Many thanks to everybody who answered, you have all been very helpful in clarifying my very muddled thoughts. Here is a hopefully clearer description of the situation: The house is a 50's ranch style, with 3 bedrooms and a hall bath (4.5x8.5 ft) clustered on one side of the house, and the kitchen, office/den and another hall bath (4x9 ft) on the other side of the house, with a great room in the middle. We plan to stay in this house as long as we can, but we are in this city for my husband's work, and if something happens (although unlikely with his kind of job), we know we'll have to move somewhere else; therefore, we'd like to make updates to the house while keeping resale in mind. Our (excellent) realtor said that for resale we should have an ensuite. After reading the comments, I have to clarify with him if he thinks a lack of ensuite will narrow down the market significantly, or if we 'simply' would not get the best price for the house. Most houses in the area are old (in the whole city actually), and we saw plenty without ensuites. We saw two of the neighbors' houses, and they did not have ensuites. This is what we considered: 1. Redo the bathrooms with the existing footprint (not that we have room to change anything inside), but we can go far into making them pretty, 2. Add a door from the master bedroom to the hall bath next to it, and close access from the hall. This I think would be a bad idea, not only because the people in the other two bedrooms will have to go across the house to the other bathroom, but also because the master bedroom will end up with windows on two walls, three closets on another, and two doors on the fourth side. Not restful. 3. Add another bathroom next to the master bedroom where the closets are, with one closet door transformed into a bathroom door. This bathroom would be 4.5x12 ft, although it could go to 5x12 if need be (but no more, because we'll hit a big window), which will have a shower but no bathtub. We talked to a professional who said it will fit fine with the caveat that the toilet will likely be the first thing you see in front of the door because of the current clearance requirements. 4. Build an addition. This again I think would be a very bad idea, since it would be blindingly expensive and the house is already on the higher side of square footage for the surrounding area. We will of course fix everything that is broken. The interior doors are the original 50s doors, hollow core dark wood look with lots of scuffs and holes, and they were cut short to fit the now non-existent carpet, so I would qualify changing them as fixing what is broken (and they bug me every time I look at them... ). The windows are a perk; we are still divided on those. I tend toward option 1, while my husband is going for option 3, although he agrees we do not need another bathroom. The reason I feel ill equipped to make this decision is that I'm originally from Europe, and even after so many years here I feel mildly perplexed about the North American love affair with bathrooms. Our previous rental was built in the last ten years and had a huge ensuite which I didn't like. I found it hard to keep as clean as I thought it should be, and it was so large I felt as if I was doing my business in public. Given the bathroom pictures on Houzz, I'm clearly in a minority. Your comments help ensure that I don't miss anything that might otherwise be obvious, so thanks again. And extra thanks to whoever makes it to the end of this post...

The "regular" bath layout that jensbride posted first is very similar to what our DD & DS shared for years and worked very well. The door, however, was a pocket style and placed directly across from the toilet. This allowed the vanity to be scooted around the corner to take up the whole wall. It leaves the toilet close to the tub, but with lots of elbow room. Our kids just learned to keep the door partially closed when the bath wasn't in use due to the "view".

When you build with the WOW and 4k square feet, (which sounds like a lot but is not ) . It is NOT when you give starring role /NEARLY five hundred sq ft of it to a great room in front of the entry. Another couple hundred to a "hearth" area ......and what will happen here is nobody will actually gather in the great room, the fire will be the traffic stopper. Then you give each of three bedrooms a "walk in " closet. etc Result? you are left with the master suite that seems ( is) out of scale to the wow in the middle. Also small scale kid/guest bedrooms. The only answer to this plan is to lose a chunk of the "covered porch" square off the kitchen corner, bump the master suite to flush with the kitchen exterior wall.Change the window, to two on the covered porch wall and center the bed between. Plan to lose the tub for a decent shower too. Adjust bath and closet , center the entry to those with a right and left side for each. Anything else requires a total overhaul of the plan. That would mean a second story with two beds and baths on a second floor. ..........a completely different house. But this much under roof on one floor, with allocation to functions as is ? Yup......this is what you get Bump the master suite....or build something else.. ( square off that breakfast nook in any scenario.)

Changing the toilet location is complicated and costly so I would keep it where it is. I would however swing your double vanity around so that’s the first thing you see when entering the room. I would convert your tub into a shower and get rid of the dividing wall. The added wall make the room look small and cramped. Below is a photo giving you an idea of what it could look like. The tiles you chose are fine, but keep the walls and cabinets light. Good lighting is essential, especially since you don’t have a window in there. Add a ceiling light in the shower, lights by the sinks and a strong combination exhaust fan & light.