Basement Bathroom, Take #2

When I last left you, we had discovered that we couldn't put a bathroom in the basement in our chosen location. The plumbers had suggested putting it "here" (oh, you can't see where I'm pointing? At the base of our stairs, against an existing wall separating the laundry area from the more public-ish area.).

This is the view down the stairs. The wall is in the middle. Bathroom would go on the right hand side:


That plan got drawn up. It looked... clunky. Like there was a bathroom in the middle of the room (which there basically was). There's a telepost in the way and I didn't feel that the space flowed very well, and the bathroom ate up a lot of living area real estate.

Another view:


I realized that the wall was the problem. If we got rid of that wall, the bathroom could be moved over, making it less in the middle of things. Here's the thing: it doesn't make sense to put the bathroom (a fairly permanent feature!) in a stupid location against a wall just because that's where the existing wall is. Does this make sense to anyone else? The wall is not important and is easy enough to move. I'd rather spend a bit more money to get rid of the wall and put the bathroom in a more sensible spot.

At the same time, I had to keep in mind that we want to keep space for a bedroom in the basement. This was looking tricky to achieve, what with the existing closet in the corner and some very expensive to move basement features. It was looking like the closet would have to go if we wanted to finagle a bedroom in the space.

Conversation with my wonderful interior designer ensued. She did her designer magic and came up with a new plan, with the warning, "I know this looks almost the same as it did before, but if we want a bedroom, this is where the bathroom needs to go." But to me, getting rid of that wall and moving the bathroom over 3 feet makes a HUGE difference. (Note: The Husband did not care one iota where the bathroom went, only that one was built.) To me, now, though, there is more openness into the main area and the path between the bathroom and telepost is more, um... friendly? More open? Anyway, I like it better and that's what counts.

EVEN MORE IMPORTANTLY, the plumbers gave this location their blessing. I think we checked this three times (we're like Good Housekeeping recipe testers over here). We were good to go!

The wall came down (see the red paint on the floor? That's where the wall used to be):


My kids LOVED this stage. They could scoot practically the entire width of the house. The basement looked soooooo different without that wall. I told the contractor he'd better get bathroom walls up fast or I'd nix the bathroom idea and just go with an open basement.

Look! (like my scooting fairy?)


Then the framing went up. View from the stairs:


View from the corner:


Doesn't it look great? Almost done ! (hahahahahahahaha)