Bathroom update, which would you prefer?

[expectantsteelerfan]

We are doing a few small updates to get our house ready to list.  It is a 2,000 square foot 4 bed, 2.5 bath home.  So powder room on main floor, full bath upstairs, and full bath ensuite off the master.  We live in a town with insane taxes compared to neighboring towns with a very highly rated school district, so chances are, buyers will be a young family.  We will definitely be keeping the tub in the main bath on the 2nd floor, I am only asking about the master bath.  So I'm just curious, in a master bath, would you prefer a tub/shower combo, or a shower only?  There is NOT room in the bathroom to do a stand alone tub plus a shower.  

[origami]

The house we recently bought has a renovated shower-only master bath. It’s the first time I’ve had no master tub. At first, it bugged me. But now I don’t care. One reason I’m good with it is that the master shower has a regular shower head + a handheld. Without being gross, that addresses most of the reason I took baths before.

[simpsongal]

I prefer tub baths - that said, if I were house shopping I would strongly prefer a separate tub and shower in a renovated bath. All to say, buyers who don't care that much about a master tub will be happy w/a large shower (so go w/that, it'll show better too and look more opulent).

[penguingrrl]

I currently have a separate tub and shower in our upstairs bath (no separate en suite for the primary bedroom) and it’s fine, but I don’t prefer it. The shower stall feels narrow and squished and uncomfortable IMO. I haven’t met a stand alone shower that doesn’t.

It wouldn’t factor into my buying or not buying a house, though.

[Susie]

Mar 30, 2021 7:15:13 GMT -5 expectantsteelerfan said:

There is NOT room in the bathroom to do a stand alone tub plus a shower.  

Our new house is basically the same -- right now there's a dated shower/tub combo, and no space to do separate tub and a shower.  Coming from having no master bath at all, I can deal with that!  I think eventually we will do a big, luxe shower, no tub.  There will be a tub in the kids' bath, and there's a hot tub on the deck.

[scm1011]

Shower only for sure. I honestly see not reason to have more than 1 tub in a home, but I'm admittedly not a bath person.

[redheadk]

I like bathtubs but not the combo ones. I'd just do a shower stall. The combo ones are sort of the worst of both worlds, IMO. I'd rather have a larger stall with no curtain and plenty of elbow room and ability to not stand under the spray while shaving. Bonus points if you put in one of those little shaving ledges to prop a foot on while shaving.

[icedcoffee]

Not having a tub in the master was a deal breaker when we house hunted, but I also understand this is not a common deal breaker.

Is there enough room to do a large tub with combined shower? Or only enough room to do one of the smaller tubs you typically see in a kids bathroom? If the former I choose keep a tub. If the latter, I choose just do a nice shower with ledge seat.


ETA:  Although someone who doesn't like baths may find the tub to be annoying to step into.  So...idk.  It's a hard choice.  I don't think you can really choose wrong because there will be people on both sides.

[purplinsky]

Mar 30, 2021 9:22:55 GMT -5 icedcoffee said:

Not having a tub in the master was a deal breaker when we house hunted, but I also understand this is not a common deal breaker.

Is there enough room to do a large tub with combined shower? Or only enough room to do one of the smaller tubs you typically see in a kids bathroom? If the former I choose keep a tub. If the latter, I choose just do a nice shower with ledge seat.


ETA:  Although someone who doesn't like baths may find the tub to be annoying to step into.  So...idk.  It's a hard choice.  I don't think you can really choose wrong because there will be people on both sides.

The large garden tub and shower combo was how the master bath in my last house was setup...I hated it. In theory it looks like a good idea, best of both worlds, right? Wrong. I'm on the shorter side and I was always hitting my toes against the rail for the sliding glass shower doors or practically falling when trying to get out of the thing since the sides were so high and even higher with the glass door rail. If I had stayed in that house I was planning to rip out the tub and put a nice, big walk in shower. I ended up moving before taking on the bathroom reno and my new house has a walk in shower stall. It's smaller than ideal, but so much better than the hassle of the oversized tub/shower combo. Plus, I have two other full bathrooms with the traditional shower/tub combo so if I really feel like a bath I have options.

[icedcoffee]

Mar 30, 2021 9:41:10 GMT -5 purplinsky said:

Mar 30, 2021 9:22:55 GMT -5 icedcoffee said:

Not having a tub in the master was a deal breaker when we house hunted, but I also understand this is not a common deal breaker.

Is there enough room to do a large tub with combined shower? Or only enough room to do one of the smaller tubs you typically see in a kids bathroom? If the former I choose keep a tub. If the latter, I choose just do a nice shower with ledge seat.


ETA:  Although someone who doesn't like baths may find the tub to be annoying to step into.  So...idk.  It's a hard choice.  I don't think you can really choose wrong because there will be people on both sides.

