Small bathroom solutions

As so often happens in construction, we had to figure out how to solve a problem created by our contractor.  Our original plans showed a normal sized half bathroom on the first floor, approximately 55" x 68" - as built, the half bath was far narrower at only about 45" (a situation created because the contractor teed off the side walls and worked inward - and never checked the interior measurements).  You can imagine how annoyed we were when we went to install the toilet and realized that it didn't have enough clearance in front - and as a result, we basically closed the door and ignored the problem room for several months until we felt ready to deal with it again.  After a fair bit of research and plotting, we came up with a solution - one that, happily, has turned out really well.  And we will be checking every measurement for any framing we do not personally do from now until the end of time.

We were somewhat lucky in that the half bath backs up to a full bathroom and the toilet is located on the same wall as the tub.  We were even luckier that we hadn't tiled that tub yet, so it was easy enough to pull off the drywall and see what was in the studs and even better, the only thing there was a vent pipe, which could be easily moved.

Rerouting the vent pipe

Now with more space to work

We decided to install an in-wall tank toilet system with the ME by Starck compact rimless toilet (don't ask me to explain the capitalization in the toilet name).  The toilet is the shallowest depth on the market today at just under 19" in length.  By code, we needed 21" in front of the toilet but that would have felt very cramped so using this toilet gave us a much more comfortable 26" of space.

Now with the Geberit Duofix in-wall tank installed - they make these tanks for 2x4 walls (as well as 2x6) so it was relatively easy to install into the existing space

Getting ready in the half bathroom - among other changes, we had to move the toilet drain from the expected installation to the in-wall installation

Toilet fits on the wall!

And now with floor repaired and vanity (also cut down) installed.  Just waiting on trim and countertops to finish!