In the picture, black is the current layout. Green is the change if only shower was made bigger and one door would be eliminated. Red is a complet demo, removing the wall section between two toilets. All the water lines from upstairs are in the section of the wall that is between two toilets so removing this wall would require a major move of water lines to the side and there would have to be a section of wall kept behind new toilet and vanity. The door from master would have to be framed and move to the left as a pocket or barn door. The drowing is disproportionate. It is all very cramped in there Current shower is only 26"x26". But may be replacing vanity for a wall hung vanity in the larger bathroom would change the feel. It will all have to be torn down and replaced including removing subfloors as they are rotten. So either remodel will be a lot of work. What should we do?

Kristi, I hope you're still checking back here. I'm very interested in your tile. Is it more beige-ish, or gray-ish, or both? It's hard to tell from your photos. I'd like to do something similar in my smallish master bath. Would you say it's light in color? I'm afraid of making the bathroom too dark. Also, I really love the way you placed the tiles. It seems to be a herringbone pattern - am I right? I live in New Jersey, and I can't seem to find a store that carries Sarana tiles, but I'll keep looking.

We generally prefer historical cost basis over any time of assessment, so what you paid for an item. However, one problem with the historical cost basis for ad valorem taxes is it adjusts for realized gains and losses while not adjusting for holding gains and losses. This means that two identical houses would pay two different taxes based on the last time they were sold. This isn't quite fair so to remedy this, ad valorem taxes are occasionally adjusted to compensate somewhat for holding gains and losses. In other words, we don't want people who bought 3 acres next to Central Park 65 years ago, to be paying property taxes on $100,000 when an identical property next door pays taxes on $15,000,000. That is the entire purpose of adjusting property values. Improvements aren't simply holding gains, it is putting money into the structure so that it is nicer. If you want to fairly tax improvements you would need a tax on the increased value less a tax credit the amount paid over the marginal assessment value. So, the premise that you have some moral obligation to pay marginally higher taxes because you spent $50,000 for a nicer kitchen that adds only $20,000 to the property value, is one I find questionable. In other words, if you paid more for the remodel than it added in property value you should get a tax credit against the increase. However, that is far too complicated and thus taxing jurisdictions who are acting efficiently and attempting to be fair, avoid increasing valuation for improvements and replacements, but do increase valuation for additions. Now this is completely different than rules that allow select groups to avoid assessment for holding gains and losses.

"...we also did a bunch of other things to make it look absolutely clean, in good repair, and ready to move into." Yes, I agree after selling several properties. Clean and decluttered are priorities. I can also see why those water bottles were popular! As buyers, we had something nice from the sellers of our current home. Once we got the keys to our house, we found two really nice bottles of champagne in the fridge with the sweetest note from them. It basically said they hoped we shared as many beautiful memories in the house as they did. Six years later and I still have the note.