olychick, thank you for taking a look. :) I'm relieved to hear you think a white shower pan is best. I am heading out now to find porcelain marble look tiles for the shower walls to pick up the gray as you suggested. I want a shiny finish to the walls. Tell me if you think that's a misstep. I am avoiding marble as I have a marble topped vanity now that is pock marked with etchings. As far as seeing myself in the vanity, yes, I think I will be able to do so. I was planning on a black framed mirror spanning the vanity. My current vanity is 32 1/4" high (as will be the new vanity) and when seated on my vanity stool my reflection is seen up to my chest. The only issue currently is that my knees are pressed against drawers. I failed to mention that I was thinking of using absolute black granite for the vanity top for two reasons: one being cost and the other being to avoid etching. Will doing so deviate too much from my inspiration? Lastly, I had the idea of applying pieces of beveled mirror framed by black molding floor to ceiling along the back wall and continuing behind the toilet (similar to this only floor to ceiling with the exception of base molding & crown): [Traditional Bathroom[(https://www.houzz.com/photos/traditional-bathroom-ideas-phbr1-bp~t_712~s_2107) by Northbrook Architects & Building Designers Michael A. Menn Thoughts? Suggestions? Thank you for reading this far. :)

G'day, Aussiepete- I'm also a Pete who was/is an Aussie -well I was born in Canada but lived in Australia and NZ most of my adult life. I have a copy of the BC electrical code, simplified - if you went to your local Home Hardware, you may be able to get a version for your own province, or from a student bookshop where they teach electrical trades. I will go out on a limb and say this should be the same for your province, since I believe they're working on a national code for Canada (except, maybe Quebec? - a little separatist humour there) Rules 6-206 2-308(1) and 26-402 state that "nor should it (the service panel) be in bathrooms, clothes closets, stairwells, kitchen cabinets or similar places. So I guess you'll have to think of something else - I wonder, though, if constructing a utility closet WITHIN a bathroom would be acceptible, but keep in mind, you want room to work in there. Maybe you should go to wherever it is you go to book an inspection and ask their advice. I'm sure they would be happy to make suggestions, after all at least initially (but be ready to submit and be inspected when you build it) you won't be doing any wiring work, you just (quite rightly) don't want to violate the code (potentially having to remove or rectify the work later)

Many thanks to everybody who answered, you have all been very helpful in clarifying my very muddled thoughts. Here is a hopefully clearer description of the situation: The house is a 50's ranch style, with 3 bedrooms and a hall bath (4.5x8.5 ft) clustered on one side of the house, and the kitchen, office/den and another hall bath (4x9 ft) on the other side of the house, with a great room in the middle. We plan to stay in this house as long as we can, but we are in this city for my husband's work, and if something happens (although unlikely with his kind of job), we know we'll have to move somewhere else; therefore, we'd like to make updates to the house while keeping resale in mind. Our (excellent) realtor said that for resale we should have an ensuite. After reading the comments, I have to clarify with him if he thinks a lack of ensuite will narrow down the market significantly, or if we 'simply' would not get the best price for the house. Most houses in the area are old (in the whole city actually), and we saw plenty without ensuites. We saw two of the neighbors' houses, and they did not have ensuites. This is what we considered: 1. Redo the bathrooms with the existing footprint (not that we have room to change anything inside), but we can go far into making them pretty, 2. Add a door from the master bedroom to the hall bath next to it, and close access from the hall. This I think would be a bad idea, not only because the people in the other two bedrooms will have to go across the house to the other bathroom, but also because the master bedroom will end up with windows on two walls, three closets on another, and two doors on the fourth side. Not restful. 3. Add another bathroom next to the master bedroom where the closets are, with one closet door transformed into a bathroom door. This bathroom would be 4.5x12 ft, although it could go to 5x12 if need be (but no more, because we'll hit a big window), which will have a shower but no bathtub. We talked to a professional who said it will fit fine with the caveat that the toilet will likely be the first thing you see in front of the door because of the current clearance requirements. 4. Build an addition. This again I think would be a very bad idea, since it would be blindingly expensive and the house is already on the higher side of square footage for the surrounding area. We will of course fix everything that is broken. The interior doors are the original 50s doors, hollow core dark wood look with lots of scuffs and holes, and they were cut short to fit the now non-existent carpet, so I would qualify changing them as fixing what is broken (and they bug me every time I look at them... ). The windows are a perk; we are still divided on those. I tend toward option 1, while my husband is going for option 3, although he agrees we do not need another bathroom. The reason I feel ill equipped to make this decision is that I'm originally from Europe, and even after so many years here I feel mildly perplexed about the North American love affair with bathrooms. Our previous rental was built in the last ten years and had a huge ensuite which I didn't like. I found it hard to keep as clean as I thought it should be, and it was so large I felt as if I was doing my business in public. Given the bathroom pictures on Houzz, I'm clearly in a minority. Your comments help ensure that I don't miss anything that might otherwise be obvious, so thanks again. And extra thanks to whoever makes it to the end of this post...

As a real estate appraiser I would advise to try to keep it. It will reduce the valuation by a few percent. If I were to appraise your home, I would now have to compare and adjust it from a 3 bathroom home to a 2.5. That's anywhere from $2,500 to $5,000 adjustment downwards. Understand that I don't know where you live or your real estate market. Even though there is no bedroom on the floor, it's a very usable space. At the very least, I'd put in a shower. You just never know when someone will lose their mobility. It looks like an older home. If your laundry room is in the basement, you may want to reconfigure it to bring the laundry up to the main living area. That would be an improvement in utility and the only reason why I would consider eliminating it. Hard to see everything, but you could reconfigure the doorway/entry and take over that vestibule area.