Wow, thanks bumble doodle! Tt is great to know that the tub works well as a shower. We are tall too--at least most of us (two of my teenage daughters are twins and one is 5'2" and the other is 5'10", so maybe the short one complains a bit but that's ok, since she complains about everything!) We are getting the non-jetted version. Also, I am hoping that building the deck at the front will help with the water spray. I am pushing the tub back into an alcove under the window the long way (so we get into the tub at the 32" side rather than from the 48" side) and we are trying to go without shower doors in order to make the bath feel open. With a deck, we buy a few more inches of length to help avoid water on the floor. We may not succeed and will put a panel on if we have to. Any thoughts on this?

Our carpenter/foreman is married to our real estate agent. She (agent) said that we should definitely have a tub in our MB for resale - b/c people will want it, even though they may never use it! Carpenter said to toss the tub - a larger shower would be better. We tossed the tub, replaced it with a large walk in shower. Shower will have a handheld shower head - one of those on a sliding bar - and a built in bench, also "nonhospital" grab bars. We found some *great* tiles for a small tile mural with matching accent tiles - should be very nice, and much more attractive and useful than a tub. We did agree to a tub in the second bathroom - a tub/shower combo. If I had my druthers, I'd switch that tub to a shower as well. Oh well. This is a one story house, so both bathrooms can be reached without stairs. We're putting a bench in the extra space in our master bathroom. You know, for sitting on after your shower, drying your toes off, etc. Although we did also consider a cabinet for towels. Extra storage. Most people we've talked to say that they rarely use bathtubs as adults. We feel good about our decision.

To all responders - many thanks for the comments and suggestions. Was able to open access door at plumbing end of tub and was able to see steel mesh and clumps of plaster below tub rim on exterior wall but no sign of studs - so I assume that plaster with mesh support is also behind wall tiles. This would explain erratic readings with stud finder. Exterior wall is brick - not sure if stud finder will give reliable readings through brick but will give it a try. If so will give me some general idea where studs might be.

I’m not sure where your leak is coming from, I just wanted to tell our experience so you can gauge whether it might be a possibility in your case. One of our guest bathrooms had a leak that we originally assumed was from the shower. We hadn’t lived in the house for very long, and we hadn’t even used that shower yet when my sister came to visit. She stepped out of the shower and realized that water was squeezing up between the tiles when she stepped on them. Naturally, she informed us. My hubby had the entire bathroom completely gutted in half an hour! (It was a small bathroom with a Fiberglass shower, the tiles popped up like toast out of a toaster, and he’s just a beast... lol!) we see evidence of long term damage and provide my sister with another bathroom to use for the remainder of the visit. We didn’t start the bathroom remodel immediately, and when we did start it was slow going. We were very fortunate because we had barely started the remodel when we got another weather front move in with a whole lot of moisture... (It has been snowing a lot during her visit) and that’s when we realized the bathroom was leaking from another source! Hubby again ripped up the bathroom, and this time ripped out part of the wall that is on the exterior and that’s when we realized the leak was coming from outside. It took us a bit to figure out but we finally determined (with outside help) that it was because that wall was directly against an exterior chimney that had not been flashed properly. We left that bathroom unfinished for quite a while while we fixed the chimney problem, and waited for some more really good rain storms to make sure it was indeed dry before we finished our bathroom remodel. We were just fortunate that we have a lot of other bathrooms and this was just a guest bathroom. Anyways, I hope your issue isn’t something like that!