I too really wanted to avoid a shower curtain in the tub-shower combination we were making for our kids' bathroom. I didn't want the glass all the way across, but I too was concerned about water leaking out, and easy access in and out of the tub. We compromised by installing a stationary panel connected to a hinged panel, which doesn't go all the way to the other end. See the photo below. It works great, with no water leaking onto the floor even with three kids, and visually it's the best, IMHO! We heard about shower screens from people who had loved them in their European travels. I went to several shower door retailers, and several of them were clueless. Some said it couldn't be done. My contractor wasn't too familiar with them either. I found a picture in a home magazine of just such a combination -- in fact, we used the same tub they did, a Kohler Tea for Two, and then copied exactly what they had done with their shower screen, which is a fixed panel next to a hinged panel. The tub is 66 inches long, and each of the panels is about 24 inches wide. My husband and I decided on the width of the panels by looking at where the vanity ended, and we thought long and hard about how wide the hinged panel had to be to both prevent water from leaking out while people showered, and yet make it easy to get in and out. This has worked out great. We bought the shower doors through the Expo Design Center. If you have a good one in your area, they will have an extensive display of frameless shower doors/shields. The representative they sent out to measure immediately knew what we wanted, and they installed quickly and precisely. (My husband put a little clear plastic suction thing near the bottom of the door, visible in the pictures) to protect the doors if the kids banged them against the vanity counter. So far no harm has come to them, the doors, I mean!

Thank you all for your replies and ideas. I probably would not have thought about cutting out the room light by installing a valance too high! I still haven't decided, but may choose the easiest to sew. I was amazed at how little I found on the web both before and after posting here. In fact, last night this forum question appeared high in Google! So if anyone else is interested in pictures, in addition to the one Ellen posted, I found these three (although the third is a bit ambiguous). If it turns out OK, I'll post mine later.

If the shower head points away from the opening, you might not need a door or curtain. Search out the ADA requirements for showers, especially images. You could get ideas even if you do not use all their requirements. This link is a vendor of all-in-one units. I do not have any connection to them, other vendors are very similar, this page simply has good images. http://www.florestone.com/ada_comp.html We are installing grab bars in our new shower and tub surround. I mention it because we discovered what is required by ADA may not work for us in practice. We did put extra blocking in the walls if we want to move the bars to meet requirements. Instead of blocking, you can find big toggle bolts made especially for grab bars. Notice all of the units have a hand-held shower head, a requirement of ADA. We thought that was a good idea and obtained a shower head with a detachable hand-held unit. You could create niches or use stick-on wire racks. The wire units are light and did not hurt when I hit my head on them in our old enclosure.

I keep revisiting this thread, hoping for a Sign. :) Is it ever acceptable to use a shower pan and create a tile threshold over it, thereby making it higher? As for cleaning the nonskid elements of a shower or tub. I have some wonderful nonskid strips in my otherwise very slippery acrylic tub where I take my showers. Yes, they pick up and hold grime a little too well and you can't just go gangbusters cleaning acrylic. The other day I used some Softscrub and a curved nail brush that fits around a couple of fingers. With very little elbow grease ALL the grime was removed and the shape of the nail brush is very ergonomic.