ignoring any surprises expect to spend minimum $10,000-$20,000 and (ignoring the new tiles, taps, vanity, shower, toilet, taps, laundry tub etc) there'll be costs for demolition (NB asbestos needs a specialist), carpenter for restructuring walls, floors , doors and windows), electrican to relocate wiring for power, lighting, heating and ventilation, installation of new floor and wall linings and insulation, plumber to disconnect old and install new toilets, water pipes and fixtures, waterproofing of floors and walls, tiling, painting and everything else i've forgotten...a new bathroom is a big job needing a team of tradespeople and careful timing of each to arrive in specified order and, although it's possible to do some of the labouring work and sourcing taps and tiles etc as most of the work needs professionals this can be a job better handled by a professional bathroom company who should have a team of trades used to working in tandem.........even with everything working perfectly, expect to wait weeks for a finished product which will be a challenge if this is your only bathroom but, while you're making plans do you have a toilet downstairs?

Hi Paul, I hear your collective frustration! my comment about light bouncing into your eyes was in response to your question about bouncing light onto your faces from a light placed behind the vanity (from memory). Have you seen Dr Renos comment here - still the most logical response to me. https://www.houzz.com.au/discussions/5148857/where-to-place-power-points-and-lights#n=5 So I'm going to go for side lights next to the vanity cabinet. Trouble is, my vanity is off-centre to the cabinet mirror, so I still have to sort that one out. Time spent really considering this is well worth it. I think LED downlights may very well cast shadows, sorry to say :-) and the next consideration is what colour temperature - warm white or daylight? For relaxing ambience (75% bathroom function) it will def be 3000 warm white for me, however for the vanity functions it will be 4000K (daylight) so I will probably get the vanity lights switched separately to the main room light, maybe put that on a dimmer... I know there are some LED bulbs available that enable the colour temp to be changed within the same bulb...

We too live in a cold winter climate with our bathrooms all on the southern side and faced similar issues as you do. One smaller bathroom does not have a window so we put in a Velux skylight which provides amazing natural light through the day. This may not be to your liking, especially if you have a period home. We also use heated towel rails and under tile heating (just enough to take the chill off and stop mould) in winter. Although we have a light in the shower recess, a bonus is the large fixed shower head with inbuilt LED, which at night gives the feeling of showering under moonlight. We chose light colours and mirrored recessed cabinets to reflect as much natural light as possible.

I just finished our new ensuite, which has a 1600mm vanity. I have 4 lighting circuits (switches): 1. 2 x downlights for the main bathroom in a similar place to you. 2. Another 2 x downlights ( 1 over each sink) 250mm off the wall (vanity is 500mm deep so halfway between person and mirror). 3. Extractor Fan / Heat Lamp and 4. Strip light under vanity for late night trips. The downlights are dimmable so you can have the main bathroom in a medium light and then you can choose how much to crank your vanity lights. The idea is that the light should shine onto your face hence they are installed in front of the person and they are on a gimble so they can be tilted to point at your face. I think you are in Australia so I can tell you they are the Domus Aqua Tilt 13 and are fully sealed (ip65) so no issue having over your shower, etc. They are also very bright as the light bounces off the white tiles, so really they are only needed when applying makeup. It's hard to know exactly where your lighting needs to go when you just have plans in front of you, but you could always get your electrician to wire both for wall sconces and downlights and then when you are further along you can choose whether to cut downlights or have wall lights. (Remember to take pictures and measurements of the wire locations before they close in the walls / ceiling!) If you try downlights first, it's also a lot easier to change your mind (i.e patch a ceiling) than wall lights as that usually means drilling through tiles..