My husband and I (mid-40’s) moved into our condo about a year ago. It’s not a forever home, but we’ll be here for at least the next 15 years. We love our home and all its weird late-1980s-build angles, but it is dated. We plan to renovate over a few years, starting with our ensuite and walk-through closet. Our main goals are to make better use of the awkwardly shaped space and update the oh so 80s fixtures and aesthetics.

The main things that don’t work in the current space are:

• Non-functional storage: The vanity and medicine cabinet have a ton of storage, but none particularly usable other than the one drawer. We use maybe half the storage space.
• Unused tub: We have never used the bath and aren’t likely to do so.
• No room for towels near the shower: We installed suction hooks on the bathtub wall, but ugh.
• Shower layout: The shower is surprisingly spacious, but so, so dark. The showerhead is too low for my husband (6’) to shower comfortably.
• Everything stays damp: Our fan is very noisy while also being basically useless. The pocket door location makes it worse since steam also fills the closet area.
• Generally dated everything: The pink and grey and tan tiles! The faux terracotta floor! The crystal handles! The heat lamp we don't use! The cracking cultured stone sinks!

Some smaller layout/function changes seem obvious to us. For example, we could:

• Move the pocket door
• Install better lighting and a better fan
• Remove the soffit (hopefully!) and raise the showerhead
• Possibly make part of the wall between the shower and bathtub glass for more ambient light
• Install a smaller vanity so we can hang towels next to the shower (switch shower door swing).

We initially assumed we’d get rid of the tub, but the more we look at the space, the less sure we are that there’s a fundamentally better layout possible even if we do – at least without significantly moving plumbing, which is a hard no since we’re in a condo. Anything we’ve thought about seems to leave us with an overly long, narrow shower or a bunch of dead space, which doesn’t feel like an upgrade.

I’m hoping that this is just a failure of imagination and someone with a keener eye and more experience might suggest something we can’t see?

We'll be working with a contractor and designer, but we want to go into initial conversations with a good sense of what we want. Our budget is in the $40K range in a HCOL area.

Thanks in advance for any and all help!