Oh, happy day! We are finally going to renovate one of our nasty, outdated bathrooms. that is great news, although I can’t help but dwell on the niggling problems. Problem 1: I will have to undertake the nightmarish task of finding good, pleasant, honest contractors who are actually available to do the work sometime that century. Although my hope is that that should be easier given the downturn in the housing market. (Hey, gotta construct lemonade from lemons…) Problem 2: the room is very small and narrow. It plus has an odd, sloping roof with no crawl space above the ceiling, so replacing the ancient light fixture could be tricky.

Can my dream tub fit within that weird little room? That is the question. Okay, the reply is probably a big fat “No” — at least to the big bathtub of my dreams. However, I’m willing to compromise on a smaller, narrower tub. So final night I spent a little day surfing around on the Web looking for inspiration. First up: I continue to be

shocked at the lack of practical planning advice on manufacturer web sites. I’m looking at you American Standard and Kohler. You both need to send your Web design monkeys back to the drawing board ’cause although your sites are stylish, they aren’t much help to the confused homeowner!

Let down by the big trusted names, I went looking for virtual design tools of any kind. (I found virtual tools really useful when we were reflooring final year.) Here’s one I found useful: British site Bathroom Design Guide has an interactive feature called the Does it Fit? Bathroom Planner. Check it out. Pros: it’s easy to use, loads quickly and does not require registration or any downloading of software. Cons: Being a Brit site, measurements are entered in centimeters. Therefore, you’ll have to convert from inches, but whether you can’t do that in your head very efficiently, there are Web tools to help with that, too. I like Manuel’s Web.

Original post by Diane Rixon