Sunday, June 26, 2011

Bathroom Remodel

Brian and I have been going back and forth on this crazy idea about remodeling our bathroom before the babies come and I think we have decided to do it! 

Here's the problem:
1. Our washer and dryer are downstairs and with Brian being the one to take care of the babies when I go back to work it is virtually impossible for him to wash laundry.  (We have a chair lift that goes downstairs, but it would be a huge pain for him to do that.)

2. The bathtub that's in our bathroom is a claw foot tub that sits super low and has huge tall sides.  This would not be the safest place for him to try and bathe the kiddos either because he couldn't really reach them.  Our other tub is in the main bathroom which only has a 24 inch door and his wheelchair needs at least 29 inches to get through a doorway.  When we opened up other doorways we didn't do this one because there was a vent in the way and nowhere to really open the door up to since the bathroom is pretty small anyways.

The Solution! (as crazy as it may be)

1. We have a cabinet in our master bathroom that sits in a cut out (sort of like an alcove) that we hardly ever use.  It just collects junk really.  Well, we will remove the cabinet and put it somewhere else and put in a stacked washer and dryer.  It would have to be a small one since the opening is only about 25 inches, but it would sit flush with the other sink and not really be in the way at all.  We would still keep our washer & dryer that we have in the basement down there so that we can do big loads of towels, blankets, etc. but Brian could do some small loads of baby clothes and anything else that needed to be done.

2. Our claw foot tub is pretty, but it would have to go.  The legs always fall off, so we have never even used it actually.  After the tub is gone, we would put in a long vanity (we have a 7 foot wall so maybe a nice big 5ft counter top) with a deep kitchen sink like basin in it.  We would have to custom build the vanity so that Brian could get his whole wheelchair underneath the sink and then still have a few drawers.  Our thoughts are that with a big enough basin on this sink, Brian could not only bathe babies, but toddlers as well.  The kiddos would be at his level so it would be easy for him to get them in and out without having to do any awkward reaching.  The rest of the counter top could also serve as a changing table if need be or a place for him to get them dressed. 

I am feeling anxious about spending all this money to re-do a bathroom that seems perfectly fine, but I think it would really be convenient once I go back to work. 

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