The bathroom was built between two of the bedrooms (more on the design process that led to this decision...).

Part of the old wall was retained, against which the radiator was hung. The back of the radiator and the wall behind it are both painted dark blue. This turns the wall into a thermal store which keeps the bathroom warm when the radiator is off.

The new walls were constructed from 2"x4" studwork, faced with plaster board and filled with mineral wool for heat and sound insulation. Because the bathroom has no window and plaster board walls, fan ventilation after every bath and shower is vital to prevent condensation. The available models of heat exchanging fan, the ideal option, will only work if vented directly to the outside air. Because the bathroom is far inside the house, we had to fit a standard ventilation fan; itÕs the one disadvantage of a central bathroom.

The large sink was purchased from a local salvage yard. It had been removed from the local Littlemore mental hospital and has huge taps with medical issue flap taps which we liked. The toilet was from the B&Q Classique range, the cheapest and plainest (and, to our eyes most attractive) model available. Standard white porcelain toilets are so cheap and elegant that there seems little point in wasting money on luxury models. It’s better to spend the money on buying a new seat and flush handle.

ather than buy a variable flush, we bought a standard cistern and flush and fitted the "Ecoflush" device which allows you to choose between three settings of flush level. Note that the Ecoflush only works on front handle flushes.

The bath is a ex-showroom model purchased for half price from a local bathroom specialist. We re-use our bath water and have a surplus of solar hot water in summer so we felt smug enough to buy a luxury bath- the bath is 10cm wider and deeper than a standard bath.

Most of the time, though, we wash with the shower. We discovered that having solar hot water ruled out a shower with a thermostatic mixer. Thermostatic mixers balance the temperature of the shower if there is no change in the maximum temperature of the incoming hot water. This is fine for houses with a standard boiler driven hot water tank, and very useful for houses with a combi boiler. However, in summer the temperature of the solar water feed can change from day to day and require resetting. A thermostatic mixer gives no advantage over a good manual mixer. We therefore bought an Excel manual mixer from Mira, a reasonably good make, and £150 cheaper than comparable thermostatic models. The shower head is permanently set to the economy flow.