There are hundreds of important decisions to make when building a home. For me, this is not one of them. As long as it can hold the weight of a shower curtain and liner (no, I don't need it for me to do pullups) and look reasonably presentable (I think 99% of them look presentable), then I'm okay with it. Polished chrome or polished stainless? Doesn't matter to me. What does matter to me is that it doesn't rust. Now the curved rods used to intrigue me, until we stayed in some motels that had them. My reaction was: what's the big deal? I realize we must spend x percent of our lives in the shower, but at least 50% of my total time is spent with my eyes closed to keep soap and shampoo out of them. And I would think most people do not need the 25% extra room that the curved rod creates. Besides, the sides of the bathtub stays the same, so this extra room is basically "overhang space". So to me, this is more about looks and feel and less about function. My recommendation is to go with a basic rod for now. Looks like you can upgrade or change to a curved rod later rather easily, but double-check with your builder first. One disclaimer to my comments above. The use of "I/me" and not "we" is intentional. DW probably has a totally different view! :)

flseadog - I'm fine with the location as it is. When I came home and learned they had moved it in a bit, I was ready to be upset, but it is just fine. Since the master bath is under construction right now, four of us are showering in there daily, and we all are happy with the elbow room. Thanks for the compliment. An outer curtain made the space seem smaller, and it's minimal already. I'm not thrilled with the fancy hooks though...they fly off the rod when you take the curtain down - I've been hit a couple of times. My husband threw his towel over the hooks yesterday, and when my daughter pulled it off to shower, a hook flew in the toilet. She was not pleased. Oh the joys of togetherness! cassie 225, I don't think you would lose much width in 10-12" of height. It doesn't curve in to the tub until the very lower part. But that's why we did the temporary rod experiment first -- I didn't want to drill holes in the tile until we were sure where we wanted it. Well worth the $10.

It's up! DH showered in there last night ("his" bathroom is still down to the studs and beams!)--said it was much roomier inside, even with the further in placement of the bar. That's good since we really couldn't place the bar any further out with the spacing of the tub and toilet. We were trying to cover as much of the bottom edge tub with the curtain as possible, while trying to avoid having the bar look too low in relation to the ceiling. We moved the tension rod up and down a bit in order to determine bar height. I think I'd have preferred the curtain to come down a little lower at the bottom, but compromised, in order to keep the rod itself at a visually appealing or proportionate height. It's all about trade-offs and compromises with this stuff as we have found time and time again. As it is, I think the rod height and the height of the curtain hem off the floor (on ours) are pretty much where one of the how-to sites recommended, so there you go! Thanks for your advice jacobse and John!

Thanks all! ok, so Budge1, are you telling me there are places to get shower curtain rods other than Home Depot/Lowes/BB&B?? I honestly never thought to look at real plumbing places. I bought what seemed the best available, but I think you and Lindaz are right and I need to just bite the bullet & screw it to the wall! so where should I look to buy this rod? Oh, and I absolutely love the curved rod and had planned on using one, but our bathroom is really, really tiny and when we bought our new tub, it was wider than the one from 1969 and is now freakishly close to the toilet. It doesn't bother us, but even expanding the curtain out a little would mean it would just about touch us when we use the potty. thanks for the input and any on-line shopping sites for the rod would be great.