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...

I'm a fan of natural light. I've seen solar tubes but I don't know how they last. I'd probably try to put it at the vanity though, for the daytime use of walking in and having some light at the mirror. You could check over on the remodel forum for info on solar tubes. Color is very personal. The color you show is nice but might be a bit dark. I'd probably go a lighter color. I have gray in my bathroom with a large window and it reads blue, which is why I selected it. My old bathroom that was 5x8 like yours didn't have a window either. I hated that about that room. So when I remodeled it, I enlarged it and had the carpenter add a small window, because the longer wall allowed for it. In this room I have a gray blue called Horizon by Benjamin Moore. It is the Bath and Spa line, and I really like it. You can go to the home decorating forum for color help.

I do like the countertop choice. But I am also a fan of a less busy quartz countertop like this one. Still has the subtle veins in it, but it's not too busy for a bathroom. Plus I love the idea of a white vanity popping against the navy color the room. The sample in your photo could take away from the "pop" factor in my opinion. But I do think your sample is a beautiful piece of stone for sure. Good luck with your renovation!

Thanks for the additional comments! There really is no room to make the door wider as the 2 closets are adjacent to the bathroom (basically there is a short hall from the bedroom with walk-in closets on each side. The bathroom door is basically as wide as that hall will allow (given 3.5" trim on either side of the door). I'm not sure about removing the water closet - guessing my husband would not approve :). However, I will not rule it out. I just would not want it to negatively affect resale down the road (all houses in the neighborhood have the water closet). I actually have a vanity mirror attached to the wall from the previous owners - I really don't wear a lot of makeup so don't really use it. Mascara, blush, eye shadow - that's it! I"m torn about the free-standing versus drop-in tub. I really love the look of the free-standing but I'm leaning towards the drop-in due to the various pros/cons listed in various threads. Thanks!