Thanks everyone for your comments. Sophie, I've seen you comment on unneeded renovations so often that having your first comment be "sledgehammer" really says something. Thanks. To clarify, the shower currently spans the entire width of the room, 6'. The second shower head, hidden in the photo, is on the wall that the toilet is on. So what's to the left of the shower is...more shower. ;) I am not a DIY-er. I will pay a GC+subs. My concern is less about my out-of-pocket expense and more about the return on my remodeling dollar. I can be frugal but if it makes sense (like adding grab bars now) then I want to do it. My thought is that I might move in 2-3 years, but I've seen how life plays out. That might stretch out or....it's always possible that I'll never move. Who knows? Current thoughts on design (I'm open to feedback): --demo everything, including drywall (wall has gouges from past owners' DIY attempt to remove old foil wallpaper). GC says new drywall isn't expensive and makes it easier (and cheaper) for plumbers and electricians to work unimpeded. --keep toilet where it is but replace ---Make shower the Walk-in kind with showerhead on same wall as toilet and glass panel to replace the wall that separates the shower from the toilet. GC thinks the glass panel could be wide enough that I would not need a door to the shower; water will not splash into room. --my thought is to close up the window to the other room. It's weird. It's also a metal framed window (I replaced the other metal windows in this part of the house with clad ones, so they look better). --yes, upgrade the vanity, counter, lights, flooring etc. --yes grab bars! Good reminder, enduring. We did that when we remodeled the guest bath. That's the time to do it. My Qs: --should I move the vanity to be on the same wall as the toilet? This will require moving the door over. More significantly, I would lose the storage of the current cabinet behind the door. It's 12" deep. When I googled, I haven't found any suitable replacement. The freestanding linen cabinets tend to be 15" deep. A lot of them have glass panels on top, which is cute, but having the door open onto a glass-top cabinet sounds like a recipe for disaster, esp. in the bathroom with naked feet. Is there any way to recapture the storage? The current vanity is 4' wide, super low, and the drawers are horrible, so a better vanity will provide more storage but can't replace that large cabinet behind the door. --if I move the door, should it be a pocket door? I kind of hate them, but maybe I haven't met the right one. This is the master bath (which adjoins the master bed but does not open directly onto the master bed). I don't want to be woken up at night with my partner jiggling the pocket door or flipping on the light. But maybe there are great pocket doors? --spring for a skylight? The big kind or a sky tube? An interior designer said he recently saw one, in a bathroom, where the skylight in the roof was large but the opening over the vanity was more narrow. So the benefit of the light without a huge hole? (I didn't see pics, so I'm not 100% clear) --anything I haven't considered? Thanks for all your thoughts and comments! Maybe I'll host a toga party to celebrate demo-ing the Roman bath (or maybe they were having a toga party when thought up this idea, lol)

Our guest room is downstairs and in theory shares the space with the playroom or whoever is also downstairs. I completely disagree that a guest needs a five star experience. Most people who stay in our homes are friends and family. We want to provide nice and comfortable spaces for them but it’s not a hotel. We go to my in laws all the time and happily use the bathroom down the hall. In order to accommodate your wants you would need to remove the closet and completely redo the bathroom. This would be a lot of work and cost to remove a bath. If you have the powder already I would just leave it. If this is a new build then redesign till it gets you what you want.

I'll be a contrarian. I would never knowingly rent a room with a shared bathroom in the hall. That would be a complete pass - I don't even like having to use a hallway bathroom in a sleeping situation in which I would share with friends and family because if I need to use it in the night I would have to wake up more/get more decently dressed and I hate having to shlep stuff to take a shower or perform normal grooming stuff in a bathroom. I don't have the horror of viewing a toilet from a bedroom that some houzzers seem to have. It certainly wouldn't bother me on a temporary basis. I have a master bath in my home and I can't remember the last time I actually shut the door. I don't have issues with smells or humidity but perhaps that is because my Toto washlet has a built in deodorizer AND I have an excellent Panasonic fan which runs based on ambient humidity levels. I don't generally even have condensation on shower doors or mirrors after exiting let along huge amounts of humidity wafting through my bedroom. The question really is one of economics. There is a cost to installing the bathroom and OP would need to decide whether they would make up the expense by having increased rent and/or renting it out more frequently. Certainly any prospective renter would see a picture and determine whether they wanted the ensuite with a curtain in the room or use of a bathroom in the hall. Also resale value is a red herring. At such point that OP wanted to sell it would be relatively inexpensive to convert the bathroom into a closet if having the ensuite in that room was a negative.

@btydrvn at least my "chic-up truck" is still with me! Came in handy yesterday working on the tailgate most of the day in the warm sunshine. It's blessedly lower to the ground than my work trucks. I'm 5'3". Who knows, maybe I will love the new vehicle. Hubby and I think it will be the upscale version of a hybrid Toyota RAV4. I read it has some giddy up off the post... always liked that about my V6 Accord. A Tesla owner was obviously feeling frisky at a traffic light the other day, and I empathized. Part of this is that I am grieving that part of my life too. The kids were just starting high school. We'd just moved here to this wonderful climate and more trees than they'd ever seen. I was finally getting a "real" job, delayed by staying home while the kids were little (no regrets and no judgements of how anyone else manages). That car saw them through high school, college, those tumultuous years, even an overnight race to my boy's side after he was t-boned by a drunk driver who blew a red light. He's fine and we've been through much worse in the Marines. It even hauled my grandgirls around. That whirlwind part of my life... it was beautiful... not pretending it was perfect though. And I need to remember that these next 25 years can be just as good. After one last thing on my bucket list, I can retire like dear hubby just did. I can get more involved with our local grandgirls just like he is, and travel more to see our distant grandkids. And after we finish renovating the upstairs, we can have company stay with us! The grandgirls can have sleepovers! As I declutter for that renovation, I need to remember I am preparing for the next stage, and to make sure I enjoy every bit of it that I can. And the new "car" will be part of it, right? And so will the "new" house. I can be as happy about my new car as I am about my new house, right? Right? @ilikefriday @Red Ryder @Lynn Lou ?