The large garden tub and shower combo was how the master bath in my last house was setup...I hated it. In theory it looks like a good idea, best of both worlds, right? Wrong. I'm on the shorter side and I was always hitting my toes against the rail for the sliding glass shower doors or practically falling when trying to get out of the thing since the sides were so high and even higher with the glass door rail. If I had stayed in that house I was planning to rip out the tub and put a nice, big walk in shower. I ended up moving before taking on the bathroom reno and my new house has a walk in shower stall. It's smaller than ideal, but so much better than the hassle of the oversized tub/shower combo. Plus, I have two other full bathrooms with the traditional shower/tub combo so if I really feel like a bath I have options.

Yeah--as a bath lover I see how it's a good compromise and I'd do it if my house didn't have room for our soaker, but I can see how someone who doesn't care about a bath would find it annoying.

My master bath with separate tub and shower is my happy place.  Although it's straight out of the mid 80's and really ugly.  Kind of like me.  LOL

[aprilsails]

If we had renovated the bathrooms at the last house I would have done shower only in the ensuite. Similarly there was no extra space for a separate bath.

That being said, if you are in a popular area why are you bothering to do an upgrade before selling? Unless of there is visible water damage I doubt it would matter to a buyer. I would only do this if your market is really slow or there are a lot of equivalent houses you want to get ahead of. A bathroom renovation generally costs at minimum $10k and might not make that much of a difference in purchase price.

[SKP82]

Since you don’t have room to do a separate tub and shower, I would just do the stand alone shower. A lot of bathrooms are like that now and I don’t think it should be an issue since you will still have a tub in the other bath on the same floor.

[SKP82]

Mar 30, 2021 10:25:34 GMT -5 aprilsails said:

If we had renovated the bathrooms at the last house I would have done shower only in the ensuite. Similarly there was no extra space for a separate bath.

That being said, if you are in a popular area why are you bothering to do an upgrade before selling? Unless of there is visible water damage I doubt it would matter to a buyer. I would only do this if your market is really slow or there are a lot of equivalent houses you want to get ahead of. A bathroom renovation generally costs at minimum $10k and might not make that much of a difference in purchase price.

Many buyers don’t want to buy a home that needs renovations. I can understand why they would update it.

[aprilsails]

Mar 30, 2021 10:47:46 GMT -5 SKP82 said:

Mar 30, 2021 10:25:34 GMT -5 aprilsails said:

If we had renovated the bathrooms at the last house I would have done shower only in the ensuite. Similarly there was no extra space for a separate bath.

That being said, if you are in a popular area why are you bothering to do an upgrade before selling? Unless of there is visible water damage I doubt it would matter to a buyer. I would only do this if your market is really slow or there are a lot of equivalent houses you want to get ahead of. A bathroom renovation generally costs at minimum $10k and might not make that much of a difference in purchase price.

Many buyers don’t want to buy a home that needs renovations. I can understand why they would update it.

I guess I’m just suggesting she should check with a real estate agent first. When we sold two years ago we planned to replace the carpets and update the bathrooms and our agent told us not to bother. The house has sold once again since then and they still have not been updated.

[kadams767]

Mar 30, 2021 8:52:27 GMT -5 scm1011 said:

Shower only for sure. I honestly see not reason to have more than 1 tub in a home, but I'm admittedly not a bath person.

I think the answers will be all over the map on this, so not sure there is a wrong answer.  As a bath person, I really wouldn't want to share a tub with kids if I didn't have to.  I've never had an en suite bathroom, but this would be the main reason that I'd ever really want one, LOL.  

[scm1011]

Mar 30, 2021 11:48:24 GMT -5 kadams767 said:

Mar 30, 2021 8:52:27 GMT -5 scm1011 said:

Shower only for sure. I honestly see not reason to have more than 1 tub in a home, but I'm admittedly not a bath person.

I think the answers will be all over the map on this, so not sure there is a wrong answer.  As a bath person, I really wouldn't want to share a tub with kids if I didn't have to.  I've never had an en suite bathroom, but this would be the main reason that I'd ever really want one, LOL.  

That's fair too! 

[hbomdiggity]

Mar 30, 2021 8:52:27 GMT -5 scm1011 said:

Shower only for sure. I honestly see not reason to have more than 1 tub in a home, but I'm admittedly not a bath person.

Same.

The separate tub in our master is solely for bathing the dog (because it has a hand wand and the kids bath does not).

[dontlook]

We just built and we only put a tub in the kids bathroom. I love baths but really only used our old bath tub like twice a year. It mostly collected dust and dirty towels. I’m happy with the large shower we have now. I sat skip the combo and put in a nice big shower.

[sju1982]

Considering how often I take a bath versus a shower, I would prefer a larger shower even if that meant no bath.