This will be interesting to watch. One tub (not necessarily in the master bath) is always good, especially for kids, pets and big potted ferns that need watering.

I was a soaking tub vote. We soakers tend to generally be in the minority though.

Personally, I would never buy a house without a soaker or room to put one in without having to gut the entire bathroom.

I agree, you only NEED one tub in the house, however if you have the room I would put a soaking tub in just for resale but spend more money on the shower for sure, dual shower heads, body sprays or a steam unit are all good investments and you will enjoy them more than the tub

Thanks everyone. All of your comments have been helpful. To answer some of your questions, we do have a small hall bathroom that does have a tub. It's common in our area for the master bathrooms to have a tub in it. I can post pictures of what our bathroom looks like to give you an idea what I'm working with. I do like the idea of keeping a tub but making the shower more of a more appealing. If the tub wasn't necessary, I would add a vanity or bench where the tub is now.

Here are the pictures

We took out a large tub from our master bath when we remodeled as we are not tub people either. If the other bathroom had not had a tub, we might have reconsidered as I agree that it slightly devalues a home to not have a tub especially for families with children. We put in a large 2-person shower instead and love it. No regrets whatsoever. In fact, we gained a vanity where the previous owners had a dinky 1person shower. Now we have a large 4' vanity for me and across the room my husband has a smaller 3' vanity.

We tend to take more tubs out of masters then we put in. Larger more luxurious showers with features such as seats, multiple heads, steam, sound, etc. are in high demand in the Pacific NW.

This is an interesting poll. Lot's of people add tubs because it seems like you have too but if you already have one and don't use it, why not use the extra room for a bigger shower?

Here's another question for everyone. Our tile floor has to remain. If we do away with the tub and put a bench or vanity in that area, what can we do to have the flooring in that area blend or coordinate with the existing flooring? If nothing can be done that will look right, then we'll have to keep a tub there.

The shower is large. The floor area is 48" x 48" and has a large bench in it. We could add another shower head in it which would be nice.

There is no way you can replace a bathtub with a shower and expect the same qualities , especially in a master bathroom . Trends come and go , but I didn't see bathtubs removed because of them but investing a lot more for shower accessories is recommended . A free standing bathtub may give you more space to work with .

You could use a strip of decorative glass tile or mosaic tile as a separator between your existing tile and whatever you choose as a new tile. If there is a make-up vanity there, the area underneath would look darker anyway, due to the shadow and if you got close in your new tile selection, no one could tell it didn't match.Plus,if the vanity had drawers, much of it wouldn't show, anyway. If you put a bench there, you could replicate the shape of it -say, rectangular - with the small mosaic tile, underneath or surrounding the bench, and fill it in with a design or anything that would coordinate. If you don't plan on staying there, it might appeal to more people that you have both tub and shower in the masterbath and won't cost you anything to leave it as is. It looks like a great bathroom already.

A must for resale value

Wow, I can't believe how close the votes are to one another. Thank you everyone for all of your feedback. It's been very helpful.

We are having this debate in our house too. I am all for a really large walk-in shower without a tub since we have one in the hall bathroom but my husband wants a tub. It is so hard to predict what other people will want who may buy the house in the future - Since you have so much room, I'd vote to keep the tub.

If you aren't going to use the tub then design your new bathroom to how you would use it and create a really amazing shower instead. I will say that if you take the tub out of the master I would definitely have a tub in another bathroom. We don't have a tub in our master, but we do have one in our second bathroom (our house was built that way). It doesn't bother me at all not to have a tub in the master because I rarely take baths, but if I didn't have a tub at all I wouldn't like it.

We have replaced the soaker tub with a 6 ft glass shower in our new build. We never use the one in our current home so it was a no brainier for the new place. We still have the main bathtub for the kids.

I would say keep it this time around, since you are going to sale the home. When selling you want to appeal to the most buyer and removing it will narrow your potential pool of buyers. If you do remove it, you are going to have to give buyers a WOW factor. That way they don't miss it or they are able to reconcile in their minds the idea of using the hall bathtub if need be.

