An American in Provence

(shown in this picture from our old apartment)http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/5643/1900/1600/Bretagne05%20001.jpg

There is a small window opening out into a ventilation shaft down the center of the building. Considering how the shaft is dark and dank and opens to everyone's bathroom and toilet, how much actual ventilation can it do?

The bathtub is basically worthless for it's supposed purpose of bathing. It is too narrow and not long enough when sitting down (can't stretch out legs completely, and if you are wider than pretty small, you are a little pinched). The only option is to take a shower, but since it is narrow, the curtain clings to you. It would be best to rip it out entirely and put in a nice, large shower cabin.

Once you get out of the shower, there is a very narrow space so you have to shuffle sideways naked and dripping. We can't put a towel bar there because then everyone would hit their head when getting in and out of the shower. In order to not drench the entire room when taking a shower, we had to rig up two perpendicular rods to put the shower curtain on. (You will notice in the picture that half the curtain is on one rod, half on the other). This is where we hang our towels for easy access. There are a grand total of two plugs, one of which just came loose from the wall and is, I'm afraid, out of commission. The grey tiles on the wall I would like to remove. They are very thick, and at the risk of sounding prissy, don't go with my color scheme.

So steps needed to improve our bathroom- pull out sink/mirror/cabinet piece and replace. Remove tiles. Remove bathtub and install shower cabin. Repaint. Add several new plugs and change switch and light fixture. Possibly remove door and replace with a curtain to add space. Add towel rack.