Wooo!!! Cat, I am stuck at home because of the snow storm so wandered around here not looking at anything in particular and came upon your thread. I totally agree with you on the shower curtain choice. Regardless of whether I have the money to spare or not, keeping those suckers clean is a nuisance over time. We have a glass shower door that was installed back in 2003 and I can't tell you how much I hate cleaning it. Not that the door is all that dirty, but a shower curtain is way easier, and you can change the look/style whenever you feel like it. Can't do that with a pricey shower door. Anyway, everything looks lovely as usual, including the "prom" dress :-) Love, love those circular tiles, and the floor tiles that look like fabric. Gorgeous. What colour is that again? It looks greyish on my monitor.

To clarify, I didn't do anything but the spackling (on upper parts of walls, the lower parts and around the shower were new greenboard after carpenter pulled out the tile), sanding, priming, painting (walls and ceiling), caulking, installed the lights, mirror and towel bar (not shown). My parents hired a carpenter to pull out the old shower, reframe, pull out tile, put up new wallboard where the tile was, install the vanity (and that new shelf in the nook that he framed), he also has electrician's license so he put in new boxes for lights on sides of mirror, removed the old light over the shower and put in new LED light I bought. They hired the plumber he recommended (who happened to be the most expensive in the area according to my uncle) to install the new shower stall, move the drain and supply lines for shower, install new toilet in old location, and put new countertop on vanity and connect supply & drains (I think he might have replaced some corroded copper piping for the sink supply lines too). I should have done all of it (except the framing) since I have done a bathroom remodel in our old house that involved moving a drain and changing supply lines from old shower to new Jacuzzi, so I've sweated pipe and also done wiring, just don't have a hole saw to cut round holes for boxes but could have borrowed one. I also served as GC on our new (admittedly modular) house. My cousin or my mom's step brother could have done the framing and the shelf (they're both cabinetmakers, excellent finish carpenters who have done work for me) and we could have figured out the shower stall and I'm sure the laminate floor. My brother taught me to tile so if we had been able to talk them into that I could have done it, or they could have flown him out to do it (and visit) for a lot less than what they paid.

Thanks guys! This is the clawfoot tub I am considering: http://philadelphia.craigslist.org/atq/5280827575.html. It is pretty - look at those legs! I would paint the outside a different color though. And if I went drop in, it would probably look a lot like the one in JLC's last picture -- in fact, that picture basically encompasses the whole look I am going for - wainscoting, the closed in shower, the little mosaic tile on the floor. So thanks for that picture! I'm still torn on the tub issue - JLC's post had convinced me that I want drop in (especially the part about it being easier to get in as you age) but amberm is swaying me back again with the prettiness factor. When I look at my inspiration pics, there's a pretty even split between drop-in and clawfoot. One other factor that I didn't mention is that we currently have a laundry chute built into the side of the tub deck -- in my original picture, you can see the hinges where it opens near the floor -- the front of the tub deck pulls open and I can toss laundry down into the laundry room. This is an awesome feature. If I go with a drop in, I will keep the chute where it is (well, it will move back a few inches with the rest of the deck but that will actually make it fall in a better spot in the laundry room so that is fine). But if I go with a clawfoot, I am either going to have to put a trap door in the floor or build some kind of cabinet...and since it would look odd to have either of those right in the middle of the room, I will have to move the whole laundry chute back under the center of the window, which drops the laundry in a less convenient but still workable spot in the laundry room. But then I have to figure out if I want a trap door in the floor or to build some kind of little cabinet or flip out wall thing to serve as the door to the laundry chute -- I'm a little nervous about just making a trap door because it seems dangerous if someone accidentally left it open. So if I went with a clawfoot, I would probably build some kind of cabinet that ran from the edge of the window back to the corner -- the full top of it could server as a ledge for plants and holding stuff you'd want while in the tub while the part that is exposed (not behind the tub) could open for the laundry chute. But this is seeming very complicated and hard to visualize vs. just replicating what we basically have now....and have I mentioned that I'm bad at visualizing?!? I guess it would look something like the way the ledge runs in JLC's Charleston Beach Cottage picture....but looking at that pic, I can't imagine how they are going to get back there to clean the floor under there and I'm worried about having the same problem. To address the counter space concerns, the vanity width is just shy of 80". The current plan is to have a neighbor custom-build my cabinets (that's what he does for a living), so I was going to go with 2 29" sink base cabinets and a 20" drawer unit in the middle. I am also planning a recessed shaker-style built-in medicine cabinet unit that should give me a ton of storage for the stuff that is currently sitting on the counter. So hopefully I wouldn't need a bunch of counter space. I envision it looking something like this: I want it to run the full width of the vanity area. I think I worked out the math and it should be doable and line up with the sinks if I use 20" doors and 4" spacers in between (6" on each end)....but here's where my issue with proportion comes in -- is that too much space? Who knows! Hopefully the cabinet guy has some kind of visualization software where he can dummy it up and I can see what it will look like. There is another window over the back of the tub that isn't visible in this picture so I'm not sure I could make a vanity over there....but I do think I should keep the tub. It is not our only tub but the other one is a regular small tub/shower combo in the kids' bathroom and it would be nice to have one that is a little nicer/bigger. Please keep the feedback coming...you all are bringing up things I haven't thought about before and I really appreciate it!

Since you're having issues with the shower I'd focus on that. Clear glass doors would go a long way toward updating the space, so would a lighter paint. I don't think the tile around the tub is bad at all. The mirrors are fine. You could even frame the top with some natural wood. Pick some bigger tiles for the floor if you want. But really, I think the shower and paint would make a big difference!