Rachel my house also has only one full bath and it is small one. While you have to think carefully about space using it is easier on your pocket to remodel ;) One piece tub/shower surround is mostly for new housing as usually there is no way to bring whole unit in. Big box stores offer models that a more than one piece/ tub and 3 walls separately/. It is usually inexpensive and lower quality or made from fiberglass which is very brittle. Unless you planning to remodel for quick sale I am not sure it is sound solution in the long run. You can find good quality acrylic systems which will be sturdier/ Corian is acrylic too/ at specialty stores or get one installed from companies like Bathfitter, Re-bath or Luxurybath. Or you could get new tub and tile the walls in the proper manner which will give you good shower surround as well.

You need as many tubs as possible (it's good for resale anyhoo) in a family home. Think way way back...when you were 2 did you like showers? (ok maybe you can't think that far back). 2 year olds do not like showers, in fact kids "bath" for several years. It's kind of a mother sanctuary as well (when the kids are happy in the bath I mean...you can have a glass of wine) :P Honetly, if it's a family house you should add and keep the tubs. Make them shower tub combo's, that never hurts, but do keep tubs! One thing to consider is some of the American and Jacuzzi tubs available for relatively low dollars with air jet spas in them. They're deeper than a normal tub and the air bubbles allow you to call it a spa tub, which boosts resale. And air is great because kids can use bubble bath,etc and not hurt them (you don't care but a purchaser will). A master bath with no tub is ok, but any other room, if you have the space, you should include a tub as well.

Hopefully a wall directly behind this faucet wall will have an access of some sort to get at the piping. If your house is 50 yrs. old, you will probably have galvanized pipe. If the shower is on the first floor, it would probably be wise to change the piping from the cellar up to this fixture with copper because you will probably end up having to use some copper in the change over. One of the major companies (either Delta or Moen) makes a large plate that will fit over a hole that you would have to make to change the faucet from the tub side. The company that makes the plate has a faucet that fits perfectly into this plate. The Moen plate is called a "remodeling cover plate" and the part # should be #1920. I don't have a Delta number. Even with this, you have to be careful and not make a hole any larger than the plate will cover up. If you have ceramic tile on the shower walls, then the job gets even trickier. It would probably be a whole lot easier if you could do most of the work from the backside.

Initially I wanted to use something like this, the Kohler hydro rail system, use the original shower head, and add a hand shower. However, it is a little pricey considering there are relatively inexpensive slide bars that are reasonably attractive for a lot less, and it is for a kids’ bathroom that’s less than two years old. We just kept thinking he was so close to being able to reach, he’d grow into it, but he’s needing to be more independent faster than he’s growing taller. I started looking at Moen since that’s what’s in the wall, but the Moen slide bars in the lower price range are pretty terrible in appearance. They look more like utilitarian combination grab bars. There are some better ones that are a little more expensive and have cover plates, (which I think I need if I have to use a spacer in the tub surround) but if I’m back up near the price range of the Hydrorail, I like that it’s more streamline. I think I read that the Delta bracket on the actual slide bar is “universal,” which is why I wondered if it might be a good starting place to modify something to use the Moen Magnetix handheld. Delta does have some more attractive bars, though, so if I’m starting from scratch I’ll spend more time looking there. I’m still holding out hope on the Magnetix until I’m sure I can’t use it with any kind of slide bar.