On Monday, the contractors returned and continued working on the bathroom, installing the rest of the fiberglass panels. On Tuesday, they installed the sink and toilet and hung the door. The vent duct still needs to be run outside of the house, but for all intents and purposes we now have a fully functioning bathroom in our basement. We still have a couple of finishing touches left, such as hanging the medicine cabinet and stuff like that, and I still need to do a thorough cleaning of the fixtures and floor, but everything works and works well. The toilet is only a 4.5 gallon flush, but it has more power than our old standard flush toilet. The sink is a simple pedestal, with room on the back corner ledges for soap and toothpaste. The tub is an economic steel one– the most affordable tub offered. I had briefly contemplated stepping up to an acrylic or fiberglass tub out of concerns for the steel being very cold in the basement, but the chances of someone actually taking a bath downstairs are pretty slim. In fact, we would have opted for a shower unit, had they not been more expensive than the tub. The floor is Trafficmaster Allure Resilient Tile over DriCore subfloor panels. Allure is as easy to install as peel and stick tile, but sticks to itself rather than the floor so it is waterproof and can be used in bathrooms. Plus it looks good and has a 25 year warranty. Allure is available at Home Depot.
Basement bathroom-- finished except for a few accessories.