Thanks for the feedback all. So clearly the consensus is door. I just hope I can work that out. This is a small bath being added on over the top of a kitchen addition on the first floor. Access to it will be through a window approximately 30 inches wide. At present the window is part of a whole wall of oak built-ins original to the house (built in 1907). Thus the window is set about 20 inches deep into an enclosure which consists of matching 40 inch wide by 20 inch deep cupboards on either side, a window seat below and molding/valance affair above. So, since I want to keep the cupboards and moldings joining the two sides over the window, I may need to get a custom sized door. I think a pocket door might work, recessing it into the newly built wall behind the original oak cupboards. Or, if it turns out that the pony wall planned to corral the toilet area won't work, I'll do a door that hinges on the left and swings inward, blocking the view of the toilet. I just KNOW that this is going to turn out to be horribly complicated in real life.! >

Some people really want/need an en-suite bathroom. Some people would like one, but can live without it if everything else--location, price, other amenities--fits their needs. Some people really don't care either way. And some people really don't want one. So if you buy this condo, you have eliminated the "really want/need" folks from your potential buyers and renters. But you still have a fairly large pool of potential renters and buyers to draw from. If you add the shower to the downstairs bathroom, I think you will make the condo attractive to non-related renters--three grad students, say. Do other units in the building have en-suite bathrooms? If so, then not having one could be a liability. But if there are other units without one, and the building itself is a desirable place to live, then you should be fine. You might have to lower your asking price to draw people in, but that would be the main drawback that I can see.

Snookums I agree: Everything does not go with everything, and the bathrooms pictured do have to be considered in context of the adjacent rooms. And if I recall, all of these bathrooms were complementary to the adjacent rooms in terms of color, wallpaper or window treatments, and architectural style. The blue bathroom in particular was a Jack and Jill between two bedrooms, and it coordinated very well with both. But one bedroom was 1960s French Provincial and the other bedroom (and much of the house) was 1960s Asian Moderne. (This was one of the most intact and beautifully furnished time capsule houses I've ever been in, the owner was around 100 yo when she died, I think). Anyway, the bathroom coordinated with both (even though it is unapologetically blue instead of neutral). But since this post started about Vanities in particular, lets look at that: One bedroom is furnished in French Provincial with a painted sort of grey blue patina finish, and has French looking curly hardware and such. One bedroom is furnished in Asian Modern, in blonde wood and little oval recessed pulls. So if you are redoing this vanity to coordinate with furniture, which one? While the rooms coordinate as a "whole" within the house, I don't think you could really swap any of the case pieces from one to the other bedroom. The notion that the vanity is built in and looks like "generic cabinet" and not like a freestanding furniture style at all means it can bridge both rooms. Mtn: maybe the examples are far afield from what a lot of people are doing now, since furniture vanities are a trend (not a fad but a trend), but my idea is that technically a vanity, if it coordinates in some plain fashion with the House, rather than a particular piece of furniture, it does not need to Match Anything to coordinate with Almost Anything. The examples you pictured definitely do NOT belong in adjacent rooms. But, take down the wallpaper paint the vanity the color of the walls in the bedroom and put different hardware on the vanity, and it Would. The vanity does not have to be a combination of Queen Anne and Chippendale just because that's what the current bedroom furniture is--if it is treated as a cabinet and not a piece of furniture. The problem with the two rooms you show is that each is treated as a "theme". I am not even sold that the bedroom is an actual bedroom but is a catalog shot to show a "Bedroom Set" for some furniture company. But I do see this sort of adjacency a lot. Look at real estate in areas where full-on decorating is very popular. Sometimes you can say "This room is original; this room was redone around 1985; this room was done in 2000; they just freshened this room up to put the house on the market this year". Each room has a distinct and discordant "theme". For anybody who lives in this area look at Cherry Hill, Penn Valley, Elkins Park, Rydal, on occasion and you will see time capsule houses and time capsule by room on a pretty regular basis.

Changes from the previous one: - Black box is removed - Master bedroom stays the same size as original - West wall stays as original - Closet in bedroom 3 stays as original - Master closet is not separated by a wall. It is a bit narrower but you won't notice the change - The one guest closet is smaller than the two combined closets - Shower is about the same size but has no full length glass - Vanity and cabinet are smaller - Toilet are is more spacious