Well, I'd probably redo the whole thing. Do you like the plumbing layout? Would you replace the floor? Would you be DIYing?

You could have a nice walk in shower in that alcove. Depending on the size of the alcove you could get a shower pan, such as one of cast iron from Kohler, and tile for the walls. While your at it I'd move the TP holder to the shower wall because the location where it is, is inconvenient to reach for. You could put grab bars in the shower and at the toilet area for later years, and if not mounted now, blocked for them at a later date.

In the location, behind the door, I have a free standing cabinet about the same depth as your built-in, about 4.5' tall. I like having it there for storage. I have decor on top.

What's to the left of your shower? is it a closet in another room? Could you make storage in that location?

Your layout is very similar to one of my bathrooms. I have it with a few built-ins, but it also has an unfitted look with the vanity and the free standing cabinet I mentioned.

You also need new lighting, such as sconces to each side of the mirror with powerful lumins for shaving and putting on makeup. The light you have now cast shadows and could be improved. In my bathroom with the same layout I have sconces as the only light source and it works well. Though you could put a new light/fan in and get general lighting that way. My ceiling is only 7 feet, so that might help me get buy without ceiling lighting.

ETA, that vanity has to goooo!, lol. Its falling apart.

Sledgehammer. No amount of superficial change can fix that thing.Or any of the rest. It’s served its time. And it’s a giant negative to have an old falling apart bath.

I would gut and redo everything: shower, new toilet, flooring, new vanity. Having a window with some light, even if it's going into another room might be nice to keep if you like it. You could always do a frosted film over the window to just allow light in. It looks like the shower does not span the full width of the back wall. Is there something take up that space (maybe a closet from another room)? If not, maybe you can rethink the layout of the space to capture more storage.

No need to apologize for the shower curtain. It's a fun pattern. And when you have a bathroom you don't love, there's nothing wrong with adding some accessories to make you happier using the space.

Thanks everyone for your comments.

Sophie, I've seen you comment on unneeded renovations so often that having your first comment be "sledgehammer" really says something. Thanks.

To clarify, the shower currently spans the entire width of the room, 6'. The second shower head, hidden in the photo, is on the wall that the toilet is on. So what's to the left of the shower is...more shower. ;)

I am not a DIY-er. I will pay a GC+subs. My concern is less about my out-of-pocket expense and more about the return on my remodeling dollar. I can be frugal but if it makes sense (like adding grab bars now) then I want to do it. My thought is that I might move in 2-3 years, but I've seen how life plays out. That might stretch out or....it's always possible that I'll never move. Who knows?

Current thoughts on design (I'm open to feedback):

--demo everything, including drywall (wall has gouges from past owners' DIY attempt to remove old foil wallpaper). GC says new drywall isn't expensive and makes it easier (and cheaper) for plumbers and electricians to work unimpeded.

--keep toilet where it is but replace

---Make shower the Walk-in kind with showerhead on same wall as toilet and glass panel to replace the wall that separates the shower from the toilet. GC thinks the glass panel could be wide enough that I would not need a door to the shower; water will not splash into room.

--my thought is to close up the window to the other room. It's weird. It's also a metal framed window (I replaced the other metal windows in this part of the house with clad ones, so they look better).

--yes, upgrade the vanity, counter, lights, flooring etc.

--yes grab bars! Good reminder, enduring. We did that when we remodeled the guest bath. That's the time to do it.

My Qs:

--should I move the vanity to be on the same wall as the toilet? This will require moving the door over. More significantly, I would lose the storage of the current cabinet behind the door. It's 12" deep. When I googled, I haven't found any suitable replacement. The freestanding linen cabinets tend to be 15" deep. A lot of them have glass panels on top, which is cute, but having the door open onto a glass-top cabinet sounds like a recipe for disaster, esp. in the bathroom with naked feet. Is there any way to recapture the storage? The current vanity is 4' wide, super low, and the drawers are horrible, so a better vanity will provide more storage but can't replace that large cabinet behind the door.

--if I move the door, should it be a pocket door? I kind of hate them, but maybe I haven't met the right one. This is the master bath (which adjoins the master bed but does not open directly onto the master bed). I don't want to be woken up at night with my partner jiggling the pocket door or flipping on the light. But maybe there are great pocket doors?

--spring for a skylight? The big kind or a sky tube? An interior designer said he recently saw one, in a bathroom, where the skylight in the roof was large but the opening over the vanity was more narrow. So the benefit of the light without a huge hole? (I didn't see pics, so I'm not 100% clear)

--anything I haven't considered?

