Designing Kitchens and Bathrooms - Bath reno

I am in the planning stages for a bath renovation. I have a 2 1/2 bath home. One bath was recently redone. It has a shower and a separate jetted tub. The remaining bath currently has a fiberglass shower/tub combo. That tub has not been used since the kids flew the nest.

My plan is to tear out the tub/shower combo and install a large, tiled shower. I do not want to install a tub. IMO tubs are a relic of a bygone era. My real estate guru SIL is telling me that might be a mistake if we want to sell the house. She says people still look for full baths.

Just looking for opinions on a one tub, two shower, three toilet house.

I never use the tub, but my wife would kill me if I took it out of our other bathroom. You have to think about the women and children who love taking baths. I think you would lose money on resale if you removed it.

your real estate guru SIL is right. she should know what home buyers want and look for when buying houses.

tubs might be a relic of a bygone era, but some things of the past have slowly been coming back (like retro outfits!), especially those stuff that have been discovered to have natural healing or other positive effects. and i think this should explain why spa services are really a hit now and very expensive at that. .

When you remove the tile around the tub there should be either drywall of backer-board remaining. Some repairs may need to be made to either of these depending on the condition of the home and how carefully you did the tile removal. Some drywall mud should repair the small holes and scrapes and leave the surface ready for painting

I'll have to go with Wayne on this one. You have a bath with a jetted tub, now. That should make women and kids happy. In the remaining bath, pull the sucker and put in a tiled shower. I seriously doubt you would have anything bad said about not having a tub in both bathrooms. Our master (if you want to call it that) has a walk in shower. My wife loves it and doesn't like a tub. However, in MY bathroom there is a beautiful harvest gold (yeah 1970's) tub/shower combo. If it weren't for giving the grandkids baths, that thing would go and I'd have me a MAN-CAVE shower with tile on the walls.
I did this in our rental cabin this past fall when I added a bath (8x16) off the master bedroom. It has dedicated laundry area and a 4x8 walk in shower. Everyone so far loves it. If they want a bath they can use the other bathroom.

While I have to agree with having a tub as a reselling point, you can definitely put in a very nice walk in shower with benches. Any upgrade that is different from the Jones' will be a plus if you decide to sell. Good luck with that.

We've finalized our plans and decided screw the real estate angle. It's our primary home and we're going to build the bath to suit our needs. So it's going to be a large walk in shower with a bench.

Wayne

Good choice. The answer to this question should be, make it to suit your lifestyle. If someone doesnt like it 20 years down the road, they can change it. That tub argument is an old one and todays lifestyles dont necessarily support it. I can't remember when the last time was that anyone in my household took a bath anyway. Well, maybe that doesnt sound right, we do take showers everyday.:D

I'm not sure if the existing bathtub is in the master, but if it is... I would not remove the second tub. Unfortunately, a second tub (other than the master) is needed for resale. When bathing small children, you need a bathtub and I no one wants rubber duckys in their master bath get-away. Unfortunately, I think it would be a mistake for resale.