Donna, Um, every whirlpool I have ever heard of is also available just as as a soaking tub... If it's going to be your tub, go sit in the tubs (yes, the whirlpools! :)) and decide which one feels best. That was my criterion. Sit in them and then get your favorite one made as a soaking tub. (after checking step-in heights, since it will be used as a shower too) As I said, Maax Melodie and Palace felt the best by far to me, but everyone's different (I've heard the Palace is pretty popular with folks who can fit a 6' tub in). Also, if you can fit 6' in, try the Toto cast iron 6' tub. If after all that the Porcher Ardennes is the one that feels best, go with that. I'm sure they'd have a way to help you make an alcove situation for it. If the Neptune feels best, go with that (again, check the height wrt using it as a shower). So your assignment is to go to the stores in Chicago, step into the tubs, sit in them, and decide which one feels best entering and lounging in. Then report back :)

I used a 60x32 20"h tub with fairly thin sidewalls for a recent remodel, and though it's a bit more of a step into it, I don't find it that much more difficult than with shorter tubs (i'm 5'8"). It's easily worth it to have a deeper tub IMO, and it's good for showering too because the floor is wider, longer, and flatter than in most 5' tubs. I wouldn't fret about resale value; people moving into a small house may not have kids, or the kids may be over 8 y.o. who can usually climb into anything. Or the new owners may want to rip out a tub in favor of a shower. Changing to a shorter tub costs almost nothing compared to the cost of the house, so I can't imagine someone not wanting to buy it because the tub is too tall. I bought enough extra wall tiles so that if a future buyer wanted a shorter tub or a shower, it would be easy to retrofit one without having to retile the whole wall because the tile didn't come down far enough.

Sorry, I guess I should clarify. (This is why I linked the product page, because I knew I would not be able to explain this properly.) The oval tub has a "preexisting" sort-of-deck with a flange on three sides, otherwise I would not be so daft as to try to put a shower over it. I like my kitchen ceiling where it is! Here, this is what it looks like: However, and this is what I was asking about with the deck question, from the instructions it appears that there must be some kind of deck on the fourth side which does not have a tile flange if one does not use the optional (icky) apron, but it does not say how wide this deck must be. We both would rather not have to clamber over a wide margin to get into the tub - DH has to use this for showering every day. I'm mostly a lay-backer, not a sit-upper - my shoulders and upper back get very very painful so I have to get them into the scalding water. Unfortunately there isn't enough room for the 5'5" tub that would let me keep both shoulders and knees underwater and actually cover up most of the protruding bits on the front, leaving pretty much just my head and hands (to hold my book, of course) out of the water. ;-) The room is only 60" wide - it was carved out of a bedroom - and even if we had budget to redo all the plumbing there isn't room to turn the tub round sideways. I dislike the look of "stuff" cluttering up tub corners so I'm considering a down-low niche for my shampoo/soap/etc. and a high-up one for DH's shower things, and there will pretty much never be any kind of decorative bits on the corners because they'd just get soaked with the shower spray anyway. Well, okay, maybe a rubber ducky. (But no flamingos!) :-) Those four were pretty much the only tubs I've found that fit the parameters of size/depth, cost (crucial!), and appearance. I'm a short-but-wide person and DH is medium-height(5'9")-and-wide and we both manage OK in a standard 60x32 oblong tub - 34" or 36" would be a nicer but pretty much all I could find in this price point were funky molded-up things that looked like they belonged on the space station. Yuck-O. The deepest of the four tubs is actually the oblong Bancroft at 15" water depth but I'm not thrilled with how it looks, the other three are 14" water depth. The oval looks like it would have less shoulder room but that's not the case? The one oval tub I've seen available for sitting in was just about big enough for a kindergartener to do laps in, so it's pretty useless for comparison!

Hi cruzinpattis. There are two different things you are looking for. 1) Tile Flange - This is for tubs in an alcove install, and is basically a lip that extends around the 3 sides of the tub so that the tile sits on the tub and helps with water not getting behind the tub wall. Tile flanges can come integrated into the tub, factory installed onto the tub or in a kit you do yourself. Obviously the integrated flange is the best of these options. 2) The apron is the front of the tub. Also called a skirt. This is what they call the "basic tub front" you reference. The tub in your picture is an apron-less tub. With non-apron tubs you have to install a tile or wood front.