Re: bathroom tile - if you’re using it on the floor be absolutely certain it is not at all slippery when dry or wet.
As my parents got older, their beautiful marble tile bathroom floor became a real hazard as their sense of balance waned slightly. Remodeling a tile floor is costly - think about slipping and traction when selecting flooring for long term use.
And if you have a kitchen island, it can be helpful to install outlets on the end of the island too that way you can also use appliances there from time to time - like a hand mixer, waffle maker, food processor, etc.
Great ideas!! Definitely enjoy the outlets on our island. I think the code in our area requires outlets in new builds to be rather close…not sure if that varies by county or state.
You can never have too many outlets especially in the kitchen.
@BunsenBurner didn’t you mention off white trim? That might look really nice in a lake cottage.
Re: trim…we have custom wood trim on our first floor. Regular wood trim on the second floor. We have a finished walkout lower level that is painted a pale yellow with white (wood) painted trim. I just thought that for the lower level, it would be bright and cheerful…and it is.
We installed Trex on our decks, just recently, because we’re along the CA coast and between the salt air, fog and rain, I was worried about dry rot and termites. And it comes with a 25-year warranty IIRC.
While it can get hot to step on with your bare feet, umbrellas do the trick for us.
Works for us, too. Dark stained wood can get really hot, too!
The off-white trim here on the ground floor is on the skywall and windows on the north side, but they are hidden from the view (laundry, powder, library). The trim is painted the same color as the walls, and surprisingly it works. The rest of the windows on the ground floor have wood trim. Basement also has wood trim. I’d take a pic but it is too dark now.
ETA: A-ha, found a pic of my cat that also has some painted powder room window trim and stained door trim.
Looks like my cat! Is that marble counter?
That is the piece of crap limestone. 
It looks great in photos but it is horrible. So porous and gets easily chipped. This will be replaced… after we are done with our outdoor projects (solar and deck resurfacing).
Excellent point about slippery bathroom floor materials. My husband and I have stayed in a few lovely high end hotel rooms with stunning marble floors. But oh my… SOOOO slippery - we both vowed to never have that hazard in a home bathroom.
We had a walk-through shower with multiple shower heads in a previous home that we replaced during a remodel necessitated by a failed shower pan. While it was nice to not have any glass shower doors to clean, neither of us liked how chilly it felt in the winter (even though we live in the south.)
The next shower had a standard shower head for H, a hand held shower head on the slider bar for me, and a 16" rain head above the center of the approximately 5’ X 6’ shower. We put the controls near the door so we wouldn’t get wet when turning on any of them.
Although we both looked forward to the rain head, it turned out that neither of us liked it. It dripped for a while after it was turned off; the nearly flat head held a surprising amount of water that cooled quickly. The flow was not strong enough to rinse shampoo, so we had to use one of the other shower heads for that. The only time it was used after the first month was in the summer when one of us had been working outside and wanted to cool down for a few minutes before washing.
@Silpat i hear you on the shower handles near shower entrance. Our shower is not that big but with 2 shower heads…one is near the entrance under the shower head it operates and the other is about 2 1/2 feet away under the other shower head. I have long arms and it is tough to reach over to the one lever and get out of the way in time to not get wet. I definitely want to think the location of the handles on the new shower through and discuss with the builder. Thanks for that reminder.
We also thought long and hard about the shower. I wanted a wet room concept with a free standing tub and the shower behind glass. But, h wanted a bigger shower so we couldn’t do both. We ended up with a very large shower, behind glass because of the cold, regular shower head, hand held shower head, and body jets. No rain shower head as we both don’t like them.
How about a shower with no doors, one entry? Controls by tiled entry (can operate from either out or in shower), turn the corner to area with shower head. That’s what we have. Shower area has glass on upper half of one wall and has a high window.
What we currently have for shower has no glass, shower curtain or door. It has about a 4x4’ area all tiled before the opening to the 4x4’ shower-all tiled. I like that and might get something similar if the walk thru shower is too cost prohibitive. I have not had any problems with cold. I have seen a similar set up to this with the glass on the upper half but I don’t like the upkeep of glass on a shower, so I kind of like it hidden behind a wall. Now that I think of it maybe a walk through shower would be just a bigger area to clean and I should stick more to what I have. I’m planning on getting “wet and forget” which is supposed to be great at cleaning shower areas. Currently I find cleaning the master tile easier than the guest all-glass shower doors.
I really appreciate everyone’s suggestions. Even if it is something I may not think I like now, it is in my brain and I may decide later that I do like it!
Keep posting your suggestions. Thank you.
Being totally nosy, but so I can imagine more, are you willing to just share the state that your lake house will be in? (Sorry if you already mentioned that….)
MN-“up north” as they call it, so cold cold winter but some of the most beautiful lakes in the state.
I love that. When we were shopping lake homes years ago, I kept running up against this style, but many had huge fireplaces in the middle. It drove me crazy to have the view obstructed like that. You pay such a premium to have a water view, and those huge fireplaces are taking away from that.
Regarding bathroom design, one item to check off is the height of the vanity. Here, the default height that designers plan is 30” but comfort height (32 — 36) is what we prefer and will be getting in all our bathrooms. Current height is an odd 31” and we find that is too low, ymmv.
We are planning for glass doors in all the showers, keeping the showers curb-less except for one tub-shower combo in the guest bathroom. I hate cleaning glass shower doors too but it has been easier with this quick every day hack that I’ve started.
