h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

you need a bath if you are going to have children

it also adds to the possible buyers when selling the house,

buyers with young children or planning a family will want a bath

I am currently converting a toilet/cupboard/bathroom into an on-suite shower room and a family bathroom with whirlpool bath and shower.
I don't usually like baths but the whirlpool bath is brilliant every now and then.

*pictures my youngest going round and round and round*

I would unequivocably go for the luxurious, decadent shower room. Space to wash yourself and your loved one(s) without the claustrophobia of a shower cubicle which has to share the bathroom with a bathtub which is hardly ever used.

Kids can be washed in a shower - and should get used to it really early. I have seen so many families struggling on camp sites with toddlers who'd never had a shower before. So embarrassing for the parents, with kids screaming and panicking, when it could be such fun.

Babies can still be put in a tub on the floor of the shower room.

Sitting in a bathtub with your own dirt and sweat holds no appeal for me. A hot shower and off to bed for a rest if I'm tired.

Even if parents expecting children can't be persuaded that showering children is perfectly OK, there's always the other end of the market. An open shower is perfect for the elderly, who can't manage the climb into and out of a bathtub, and if they are being washed by carers, everyone will have much more room to manouevre.

Wanna see the "before" shot?

http://www.flickr.com/photos/39858614@N03/4689059828/


Note the municipal-swimming-pool blue tiles, the dreary grey sanitary ware (with white loo seat), and the curtain pole that's just given up. As cheerful as a wet weekend!

DrearY...

That suite is a dead ringer for the one in the house though. I decided I couldn't be doing with the traumas of re-plumbing which is why I just went for painting and tiling. (Sorry for linking to the whole album instead of just the one photo, btw).

How nice to be starting with something SO bad...

B

I couldn't disagree with you more TC! My boys do like a shower but they *love* playing in the bath. I wouldn't want to heat and waste the amount of water that would be needed for them to spend as long in the shower as they would spend playing in the bath, bathrooms are not *just* about getting clean

Given a choice, shower to get clean (and especially for my hair, it's a nightmare washing it in just a bath) but I would nver choose a shower over a bath if it was a one or t'other situation. I'd love a shower/wet room, but I would never give up my bath. It's a relaxing, soothing, pleasureable experience that I love.

Especially when I can prop my laptop up with a decent wifi connection so I can watch TV in there that my boyfriend wont watch with me (Project Runway anyone? ). It's, and I hate the term but it works and fits very well, utter 'me' time.

I dont mess around with candles and stuff mind...

J got used to lots of showers as a baby, as we did a lot of swimming from when he was teeny tiny, so he got used to it in my arms after the swim. He never really 'played' in the bath, I suspect now to do with the autism and not liking sitting in water (although he likes swimming if he gets the chance, I hate it since I got asthma and his dad is a lazy wotsit so not many chances). It's a lot easier to get him in the shower than it ever was in the bath!

But I'd still not give up my bath.

Elderly ladies in the shower, need lots of room - when my nan needed the bath removed and a shower fitted they did sort of go for the wet room effect so they could fit the carer in as well, and also she had to have a chair-thing in there. But everything else gets wet.

I hate wetrooms, mainly because they remind me of cheap camping showers. Everything is just wet all the damn time, there's nowhere to put your clothes or a towel without them getting splashed, and the ENTIRE FLOOR gets wet which makes drying your feet and getting your socks and shoes back on (English holiday weather ) impossible without soaking the towel you stand on (which then needs washing because it's been on the floor instead of just drying in the stiff wind whistling round the caravan), and/or using so much baby powder it just cakes up everywhere for the next person.

Hate them. Revolting!

That should have been

Sorry me again, those camping wet rooms are one of the reasons I changed to just going away for the weekend. Shower seconds before leaving the house, then make do with a flannel and bucket for two, maybe three days before coming home and diving straight in the shower.

A friend of mine doesn't have baths often, but still went for bath with shower over the top. However he got one with body jets and bought a pump a bit stronger than the one recommended. I always stay over when visiting just so I get to use his shower!

At least with a bath you've got the option of either, whereas with just a shower room you don't. As previously mentioned, baths are also handing for washing dogs/kids/duvets and dying boring sheets to funky colours!

<>

install under floor heating first before laying the tiles

I'm a fan of having the bath, which is never used for actually bathing in, but I prefer the shower above the bath route, as I always find those shower cubacles just too poky and small and at least with the shower abvoe the bath its easier to fit two people in at a time... which... well can be useful
If I had the room though I'd have both, a dedicated shower room/wet room, as I've seen them when they've been done relaly well and sensibabaly designed, with three or more shower heads, so you get a 'all round' spray from the shower heads, and also seen it where they've designed it well enough that you've got some areas in the room where you can put things so they won't get wet etc... and, of course, the big wetroom/shwoer room like that is an absolute doddle to clean probably quicker than the bathroom, as you can design it with less fiddly bits for the dirt to collect Plus, a dedicated shower room/wetrom has the added advatnage of being able to symultaiously allow several* people to be in there at the same time... which can be nice

It’s a shower for me every time, my girlfriend wonders how I can spend so long in there, no place better to wind down after a hard day before jumping into bed with a cold bottle of and nibbles. We have however tried to book a hotel room recently with a tub big enough for , being an old romantic that I am;it’s surprising how few do them.

Ooh, straight out wetrooms can be a nightmare, but all you need is a couple of carefully placed walls (which can be glass bricks etc for light) to stop the wet bit of the room overlapping onto the dry bit, which means you can have a nice spacious drying area too

Since about ohhhh, a year, I just have the shower rather than bath and shower. And although I would have showered more regularly than taken a bath, I do miss the bath from time to time. Unless space is a serious issue, I'd keep the bath, too.

The shower-bath option seems to be a sensible compromise that is feasible in the small space available. Did a bit more research in b&q yesterday, who were very helpful. A mice curved glass shower screen will give it a luxurious feel.

I'm drawn to monochrome colour schemes in magazines with a splash of jewel bright. Currently favouring offwhite/ pale stone, with anthracite grey and lime green.

But how do you *really* feel about wetrooms, Mina?

About the only suggestion I have is don't get a tub with a textured bottom. We've lived in 3 apartments with textured tubs the past almost-13-years, and they are You can't get the bottom of the tub to look clean, ever, (second one we had was brand-new, and the installer left a bootprint in it that was still there when we moved 2.5 years later); suction cups won't stick, even if the tub is old enough that the texture is almost worn away (1st textured tub--even almost smooth, grime stayed in the grooves); and, even though the idea is to have a slip-free surface (I'm assuming), it's not--if a smooth wet tub has a slipperiness of 10, a textured wet tub has a slipperiness of 7 or 8