apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

Wow, I'm torn between telling you "hells no, that built-in is the bee's knees!" and "rub-a-dub-tub mutha****!" since I also love bathtubs. I think I'm leaning slightly toward the expansion of the shower into something more grand and keeping the vanity, since it's a unique feature which I'd be sad to see ripped out. I guess it depends how much you want a bathtub.

It sounds to me like you are leaning more in favor of putting in a tub. I'd say put one in. First, it's nice to have the option. One's home should be as comfortable as they want it. You don't ever want to come home after a bad day and say, oh I wish I could just soak in a tub right now, but can't. Second, if you ever want/need to sell your place, most buyers like having a tub in a master bath, so it would be a good investment to put one in.

I don't know how anyone could live without a tub. Seriously. Maybe you can save the vanity and put it somewhere else?

okay, i'll be the contrarian: i can't remember the last time i took a bath. when we remodeled our main bath (it never had a tub, but had a lot of wasted space), we decided to reconfigure things and install a larger shower.

we do have a tub in our guest bath though. it sounds like maybe you have at least one other bathroom in your place? if so, i think if someone really wants a tub (if resale is factoring into your decision), having one somewhere else in the house may suffice.

The vanity appears to be awkwardly placed there, I'd go for the tub.

I'm along with anh-minh - I love tubs, and I love having the option, but since moving into a house with a jacuzzi, I've used it 5 times in one year. I used to dream of having one, and it's kind of a waste for me!

Unless a traditional tub is extra-deep, it's kind of a let down - half your body is always above water.

OK, but something inside me is telling you to go for the jacuzzi - if you find you don't use it, you'll know next time instead of always dreaming of one for the rest of your life!

Ad that tub. After all the money,time and work of a remodel it's great to have a something new to enjoy. But I'm also a tub person. If you'll use it, ad it. A huge shower gets cold inside anyways.
Madeleine

Trust me, the tub is a must. I didn't realize it until I lived in an apartment in L.A. that only had a shower. ARGH! felt like prison.

Ok, me again. When I was remodelling my house I tried to remember that I was making my house better suited to my life. If a tub would improve your life you should ad it. If it wouldn't, then it may not be worth it. I don't really see the use of saving the vanity, unless you really adore it and it works for you. Some things are old and antique and some things are just old.
m

Tub tub tub tub tub tub...

If you're a bath person, that is. Even if you have another tub in the house I say you need one as close to your bedroom as possible. I just moved from an apartment where the tub and my bed were in opposite corners of the apartment and I hated it. There's nothing like winding down at night by sitting in the tub reading Domino, and then jumping directly from the tub into your own bed, while your limbs retain and disseminate the tub's heat. I'm getting sleepy right now thinking about it...

I think it depends on what you want and in the order of importance. The built-in is cool (if it goes with your style or you can work it to become so) and it offers storage. You obviously use a tub (or dream of it), do you use the vanity? Would you miss having a place where you can hunker down and do your make-up or hair or practice your acceptance speech with all your vanity doo-dads within arms reach in all those drawers? Or would you regret not having that place of refuge where you can soak all your troubles away?

Tub! We had a soaking tub with shower head put in last month. There's nothing like a good soak!

It seems like you're already pretty sure about ripping the vanity out which I would agree with. I always do my makeup in the bedroom so maybe thats just me. I'm also voting for the tub. Despite all its shortcomings, I love my current apartment because its got a big, old, deep tub in it. I don't use it all the time but every time I do (usually have a long hard day of work!) its wonderful. Since I'm 5'9 its the first tub I've ever had that I can actually fit in without having my legs bent at awkward angles.

I love taking a nice bath but have always lived in NYC apartments with 5' long, shallow tubs - so even when the tub is fairly full 90% of me is still outside the water (I'm 5' 10"). And small NYC bathrooms mean you're basically staring at your toilet the whole time, hardly the relaxing spa feeling you'd like to achieve. If you have the space and the budget you should go for it!

Man you guys are great! Thanks for the advice, my bathroom (as you can see) is pretty old school--the other thing that is also holding me back (and hard to see from the pic) is that putting a tub in would require ripping out and moving the sink over. I do have a second bathroom with a standard tub-shower combo, and ever since I started taking ballet classes 3x a week, I've been using that tub to the hilt. I've also been researching new showers though, and there are some pretty insane ones that have like 10 shower heads or something crazy like that! Decisions, decisions...

-Grace

YAY tubs! I think a traditional iron tub coated in enamel porcelain with claw feet would be amazing, for several reasons. . .it is wonderful in retaining heat so all the interior surfaces are toasty and cozy, as well as the water, and it will retain your vintage look. New ones can be expensive but you can find AMAZING originals at Ohmega Salvage, of which I'm sure you're familiar!

P.S. Yay ballet lessons, too! I've taken some at the SF Dance Center and they're so much fun. . .

Just did a full house overhaul: a small 3 bedroom house in Toronto. Did not want to remove one of the small bedrooms to make the bathroom bigger (as many do), so reconfigured the space. Because our sole bathroom was small, we thougt about just using a shower stall, too. BUT NO!
Remembering faaabulous and relaxing moments in Tokyo baths reminded me that a most excellent and deep soak does NOT have to mean a giant footprint! A bit of research found the Japanese Bath Company and a DEEEEEP soaker tub that fit into 4' wall space... a little shower curtain and voila!
www.japanesebath.com.au/ :: we got the polyester Koharu... shipping was cheaper 'cause we split the cost with someone else who wanted a tub locally.
Seriously:: these tubs are far superior to even the 6' soakers you can find in N. America (notice that the soakers have overflow valves at 17") because there are no overflow valves! all that water covers even me (5'10.5")!

That's my pitch. Good luck.

Whatever you do, get rid of that vanity. Not everything old is good, in fact, some old stuff is downright icky. That vanity if a perfect example of that corny faux-country shit they did in the Fifties. It reeks of McCarthyism...