RW,

We are in the process of renovating my parents home so that we can one day move in and we're seriously behind! The first thing we did was renovate the bathrooms - wish I had the pics on my home PC. Anyhow, the house was built in 1972 and everything was original. In the master bathroom we replaced the tub/shower combo with the one piece walk-in shower unit - I believe our contractor got it at Lowe's. It has two benches, a built in bar and several shelves. I don't know the answer to most of your questions since the contractor did the work while we were at work.

We selected porcelain tile for the bathrooms. Sheet vinyl flooring would work just fine but we were warned against using the engineered hardwood or Pergo type flooring in the bathroom, laundry room or kitchen - we were told not to use it in areas where there's a lot of humidity or a chance of flooding - toilet overflowing, etc. as it will cause the flooring to buckle.

AMN's right, talk to someone at Lowe's, Home Depot, etc. Heck, some stores offer free courses on things like how to tile.

Good luck and don't overdo it!