I would think about revamping your vanity and adding another sink. Yes, it would lessen the amount of useable vanity space, but buyers in my market always want two sinks. You could get a new cabinet and add to the amount of storage by eliminating the cutout.

Your shower looks very generous and a bench is always desireable. I would consider replacing the surround with a seamless glass/clip enclosure. I can't tell if the shower surround is the prefab cultured marble or not, if so and budget allows, I would remove that and the pan and replace with tile. Also what's up with the shower head being above the surround? I would definitely make sure the surround encorporates the shower head. You could use a traditional shower head and add a diverter with a slide bar for the handheld. Body sprays would also be nice.

Definitely update your window treatment and add a framed mirror. I bet the finished product will be amazing!

Here a little thinking out of the box for you. Leave the tub where it is, would be a huge cost to remove and then replace. Have carpenter or handy husband build a frame that is level with the top edge of tub. Then cover entire area with nice ply-wood. (One side note: protect the tub with padding of some sort so it doesn't get damaged.) Have long drawers made in the back with a nice lighted mirror in the center of the window. When applying make-up most do not sit up under the table. You could have a pull out shelf or shallow drawer that you can pull out in the center if need be. The long drawers in the back can hold lesser used items or accessories. You can set plants, pictures and such on the long drawer tops. The chair can sit around the corner to the right when not in use. The ply-wood can be finished in your hearts desire. I can see it in my minds eye, hope that my words help you focus on my vision as a possibility.

We have just built a home with no tub in the master ensuite. We opted for a larger steam shower, but we have a tub in the main bath. Our plumbing contractor said more people are taking tubs out then putting tubs in.

The feedback here has been great. You can't see it in the picture but we do have two sinks in the bathroom. One is on the left side with a vanity and the other is on the right. It's located on the right side of the tub. As much as I would love to get rid of the tub, it seems like it would be better to keep it since we plan on selling the house at some point.
To tclary's comment about the shower, the surround is made out of cultured marble and it's horrible. I would like to tile the entire shower. Whoever built the shower did place the shower head above the surround. The height is good for my husband but when we tile the shower, we can tile around it. I would like to add niches too. The cabinets we have now are builder grade and at some point, I would like to replace them and the counter top which is also cultured marble. I may have to settle on just replacing the counter top and framing the mirrors.

chec - http://www.commercialappeal.com/news/2012/nov/23/toss-the-tub-households-remodeling-master-spa/?CID=happeningnowk out this link for information tub vs shower

It is always best to have 1 soaker tub in the house...no one says it needs to be in the Master Bath. Maximize your Master Bath with a Glass shower stall and keep/put the tub in another bathroom.
www.matteodezigns.com

Whether you opt for a tub or not, having the space for one is a plus. If you don't have the time or inclination for soaking now, you may need to find the time later for therapeutic reasons due to injuries or chronic conditions developed later in life. Afterall, there's alot of time and experiences between now and "forever."

Suggestion: when and if you remove your existing tub, cut and cap off the drain and water supply lines just inside the floor and walls. Take a photo of the tub in place and one showing the location of the capped plumbing. Make notes as to the location of these items (measurement from an outside wall) and file the info along with other remodelling notes that you can pass off to the next owner. Knowing that there is plumbing in that location could be very helpful in getting a potential buyer beyond the hesitation over the lack of a tub.

One last thing, you can certainly use another bath tub in the house but does it provide serious "soaking" opportunity in a non-clostrophobic, convenient and peaceful surrounding? Beyond the therapeutics of it, consider soaking as one of life's little pleasures.

Our master has no tub and a large double walk-in shower plus 2 spacious sink areas. Never miss the bath.

That shower looks fairly large. I am a shower person who would love to have a soaking tub for physical therapy. I have watched people on hgtv consistently reject master baths without tubs, so given that you have the room and the tub and removing it would cause a flooring problem, I would definitely keep the tub for resale value. Spend the money you would spend on removing the tub on really nice finishes for the rest of the project. Do you have to replace the tub? What about a new surround which covers the side of the tub and gives it a more custom appearance?

