that don't have a spring-loaded axle. Optimally, it is @33", about 38" from the wall behind the toilet. Other locations work, but not as well. (Note that many designs mount at different heights in order to achieve @33" to center of roll.) A freestanding TP holder might work, too.
Near the toilet, we need to store: Plunger, toilet brush, toilet bowl cleaner, and more toilet paper. A tall cabinet near the floor would be good for the plunger and brush. Shelves above for towels and face cloths and a cabinet for toilet paper and toilet bowl cleaner.
Per IRC: the toilet needs 21" clear in front. A 30-1/4" toilet (Amer Std Studio) means a minimum bathroom width of 51-1/4" finish to finish (say 54" stud to stud). The center of the toilet must be 15" from a wall.
Shower Area
A curbless shower requires tile on the floor and walls (min. @72", per the IRC). The standard approach is to slope the floor 1/4" per foot to a drain. If the shower is 36 x 48, this means a fall of 1/2" to the center. This is accomplished by sinking the flat subfloor 2"-3" and building a sloping floor (a "pre-slope") with mortar (Quikcrete Sand Topping). It's 1-1/2" at the center, and 2" at the walls and where it meets the flat floor of the rest of the room. Before the mortar, lay down building felt and staple wire mesh on it.
There are a variety of ways to waterproof the 1/4" Wonderboard subfloor. There are plastic sheets and a red goo (like drywall mud) called Redgard that works with fiberglass tape to seal edges, corners, and seams. Basically, you create a waterproof room, then glue tile down to protect it and grout between the tiles. Then you seal that and you're good.
To tile the shower walls, you nail a board @12" off the floor all around and run your first row of tiles on that. When the wall is glued, you remove the board and fill in between the wall tiles and the floor tiles.
Rather than slope in two directions to a center drain, I would like a linear drain. They come in 48" lengths (among others) and get buried in the mortar layer. The bottom of the linear drain slopes to a single round 2" drain. In this case, we slope from the flat part of the floor to a linear drain against the wall on the long side of the shower. If any water gets on the flat floor, you sweep it toward the shower and it runs into the drain. A 42" wide shower needs to slope 7/8". Linear drains include QuARTz by Aco.
We need a shelf near the shower equipment for soap, shampoo, conditioner. Say 3-1/2" deep for large containers. This can be a tiled niche (14" x 14") or a shelf at approx. @48".
I like the idea of a bench, but that could be a free-standing teak shower bench. Or, it could be covered with the wall tiles.
Shower Fixture
There are a variety of ceiling mount, tile-in, multi-jet systems, but what I like is a simple vertical pole with a shower head clipped to it at an angle. If you're very short, you slide the head down the pole; if you're tall, raise it up. The shower head is what they call a "handshower," because you can unclip it and focus it on any part of your body. They usually have different spray settings that you change on the shower head. Some models also have a rain shower from an arm at the top of the wall pole, but I don't think that's necessary. The handshower has an armored hose that connects to a disc on the wall--the disc needs to be placed so that the hose doesn't interfere with the rest of the shower. If the hose is long enough (60" is available), the sprayer can be used to clean the shower.
The pole is typically 24", @60" or 62" to @84" to 86". The pole is offset from the centerline where the shower head will be.
Shower Control
The control and valve together are about $800. You set the temperature at, say, 104 degrees and you never have to change it. You push "On" and the water runs until it is that temperature, then it pauses--it turns the water off to let you know it hit the target. You press the button again and it will run at 104 degrees for the rest of the shower--no matter if someone flushes the toilet. It can be programmed to automatically stop after x minutes if you need a reminder.
The DTV Prompt system as described can handle two outlets, so we could have a rain shower as well as handshower if we wanted.
Other Considerations
Towel racks need to be convenient to the shower, but not where they'll get wet. Actually, towel racks that double as grab bars would be good opposite and on the adjacent wall to the shower head. We may want other, non-grab bar towel bars as well.
Rather than tile, I saw a window framed in quartz countertop material and the tile just ran into the frame.
Not clear if the shower head should be on the opposite wall from the toilet. Opposite: Toilet gets wet, potentially. Easier access to the prime shower spot (no toilet in the way). Towel rack and shower control on opposite wall keeps them dryest. Same: Plumbing is easier. Toilet doesn't get wet. Could have towel rack above back of toilet. Shower control can still be on opposite wall. To reach the prime shower spot, you need to walk around the toilet.
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