Well, moving the wall between the bathrooms gets into a lot of plumbing moving...so my thought: 1) Expand the "Master" Shower by taking most (a little over half) of the two closets and adding length (and a little width) to the shower, maybe with a nice bench on the outside wall, or the corner. This will probably require moving the drain, but since you're moving the shower plumbing anyway, shouldn't be too much more. With the shower widened a bit too, it'll be much more comfortable. 2) Make a single, shallow, dual sliding door closet off the hallway, since the master suite is already contained behind the invisible door. This will allow towel storage and easily match the storage you are losing in the actual in that bathroom closet. 3) Depending on how much you widen the shower, perhaps move the door slightly to the left to give more room in front of the vanity without getting clobbered by the door. 4) Slightly lengthen the vanity toward the toilet, if possible...but if those are 6" tiles, you are close to already at the minimum of 18" off center for the wall and vanity. 5) What is the blank area on the outside wall end of the bathtub? If it's space, lengthen the tub/shower a bit and/or make a little storage.

@Rebecca Guyon, congrats on your new home. Everyone will tell you their idea of “first steps.” The actual first step is sitting down with your device, or books in the library, or magazines, and collecting images of kitchens you love within your restrictions; so, you are keeping your counters - Google images of kitchens with black counters. The second step is to look at all of those images and dissect out the recurring themes. I once went through the inspiration images of an OA who was certain she wanted soapstone counters. Every single inspiration image had white or almost white counters. What we think we know about what we like, and what we actually gravitate toward can be so different. Take some time, gather your images, study them, then make a plan for the future.

It looks like ceiling has dark stained beams! Once you determine the true style you are pursuing, consider painting the ceiling and beams offwhite to brighten hall and visually lift ceiling. As to flooring, again after research, I would consult with good local flooring people and get their input and ideas on how to approach this flooring project. It is big, so you have good negotiating position for that reason. Verify if they have employees as installers with experience in this age and type home. We owned a home built in 1900 and speaking from “restoring” that home, to do things right, cost 2-3 times more than just “remuddling” it. We resisted remuddling and never regretted it. Key thing is the installers. I can see several possible approaches. Here are a few.

@Anna it is paint. It was 2 coats of White Dove. Painter decided to do 3 coats of paint instead of primer plus 2 coats, which is what he had told us he would do. Not sure if it not using primer was the right decision because we are still seeing blue come through in some spots. When I think back to it, what was supposed to be the first coat didn't seem evenly applied everywhere. It seemed like it was applied in patches or something. I had assumed it was some kind of patching he was doing so I didn't question it. I wanted to wait a few days to see how I felt about it. I like the word you chose "fresher". It does also feel crisper and more modern. And actually the word you chose, calmer, also applies. It's more cheery and inviting, too. I sense that every time I walk into the master bathroom. I don't know if some part of that is that I disliked the blue so much and found it so overwhelming and depressing that anything would be an improvement. But I do like it each and every time I walk in so I think it's more than that. I think it's working for the most part. I had an instinct that the color would not work as well in the guest bathroom but I took a deep breath and crossed my fingers hoping I would be wrong. But I think that was right and it is not working as well there. One, the guest bath has no windows at all and gets no light at all. But I think the main issues is that the countertop seems much more grayish beige and strong and less creamy than in the master. So now I am toying with the idea of either - changing the vanity - or paying an online color designer to pick the color and repainting. I am totally resisting the idea of repainting but that may be what I have to do. (it's really, really difficult to capture the EXACT tone that I am seeing - I actually had to manipulate the color a little to get closer to what I am SEEING versus what shows in the picture. But when I adjust the countertop it changes other things so it's hard to get it all ALL accurate). In this bathroom, I am getting the "old tooth" that @Jennifer Hogan warned me about. (which BTW Jennifer because of your post I went back and spent a lot more time laying out the samples I had against the tub, tile, and countertop in the master bath, and how I ended up choosing White Dove. The Cloud White - which is the one I was going to choose before your post - was too white. (so thank you so much - and I know that you were warning me about going white all together. Wondering what you think of the final result anyway.) But I did not do the same in the guest bath. I had the painter coming the next day and I just closed my eyes and went with the same color. I should have just had him do the Master and waited on the guest if I needed more time.)