An all weather outdoor shower is easily done by locating the mixing valve inside the house and use a coupling shaft to locate the handle on the outside. You must use a standard tub type lower faucet (with the pull up to activate the shower) to allow the system to drain out when the shower is done. You also have to make sure everything slopes in direction of the water flow. We live in Bancroft Ontario so winters are well below freezing and we have been showering outside for 3 winters. Only issue we have is the shower head will freeze so we typically remove it after a shower or shower without it on when really cold. The system has worked well and it helps that nothing special needs to be done by anyone. no inside valves to close etc. Just turn off tap and everything drains.

Just wanted to post the most recent plan that incorporates all of the suggestions that I have received from the very helpful people on the Internet! Changes made: - added an extra bathroom on far left of the house near kids bedrooms - changed the toilet/main bathroom to move the shower over to the toilet room so that we could have 2 separate kids showering at a time (without coming into our room - although that remains and option) - moved the door to the library so that it doesn't look into the toilets/bathroom - optimised the space in our bedroom by moving walk in closet and bathroom around. This modification even allowed us room for a tub in the bathroom a so thankful for that suggestion! Now we just have to find room in the budget lol Questions: - when you walk into a bathroom, do you prefer to walk into a shower (from the door) or into a toilet? What would you prefer visible from the door itself? Logically you are going to use a toilet 9 times out of 10 so you would think that should be there first, but there is something odd about walking past a door and just seeing a toilet there... Thoughts? - is there enough room in the 2 bathrooms we created by joining the toilet and main bathroom? Dimensions are 3m by 2m (roughly) and with a shower coming out about 1m and the vanity about 550mm, that leaves more or less 1.45m to walk around, surely sufficient? If there are any other suggestions or thoughts on what you would do if this was your home we would greatly appreciate the feedback. Thanks you all so much in advance!

Hi IdaC, I had the pleasure of living in a California Bungalow many years ago now that had almost exactly the same plan as yours apart from a few modifications that your house has had. The living and master bedroom were switched and the ensuite was just a bathroom from the hallway. The problem with the house plan is the blocking of the rear of the house by the kitchen wall to the hallway and so the circulation goes around through the dining. If you want to alter the layout for a more modern lifestyle with good access to the back yard, I would make the living room another bedroom and put in a new long but narrow bathroom occupying some of the current dining room or possibly part of the existing living if you don't mind a smaller bedroom. The new bathroom can be just 1200mm wide having a 1200 long shower against the outside wall with a high window in it and then the toilet and the vanity near the door. Put the plumbing on the new living wall unless you install full length wardrobes on the wall between it and the new front bedroom. Then I'd delete the back bathroom and make that and the laundry into a walkthrough scullery and laundry and keep the outside door. Put a galley kitchen along the central back wall of the house with an island facing a new dining area where your current kitchen is with double glazed doors to the front hallway. Then make the back bedroom and 3/4 dining room, the living room and open that up to the rear yard. Ideally you'd want the living space on the North side of the house and the plumbing areas on the South, but that might be an expense too far. You could build a really great outdoor entertaining space outside the living room that links with the backyard bungalow if that became an overflow living area/man-woman cave!!!! or just a granny flat or office. If you want to do it in two stages, start by builing the new bathroom and opening up the back bedroom and 3/4 dining into the living room. That way you can start with the three bedrooms where they intend to be. Then you can look at doing the kitchen, scullery, laundry and dining when you are ready and either set up a temporary kitchen in the living space or eat out for a few weeks between when the old kitchen is removed and the new one becomes usable. Good luck, Christine.

windows in master bedroom need to allow views and privacy and much as i would prefer bed on NE this keeps the bed in view towards and from family room so prefer bed on south wests wall and small sliding doors pushed towards north side of room with tall narrow window beside sliding door and highlight window for light with privacy and wall space for chest of drawers...acknowledging theta the pwdr doesn't have a window but my suggested arrangement uses less total space more efficiently and is better for older kids and long stay visiting parents (more people can use the various options at the same time) and a small ventilating skylight will exhaust and brighten the toilet and vanity area ...the wide door into the lounge can be a stacker or stable door so you need to investigate local options (and everything is expensive unless it does what you want...we always use solid core doors that can be ten times the price of a basic hollow core door but love them so we economise elsewhere) and barn door between entry and family would be OK as long as you like them and it doesn't compromise lounge doors but could look ok if both doors are the same style and different widths...and location of dishwasher is personal and if you have already been unhappy with sink in main kitchen then have it in the scullery...main advantage of my suggested kitchen location is that it's closer to the front and the family area and external doors and the pantry uses the central space that can be much better illuminated with another ventilating skylight instead of a tiny external window and noisy exhaust fan