Pete, our contractor just measured for our shower. DH and I are both about 6' tall. We went with 81". It gave room for splash and matched a grout line. :) Beth p

We have only the hand held on a slide bar, Memoirs by Kohler ~just installed in our new master bath. We didn't want multi shower heads or body sprays just as little as possible. The sliding bar works great for both my husband and me with our significant height difference. I never had a sliding bar before this and I just have to say they are wonderful, look pretty and very functional. I think I love it more than anything else we did! ...My feeling is that a shower head would not be a deal breaker in a house sale. I fell for that advice from our builder: "you better put in a jetted tub for resale", we did and ended up ripping it out 13 years later as it was a huge white elephant that we used maybe 10 times in 13 years. No one at least in our area wants them anymore, especially the young people who see them as something their parents did, lol. Horrors! Freestanding soaker tubs are the in thing now. No mildewed jacuzzi lines to worry about no huge floorspace wasted, use less water. We have water wars going on here with three other states and I had that on my mind when doing the shower. YMMV : ) All the best to you!

Dragonflygirl girl, in my experience, water pressure in the water coming out of the pipe no longer has much influence on how ”hard” the water falls in a rainhead. My thinking is that the water ”uses up” some of the kinetic energy it gained from being under pressure in the pipe in the effort to spread out in the 12” diameter rain head. I don’t think having the water in the pipe until it is closer to your head matters much for pressure. In cold weather, though, I think that it does have a noticeable influence on the temperature of the water that hits your body. I might seriously consider a longer down pipe.

Curtains generally look best if they are hung high and wide. Stock sizes of curtains are usually 84" or 95" long. Measure up from the floor to figure out where 84 will land in relation to your window. If 84 is too short, you'll have to use 95. 95 might be a little cramped by the ceiling but they will look better than panels that are too short. If you are crafty, you could hem the 95s or add some fabric to the 84s. Make sure your curtains appear wide enough to cover the windows even if you don't plan on closing them. You don't want them to look too skimpy. Here is a good graphic about curtains. I like all the advice except the pooling suggestion.