In the back of my mind, I seem to recall that the VA will not guarantee a mortgage on a home that doesn’t have at least 1 tub. I could be wrong, since it was ages ago that a realtor would have told me that.
Three of our houses had no tub in the master bath, but the second bath had one. Personally, I’d rather have a large shower over any kind of soaking tub, but I see by this thread that lots of folks think differently.
As for considering resale, that’s a peeve of mine. Unless you know you’ll be moving within a short time, a remodel should be primarily for your pleasure and benefit, with resale a lesser consideration. After all, it’s your home and it should be what you want. If you decide to sell 10 or 15 years down the line, that’s when you think about what will appeal to buyers. Well, unless your plans are totally bizarre, like removing all the interior walls and making your house look like a loft - that would be weird. :dubious:
No seriously 3 baths are common. What’s different is one bath is usually considered a “guest” bath with only toilet/sink. If you have an upstairs (like we do) you have a “kids” bathroom with usually tub/shower and a “master” bath with this massive master bath with sometimes a totally seperate shower from a tub and its often a whirlpool or spa type tub.
I love my tub and use it all the time. I seldom shower, I take a bath at bedtime. In fact, currently I’m remodeling my bathroom and my new tub is there (without any plumbing attached) - its a soaking tub, I can have water to my neck.
Which bathroom is this? We have three bathrooms - and a potential bath in our unfinished basement roughed in. The master bath will have the soaking tub. The other bath on the bedroom level is used by the kids - and any future buyer would want a tub in there for kids - there is a long period where kids take baths, not showers, and you don’t necessarily want them using the master bath to do so. Our third bathroom is a powder room on the main floor - just toilet and sink. The basement is roughed in for shower only - you aren’t likely to put a bedroom down there where little kids would reside - it would be a guest room or an exercise room and the shower will be adequate.
We’re shower people, too, and double showerheads sound great. But if you’re thinking of selling in the near future like you said, you might want to check with a realtor about whether losing the tub is a good idea.
I wouldn’t buy a house if it didn’t have a bathtub. We have a “normal” bathroom (toilet, tub, sink) and a separate shower-room which works well. I have the choice of a quick shower in the morning before work, and a nice soak in the tub of an evening to relax and unwind. Perfect!
Maybe as someone said above, a “powder room” is a better term.
Anyways its just a place where your family or your guests go to use the toilet and wash their hands. No need for a medicine cabinet, laundry hamper, or place to take a shower. We are not talking a separate “guest” bedroom/bath type arrangement which is like a mini apartment in which you would have a full toilet, sink, and tub/shower.
A room containing a toilet and a basin would be referred to as a **toilet **in New Zealand. Possibly also a water closet, although that is considered a bit old-fashioned.
I live in the UK and we are moving house at the end of the month. Our new house has
a downstairs room containing a toilet and abasin which I would call a toilet.
an upstairs room containing a bath, basin and toilet. I would call this a bathroom.
master bedroom has a subroom containing a shower, basin and toilet. I would call this an ensuite.
In U.S. realtor terms, the first is a half bath. The second is a bath, the third is a master bathroom - the type not mentioned is a 3/4 bath - one with a shower but no tub. Urbanredneck is talking about making a full bath into a 3/4 bath.
We never use the word toilet for anything but the toilet fixture itself - and even then its sort of a rude word (I just had middle schoolers in England for a tour, and they all thought it was rude to use the word toilet to refer to the room - odd, isn’t it). We might call it a powder room. We were also really confused by the word ensuite for a while (the grown ups) until we figured out the Bed and Breakfasts were telling us that their rooms came with private bathrooms. (Its a good word for that, just one we don’t use).
Lots of people like bathtubs for relaxing. They are great for if you have aching muscles.
It sounds like it may not be important to you, but someone looking to the buy your house in the future may have a different view. I know I wouldn’t buy a place without a bathtub - and I use the shower daily.
I like a bath to be really hot and since that only lasts a few minutes before you’re lying there shivering with dead skin floating all around, I’ve decided not to put tubs in the house I’m currently renovating. My kids are grown and we have a hand held to wash the dog so we decided not to bother. The only regret though is not building in a shelf or something to prop up my foot to shave my legs!
If you already have a tub in another bathroom, I’d say that was plenty.
One thing to remember is that the location of the bathtub matters to people. For instance, converting the downstairs bathtub into a shower may seem reasonable to you. But if a prospective buyer has visions of converting the downstairs den into their elderly mother-in-law’s bedroom and she loves taking baths, then you’ve just lost yourself a customer. If you take out the bathtub in the bathroom that the prospective buyer’s kids would be using and they haven’t graduated into showers yet, then your house may not be appealing to them.
If I were building a new house with a powder room, I’d insulate the walls. Sometimes the powder room is right off the foyer or living room, who wants to hear noises from in there?
BTW, my brother added a second bathroom to his Cape Cod-style house. They added a shower, but it’s long and narrow like a bathtub would be. So presumably it would be possible to pull out the prefab shower stall and install a bathtub.
But how long is the OP planning to live in the house? If it’s for a good long while, he/she should worry about making the house comfortable for his/her family and not worry about resale potential.
I wouldn’t buy a place with just a shower for the main bathroom I’d be using every day (or if I did I’d be factoring in the cost of ripping it out and putting in a shower with tub). For a place with 3 bathrooms I guess it would be OK to have a full bath, 3/4 bath, and 1/2 bath though.
I take a bath whenever I get sick and sometimes because I feel like it. The tub is also useful for any hand-cleaning you may have to do for unwieldy objects. I’ve washed accordion blinds in the tub, for instance. Tubs are also handy for pets if they’re the kind that need baths.
I lived in a place with just a shower and I really disliked it. So just make sure you have at least one tub that’s in a spot where the main bedroom can use it easily.
When we remodeled our bathrooms we replaced the tub with a new tub and shower. The en-suite we totally replaced the tub with just a shower. If you have more than one bedroom you have to consider that when you sell people who have small children will want more than a shower. If you don’t ever plan to sell then a shower would do fine.
Actually, I’ve been in many nice hotels that just have a shower. It’s certainly not a majority, but not quite right to say “all” have combos.
We have a very high end large tub in our master bath. It’s beautiful and a work of art. We’ve only actually used in once in the past year. We do, however, use our hot tub for “soaking” a couple of times per week. If we didn’t have that, I’d be in the tub once in a while.
