I have a cast iron clawfoot (I know you said you weren't interested in those specifically) which we love. My husband is 6'5" and has trouble fitting into regular sized tubs; the clawfoot is deep and he can get a good soak. We looked at the Victoria and Albert tubs, but decided on the clawfoot because we found a great deal on a used one on craigslist and it matched the period of our house (1910 bungalow). Neither of us miss having the deck. We are struggling with finding storage, but that is a general issue we are having with the overall bathroom, not specific to the tub. When reading I'll just put my magazine, book or paper on the floor next to the tub. It's not that inconvenient to lean over and pick it up again over the edge of the tub. I don't have any problems getting in and out of the tub, and I've had foot surgery like you would not believe. I've had my ankle, leg, and foot surgically reconstructed 9 times in the past 6 years. While I'm no longer on crutches, I am significantly disabled (makes many DIY projects very difficult for me). I also have very poor balance and suffered nerve damage during one my surgeries so have no sensation on the bottom of my foot. I was warned that all of these issues would make it difficult for me to get in and out of a clawfoot tub, but I just hold onto the opposite side for balance and have no trouble. I have good days and bad days, and on bad days I sit on the edge of the tub and just swing my legs over. I don't think using the clawfoot tub is any more difficult than a regular shallower tub. This was my foot last year, you can see that it was pretty messed up. Even though I had a regular tub during this procedure and only recently got the clawfoot, I'm still recovering from the surgery.

Thanks, dabunch. I'm trying to think through all of this. Our doorways are all going to be wide enough for a wheelchair to come through straight on. If we add a shallow ramp, a wheelchair will be able to get from the front porch or garage into the house, then all around the LR/DR/kitchen, into the MBR and the master bathroom. A wheelchair will not be able to go into the master closet, but I don't forsee either of us living alone if we are in a wheelchair. I was at the cabinetmaker's shop yesterday at the same time a woman in a wheelchair was there planning her kitchen. So many things I would never have thought of...like the microwave not only lowered, but also not over a cabinet. Well, as Bette Davis so famously said, "getting old isn't for sissies." We're not old yet, but we are hoping to be. So we are planning for it.

This long and narrow bathroom reminds me of the one I grew up with in Brooklyn. It had the same problems you are facing. I highly doubt there is a radiator in this bathroom. The OP can comment if it exists or not. The large diameter steam pipe in the corner is a typical set up for bathrooms in old buildings. There is probably one thermostat controlling the heat for the entire building. The apartment above does not get to set its own temperature. How warm you apartment is in the winter is determined by what floor you live on. I agree if this is the only bathroom then it should to have a tub. I am not sure if re-configuring the tub is going to lower the resale value on a $1M+ coop in NYC. Putting up the wall between the tub and the sink makes the shower more functional. But it will make the bathroom look smaller and block some of the light from the window. I still think if you are going to move the tub the something like this one at Home Depot could work. It is 6 inches shorter than a normal tub. You will need 54 inches from stud to stud which may be possible once the plaster and lathe are removed from the walls. You could install the tub 8-10 inches away from the window wall. A shelf could be built between the tub and the wall and covered with tile. That becomes a place to hold your shampoo bottles and soap dish. Most of the steam pipe would still be exposed and will keep the bathroom warm even with the shower curtain closed. The shower head and controls stay on the same wall. This will open the space to put in a 36 - 48 in vanity with a granite counter top and a wider medicine cabinets and better lighting. That will give you ample storage space. Something that was not an issue when this bathroom was laid out 100 years ago. Have you asked any of your neighbors if they have remodeled their bathrooms? It would be helpful to get ideas and see how they dealt with these challenges.

You can install high and low niches depending on the wall. The low niche will probably get really wet though and need wiping out after every shower. You could do one long high niche or maybe a ledge instead that spans the whole width of the shower, depending on if you have the width to do that. At my house, we put a niche opposite the shower head in 2 tub/shower combos. One of them wraps the corner and continues on the long wall a bit. They tend to not get very wet at all. At our vacation house, we just have the ordinary low soap dish in the tile wall for patents kneeling down to bath children. For additional products for an adult bather, we put a little stool next to the tub. Check with your tile pro regarding the walls and what your options are. We actually ditched 2 of the tubs in our recent vacation home remodel, but kept one for bathing kids. There’s a hot tub on the deck, and we found that almost no adults were using the inside tubs over the last 20 years, so we built showers-only in 2 of the bathrooms. In the showers we didn’t build niches. Instead we put a bench and people tend to put their products on one side of the bench. We also installed a corner basket/grab bar that can hold a few things.