As this cold winter wears on, we all think of ways to warm our chilly bones. One great way to do that is to spend some time in a sauna. Not only will you warm your body to the bone. You’ll enjoy the emotional and health benefits the dry heat can bring.

I have designed many houses that included a sauna. It can be an important part of a complete home spa experience. The easiest way to build one is to buy one of the prefabricated units, such as those offered by Finlandia Sauna or Cedarbrook Sauna. These are easily assembled and can sit in the corner of an existing room. They are great to have in your exercise room or as part of a nice luxury bathroom. (more…)

Here’s an interesting question I got the other day. It seems this person had a very tall ceiling in a small room. This produces the “elevator shaft” effect and can make a small room, like a bathroom, feel out of proportion.

“Curious what you might recommend for a tall (10 ft) loft bathroom to make the room feel a bit less huge and uncomfortable. Unfortunately, I can’t frame down the ceiling because of a building sprinkler system.  Thanks! Steven”

In the years before air conditioning, especially in warmer climates, rooms often had high ceilings to let the heat rise and make the rooms feel more comfortable in the summer months. These days, high end houses often have high ceilings.

We often deal with the “too high” ceiling in small rooms by simply framing down a lower ceiling just in those spaces. But Steven can’t do that because of the sprinkler. So I suggested that he employ an architectural trick from days gone by. (more…)

What are the current trends in house design when it comes to the design of luxury bathrooms? Well, bathrooms are not just a utilitarian room anymore. It’s all about the “spa” experience. Let me run through a few bathroom design and amenity requests I hear more and more.

This soaking tub set in a secluded alcove gives a spa feel to this luxury bathroom

The bath is now the oasis, the place to retreat from the hectic world. soaking tubs are still there, altough more people claim they don’t have time to use them. But those people who do like them to be an experience. Reading, meditating, and just zoning out are the attraction. Plus spa tubs add to the look of the room, giving you the sensation of being somewhere you could relax, even if you don’t have the time right now. (more…)

If you’ll pardon the bad pun, it saves dollars and makes sense to stay in your house and remodel it in the face of today’s economy and the dismal state of the real estate market. It’s very hard to sell a house right now and even harder to get a decent price for it. The equity you might have had has shrunken. It’s a buyer’s market so you aren’t going to get top dollar. But if you can wait out the market, the value will eventually come back. Remodeling can allow you to enjoy your present house while you’re waiting. (more…)

I received a question asking about putting tiles on a shower ceiling or not. The person asking the question said they were tiling the walls all the way up to the ceiling.

Tiles on shower ceilings are somewhat optional these days. They add cost, so often they are not done. But tiles on the ceiling are a step up in quality and make the ceiling easier to maintain. If you do not tile the ceiling, be sure to use moisture resistant drywall, sometimes called green board. It’s designed for use in damp locations. As you would imagine, steam will tend to cling to the shower ceiling, especially in the corners. If you have a nice gap at the top of the shower door to let the steam vent out, a drywall ceiling, properly painted should work fine. (more…)

It wasn’t long ago that the standard ceiling height for a house in America was eight feet. This was the height of standard wood studs and gypsum board (also known as drywall or sheetrock) came in four foot wide sheets, so abiding by the standard height meant less material waste when building. (By the way, drywall is installed sideways on the studs with the four foot dimension being vertical and the eight or twelve foot dimension running horizontally). But times have changed and the trend is toward higher ceilings. It’s rare to find even a mid-priced new house with ceilings less than nine feet high. And most high-end houses have ten foot or higher ceilings. (more…)

    Make sure the bathroom tiles you select come with the special shapes you’ll need to create a complete, quality installation.

    Most people don’t think about how their bathroom tile will be installed. They make their selections based on the color and style of the tile and what decorative tiles or accents are available and compatible with the primary tile. But not all tiles are available with bull-nosed edges or other special shapes you may need.

    A bull-nose edge is a slightly rounded over edge that has the finished surface of the tile wrapping all the way around the edge so that when it is adhered to the wall, nothing but a finished surface will be seen. (more…)

    Here is a little tip to keep in mind when you are selecting a tile floor for your shower. Make sure the tile is relatively small. The reason might not seem obvious at first. A shower floor needs to have a slope so the water will flow toward the drain. Puddles in a shower floor are a slipping hazard and mold will grow in the puddle quite quickly. Generally, the drain is placed in the center of the floor to create an even slope from each wall to the drain. (more…)

    Radon is back in the news. Radio personality Paul Harvey, the New York Times, and other news outlets reported recently that granite countertops pose a threat of emitting radon gas. Radon gas has been purportedly linked to risk of lung cancer. The Marble Institute of America has responded with a scholarly report essentially saying that the radon emissions from granite are so miniscule that they warrant no fears.

    It seems that this report surfaces every ten years, or so. It has been promoted by the makers of competing countertop materials, like quartz products like Cambria or Silestone and solid surfaces like Corian. You can read and listen to the reports for yourself, but it seems to me that this is a Chicken Little issue that grabs the media’s attention and the stone countertop industry then has to spend lots of time and money de-bunking it. (more…)

    I was discussing shower seats with a client the other day. We were deciding where they should be and how they should be configured.

    The primary reason my clients give me for wanting a shower seat is so that the woman can put her foot up when shaving her legs! (more…)