In our house, we have several favorite cat spots that center around the windows and radiators. On the first floor, the living room radiator is the perfect spot in the winter. It warms from the bottom up while providing a nice view of the outside world. Afternoon sunbeams just add to the ambiance of the spot. In summer, the same location is great for window hunting and catching a cool mountain breeze. Upstairs, we have a similar spot on a window seat with a radiator nearby for winter warmth and no direct sun for summer cooling. The best place for the cat to sleep is in the sitting room which has 6 windows and sunbeams throughout the day, but we keep that to ourselves so that our house plants have a chance to grow and thrive without nibbled leaves.
Our latest construction project in our house is all about the cat as well. At least that's what we tell her. Really it's for us. We've had plans for a first floor bathroom for a while, but haven't gotten to it. After some knee problems last fall, it became clear that had to rise on our priority list when it became painful for several months to climb the stairs. Since we are creating the bathroom in a space that wasn't originally a separate room, there is no radiator there. It will be a full bathroom with separate tub and shower adjacent to a downstairs bedroom when completed, but will probably be used most often as a downstairs powder room and will gain most of it's heat from the surrounding rooms. However, when it is used for bathing or particularly cold out, the bathroom will need it's own heat so our plan had always been to install a ceramic tile floor with radiant heating underneath.
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As you can see above, the radiant section of the floor has black square tiles set into the field of white octagonal tiles. To the left in the photo is where the shower will be. Directly in front is where the sink will be, the tub will be to the right of the sink, under the window, and the toilet will be to the bottom right. The photo is taken from the door into the bedroom. The floor still needs to be grouted and we need to insulate under the floor from the crawlspace below to complete the flooring project and get to the wainscoting and fixtures.
No word from the cat yet on what she thinks of this project to warm her tootsies in winter and cool her tummy in summer. But remember, design that's good for the cat is good for her humans!