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...

Sumod- The medicine cabinets are simple wood frames with a cabinet-grade plywood back that just sit in the stud cavity. Because of the dimensions, the front of the frame projects about 1"+ beyond the finished wall. The medicine cabinet doors are also plywood with veneered edges and they are attached to the frame with standard cabinet hinges (Euro hinges). The mirrors are just 1/4" plate glass ordered to size from a glass shop and held in place with mirror mastic and a metal strip at the bottom that you don't really see. The guy who did the cabinets just made the medicine cabinets as part of the job. I don't know about the door brand...we live in a large metro area that has lots of door shops and the doors are just solid core maple doors with the center cut out and a maple panel held in with molding. They're not stained; they simply have a couple coats of clear spray lacquer.

few ideas for the vanity if staying w/the vintage look. get an actual walnut mcm piece and modify it. Cut off the legs, mount to a stud, cut a hole for plumbing. if you have room, do it like this. best thing is to do a wall mount faucet for your dresser. get a remnant stone piece and have it cut for the sink (that you will fit in a drawer) or, if you're a bit handy, get some Plyboo (bamboo plywood) and make your own counter/vanity. make a mirror frame and shelves while your at it. I've used this plyboo to make my own platform bed/headboard and nightstands. the stuff is great! as for the tile, do a hex of some sort, pennyround, subways, or the 4x4 as mentioned. CleTile.com as some beautiful 4x4 tiles that are reasonable. Fireclaytile.com,,,also great choice,,a bit more expensive. CleTile your shower w/the window is great. could you bring it out another few inches to give you a bit more room? Do away w/that corner seat/shelf. the other option is to put in glass where the wall is between the vanity/shower. you could relocate the plumbing. even if you only got a small portion of glass, it would help lighten up the room some more. check out these cool porcelain tiles for the floor (or the shower). they come in blues/and whites/grays as well as the black. black looks good w/a walnut vanity. do your shower tile in a vertical stack, glazed tile like this: or in the 4x4 or regular subway, like this

@Amy Perlman I think you may be happier with a quartz that had larger sweeping veins such as callacutta or statuario so i was more similar to the look of your tile. From the photo, the quartz has a creamy background and more of a carrera like delicate veining and they may not work together. I have the same hex tile floors as Emily in two of my bathrooms. I used quartz with veining for the vanity tops. I don't think it competes or looks too busy, but I found a quartz that was the same look and colors as the floors (true white background with blue-grey veins). I'm not sure it would have worked if it was similar. There are so many marble like quartz options and all are intended to look like a specific type of marble. Are you having the tops fabricated/ purchasing a slab? Or are you looking for a top already made for your vanity?