I see an awful lot of near-original bathrooms in San Francisco real estate, so I wonder if there is something about Renovation and Codes there that makes people leave them alone.

The current tub is probably narrower than a modern tub, so you may want to leave it.You cannot put a glass enclosure around a tub like that.

Yeah, unless the properties that sell in your area all have renovated baths, I would leave that for the next owners to deal with. There could be a real can of worms there if you have bring things up to current code. Check with a realtor and look at sold listings for your area.

As others have posted, I would leave as is and adjust the price according to what fair market value is for comps in your neighborhood.

A bathroom renovation is a huge hassle and is going to open up a can of worms because once you touch it, anything not up to Code including electrical has to be changed.

Someone coming in can alter it to suit their own taste.

It's hard to tell from the picture but if there are minor cosmetic changes, that is useful for staging and you could bring a professional in to clean the tiles and grout if they are showing signs of age.

The sink is cute and finding similar ones isn't easy. I'd just have a pro clean up/update the plumbing to be less visible and patch and paint drywall. Lose anything that visually extends, like the cabinet over the toilet and the towel bar, maybe even the mid-height trim, and paint all a light color. Maybe you could do a sleek inset medicine cab for storage. Unless the shower functions well, I'd consider losing that, as well for a clean look. The tub looks like it could use resurfacing, if it's in the budget. Tile (labor) is pricey for sure in your area, consider alternatives. I have the same window cling in one of my bathrooms! It can look much better without spending too much. GL!

I would do nothing. Anyone who wants an old house wants the original tub and sink.

Just clean it all well and paint the walls. You won't get back any of your investment in changing out the fixtures and in fact, if you remuddle it, you'll wind up losing money.

Leave it. You will not recoup the money spent re-doing it, and many buyers will either like the charm of this traditional bathroom or want to do it to their own taste.

Before my neighbor across the street put her house up for sale, she spent almost $10K putting in new carpet in a couple of rooms even though the existing carpet was quite passable as is. The beautiful, new carpeting was ripped out by the buyer within 2 months of moving in.

Spending money on redoing things that are not outright flaws in anticipation of what you think a buyer may like is often a waste of time, energy, and money.

If you use a peroxide based cleaner like clorox2 or oxiclean or just plain old peroxide the brown spots can come off. Never use bleach on a cast iron tub. It penatrates through the porcelain glaze to the iron and creates rust or those brown spots commonly seen on older tubs. I would clean everything spotlessly, paint walls, trim and ceiling pretty shower curtain and list.

I love old houses and I find it really charming in an original/utiliatarian kind of way! I agree that building codes might make a really slippery slope to do anything with.

I think you've gotten some good suggestions. A deep clean, declutter and repaint would help. Try a fabric, not plastic shower liner. I think the only thing that may be tempting to change would be the floor - I don't know if you could do something like lay sheet marmo/linoleum around the existing fixtures? If that's not possible, I think some kind of baseboard might make the floor seem less unattractive.

I would NOT resurface the tub, particularly if you think it has its original finish. That is an irreversible process that is hard to do right, given EPA regulations. This is a good article I used to zhuzh up my original tub, and it looks really nice now.

http://homeguides.sfgate.com/clean-restore-old-bathtub-87087.html

Never understood remodeling something just before selling. You go through all the pain and hassle, without any reward of enjoying a brand new space. I wouldn't do anything more than clean, clean again and freshen up the space. You might actually lose money if you turn it into a generic "Ikea" bathroom.

kats737-

I agree with you about not refinishing the tub, but where do EPA regulations have any application to something like this?

Thanks to everyone for the advice! Quite a lot to think over!

Kudzu9, when I looked into refinishing our 90year old kitchen sink several years ago, I found there were a lot of acrylic method refinishers that could come and do an on-site job, but with pretty mixed reviews on the durability of the finish.

There were only a few places in the country where you could actually ship a cast iron item to get reglazed/fired with real porcelain, but as I understand now, due to materials change requirements, those have gone out of business or have really long wait lists for large objects.

That said, I did get a bathroom sink reglazed with some epoxy type of process and it looks nice, but I treat it exceptionally carefully which isn't always practical. Like if my kids have marker on their hands they're not allowed to wash in there...

kats737-

Thanks for the info. It's still not clear to me how any of this is related to EPA regulations. Can you clarify?

Like I said, it was a couple years ago, but what the gist of what I recall was that something changed the availability of the chemicals/products used to actually re-porcelain items. Maybe that's not the case?

I know a bit about EPA and it’s just that I was sceptical that they would have put in place a rule preventing people from refinishing their bathtubs. I looked into this a little more and think I found what you may have been referring to. OSHA has safety requirements to protect people who work with methylene chloride, a hazardous solvent that is used often in bathtub refinishing. There is no prohibition of its use, but there is a requirement that employers protect worker health, and have outside exhaust equipment to bring to a home job site if the tub is being done in place. I suppose some companies may not have wanted to spend money to provide for such protection, so it might be a little harder to find a refinisher, but one can still get this done. In any case, since the chemical does not end up in the new finish, there’s no threat to the consumer who has a bathtub refinished this way.

I don't know if it is EPA but I do know from my designer that California has more stringent environmental rules that impact all kinds of things including finishes used so it might be that a specific type of material is barred from use in California.

It arose for me in terms of the kinds of finishes available for wood cabinets. There is some overall law in California that impacts a whole host of environment stuff when you remodel - stuff you wouldn't dream might have issues like my kitchen sink :-)

Helen is right, many items that are readily available in other states, are banned in CA. I happened to be at a hardware store when I first moved here and saw a man loading up his cart with large jugs of some chemical. I made a joke about him buying out the store and he said it had been made illegal in CA and he was stocking up for his cabinet shop. You can't buy a toilet here with more than 1.2g even if the manufacturer also makes the 1.6g model.

i think you could just repaint (do white on the bottom of the chair rail and a fresher color on top) and change out the shower curtain, take off the film on the window to make the bath brighter, (perhaps add a roman shade?), maybe a nice bath rug on the floor to make it look charming and fresh.

A new potty seat too!

I have film on the lower part of my double hung window and a small set of cafe type curtains that can be drawn, made from linen toweling I bought off eBay. The window film provides privacy for the lower room and if needed the curtains are drawn for the whole room privacy. I had made the linen into towels, then in a moment of desperation, when guest were coming for daughters wedding, they went up on a small black tension rod using black clipped rings. I got complements on them from designer minded guest. My bathroom is old fashioned looking.

I can only say that if I was looking to buy a house this bathroom would suit me fine....If you put in a smaller tub or change it to a shower, you really won't alter the "feel" of the space...in other words, that space next to the tub is just a space to walk past (which is perfectly adequate) to get to the loo, or just a space to step into the tub (perfectly adequate for that, too)...

A different sink won't really help. You won't have the required clearance in front of it.

I would put my money into a nice black and white penny or hex tile floor. And put some beadboard on the walls. And paint. It WILL look absolutely charming....

Price out having the tub polished...those old cast iron tubs have a very thick porcelain finish that withstands a refinish very well...just make sure they're not going to slap a coat of anything on top of it...

The bath needs an entire re-do with relocation of plumbing so I would just clean it up as much as possible and sell as is.