A large soaking tub is a must for me. I wouldn't buy a house without a huge tub. We even bath our two kids in our master tub more often then the 2nd bath.

Ramona - the tub is next to the shower and the tub area is tiled. If I tile the shower, the tub area would have to be tiled too so it matches. The tub has two areas on the top that is discolored and chipping. I figured since the tub is damaged and the surrounding tile would have to be removed anyway, I should probably just replace the tub. I wouldn't bother replacing it if it weren't damaged especially since it doesn't get used. I just hate spending money on a new tub and the plumbing to change the drain location because it's not being used. The drain would have to be changed from a center drain to a right drain because it's difficult to find a tub that's the right size with a center drain. However, we do have the room to have both a large shower and soaking tub so it sounds like it's better to keep it but I will spend more making the shower look good.

Your alternative is to do as suggested above and make sure that prospective buyers know that the plumbing exists to reinstall a tub. You may find that you like a tub as you get older and have aches and pains, or not. I was told that my tub less master bath only counted as a 3/4 bath by some real estate person. I consider that excessive, to say the least. Buyers don't want the expense of redoing major things like bathrooms, so I would go conservative myself. Ripping out a huge, expensive shower to make room for a tub is an excess in itself. But if you don't use the new tub, it will look all the more attractive as a nearly new fixture when you sell the home.

You already have a shower, a tub and 2 sinks, and it seems a separate toilet. Upgrade your vanity (go to www.discountbathroomvanities.com great selection and good prices) change the tile and keep tub as is if it works. it is a great bathroom. Go all out on shower, body sprays, pebble floor, etc. you can keep the floor tile and just re-tile the shower, change the enclosure to frameless . great bathroom

Our master has no tub and a large double walk-in shower plus 2 spacious sink areas. Never miss the bath.

we never used our master bathroom tub. when we want to "soak" we get in the hot tub. A better use of water and more fun!

It's always better for resale to have a tub in the master bath.

Sacapuntaslapioz - thank you for the compliments and advice. Here are some pictures of the tub where it is discolored and cracked. Do you think I'm being too picky about replacing the tub because of the way it looks? It does work just fine but I'm worried about future homebuyers being turned-off by it.

wmpj, before you go to the expense of replacing the tub, have you tried any of the acrylic patch kits?

No I haven't because I wasn't sure if it would work. I found one at Home Depot and it said it was for gel coated tubs. Mine is acrylic. I'll look online to see what I can find.

At one point, we thought our new tub had a scratch so I set about looking for repair kits. I think this site (or something similar) was where I landed. I remember that they had match kits by manufacturer and had both gel and acrylic.

If you're already somewhat committed to a new tub, it seems you might come out ahead if a repair works.

http://www.surface-repair.com/categories/DIY-Bathtub-and-Shower-Repair-Kits/Factory-Color%252dMatched-Paste-Version/

Thanks onthefence. I did a search right before I read your comment and came across the same website. They do have something that should work for our tub. It's only $30 plus shipping and handling. What do I have to lose, right? It would be great not to have to buy a new tub.

Crossing my fingers for you wmpj. It would be great if you could use that money for other extra spiffy items in your remodel.

most welcome wmpj. have the tub profesionally resurfaced. it you use it a lo t it will not wear well, but for resale value it will look clean. do it before you sell. meanwhile enjoy your shower. also look into just refacing the vanities with wood doors. but for 3000 you can get 2 vanities. this one, for example comes in both your sizes 48" And 36" and together they cost less than 2000 including mirrors and faucets. i have remodeled 3 bathrooms and used vanities from them everytime and they all have looked pretty good. http://www.discountbathroomvanities.com/bathroom-vanities/DEC1100A_all.html

I totally forgot about resurfacing. That should be fine. The technology is getting better and if you don't use the tub it will look perfect when you sell. You won't have to spend money moving plumbing, etc. Just face the tub nicely.

and I would do something like his for the tub surround, as someone offered.
[houzz=]
[houzz=]
[houzz=]