Thanks for all your thoughts and comments! Maybe I'll host a toga party to celebrate demo-ing the Roman bath (or maybe they were having a toga party when thought up this idea, lol)

The solar tubes I've seen offer very soft light. I like them. I've never had one though. I don't know if you have the room for a vanity on the same wall as the toilet, I had mine that way (original) in about a 6.5 long wall and it was terrible. The door was like yours, but about a foot over, The door opened onto the toilet, and I only had a wall sink. No room. You'll need 36" for a comfortable toilet location.

My room was total 9.5x6.5" and I set it up sort of like yours is now, with the new layout.

If you don't need a pocket door, don't get one. I think a swing door is so much easier to use.

Thanks Enduring. No pocket door. One decision made.

Good point on the space for the toilet. I took some quick measurement. (Wish I had time to mark this on some diagram. Can you recommend an easy, free program or website?)

Overall dimensions: 6'x10' (72" by 120")

current shallow cabinet is 39" wide. X 12" deep. The toilet has 42.5" inches around it. The vanity counter is 49". So if I put a similar sized vanity next to the toilet, there would only be 32.5" inches. Not enough. I would rather not make the countertop smaller.

FWIW, I measured the shower. Yes, it's 6' across. Right now it's 27" deep plus a whopping 6.25 wall/tile entrance, including the thickness of the tile. How much space should I allow for a shower? I don't want it to feel cramped.

So overall, if I did my measurements correctly, the room is 120" long, with 33 1/4 inches allocated to the shower and 83 1/2 from the shower to the door. (I just did the math and 33.25 83.5 is only 116.72, so one or more of these measurements is wrong. It's hard to measure around that stupid step! I can take more careful measurements later and of course the pros will measure when it counts).

In terms of width, I don't think there is room to move the door closer to the vanity. The swing is already tight. Any thoughts on where I could get 12" deep cabinets?

Thanks for the info on the solar tubes. Those are much less than the other skylights.

My opinion (fwiiw), I would clean really well (the grout) and get a white shower curtain. (Think spa) Also fix the slides on the drawers.

The window that is not a window is the one with the plant? Take out and fill in on both sides.

Or, Gut and redo. It will be expensive. Our bath which is about the size of yours, has door, vanity with sink, toilet, then shower. The plumbing runs from the door to the sink to the toilet. The shower controls are on the opposite side from the toilet (like the ones we can see in your shower).

You have enough room to have linen closet next to the door and then the vanity. I have never wanted more than one sink. Neither of us want to share a bath at the same time, so two sinks is just redundant. You would have to move the door over to the wall that the sink is on now. The little step up to the shower is not needed, just do a regular shower.

Even if you sell, it might pay to redo this one to match the look of the one you redid.

Where’s your heating vent? If it’s on the floor that will dictate where things go, unless you reduct.

You need to get some graph paper and draw you existing floor plan. Then cut out elements, to the same scale, and lay them on the plan to see where things can go. Then with each arrangement take a picture and go to the next layout idea. You should be able to come up with several options.

Sketchup is a free drawing program that you can download.

If you want to keep the storage cabinet behind the door you might get a cabinet maker to either build a new one, modify a prefabricated one or use the existing one if it's good. Maybe new doors and possibly trim. They appear to be sliding doors. If you want to keep sliding doors a cabinet maker may be able to make new ones. You could also modify it some if you want some open storage. They would probably want to rebuild the whole thing though.

I've looked into getting a between the 2x4's cabinets for my bathroom. I've even contemplated using one of those prefab cabinets for built in ironing boards with built in timer for curling iron and hair dryer so I don't have to put away in drawer and remember to turn it off!!

Enduring, the heating vent is in the ceiling above the door. (The crawlspace is tough the navigate in the front of the house, with all the other stuff. I live in CA and the ceilings aren't high, so it works). Yeah, good idea w/ the graph paper and layout. Thanks for the tip on sketchup. I think you're right, doing little cut out elements and moving them around is the way to go. (I did that in my kitchen). Thanks!

Izzy, thanks for your thoughts. The cabinet isn't super high quality and the doors are flimsy. FWIW, I talked to the kitchen designer at HD just now and she said you can order cabinets that are 12" deep, so that might be an option. I've seen pics with cool between-the-studs storage. Hmmm...something to consider...thanks again.

I’d like to have the toilet and vanity on the same wall. It will open up the space. My daughter had her toilet moved over about 8 inches to gain more vanity space.

3 ft shower, 3 ft for the toilet and 4 ft for the vanity.

Thanks pricklypearcactus, glad to hear from someone who had lived with them.