We start bathroom renovations tomorrow. Hall/guest bath first, with shower/tub combo. Master bath remodel will follow immediately after, and we'll be replacing our shower/tub combo with a walk-in shower. Can't wait! (Our house is about 40 years old.)

NO!!!! to the tub. Make a great shower.

Do you use the tub currently? If not, then don't bother putting another one in. A spacious master shower will be great.

As long as there is at least one other bathroom with a tub, I'd go with just shower for master. (Many places have building codes that require a bathtub in the house, not necessary to be in master bath)

One tub in another bathroom should be fine. You have two. I think you can reconfigure your master bath to suit your needs and enjoy it.

I know only two adults who would regularly take advantage of soaking in a tub. One of those is 6'8" tall and few tubs are a comfortable fit so while he would like to, he rarely has a tub bath.

This 1955 house has an oversized Jacuzzi tub in the master. In 6 years time, I've filled it once from it's own hot water tank and mostly out of curiosity. Neither of us have had a bath in it. I do rinse dust from it on a regular basis ;0)

I just remodeled and got rid of the crappy tub/shower for a fabulous walk in shower that follows the footprint of the original tub.

Mine was a gut remodel of my whole condo and my new shower is one of the absolute favorite things I did. I had a nice bench installed at one end and included two hand held shower heads so I have one that is right next to the bench. It is incredibly comfortable to relax sitting down and have the hand held available to rinse off at that end without having to walk back and forth in the shower.

Don't forget to install grab bars because now is the time to do them properly since they need to be attached to the studs for safety. My fixtures are oil rubbed bronze and the grab bars are as well so they don't look institutional at all.

I splurged quite a bit on the finishes - I have marble basketweave shower and bathroom floor - Encore tiles for the bathroom - Phylrich shower fixtures - frameless shower glass door with Showerguard protection but it was well worth it as I really love how it all came together.

Also - at least my experience is that the cost of construction - especially for the shower is really what is the most expensive component of my bathroom remodel. The price differential between what I splurged on and what I would have compromised on wasn't that significant in terms of the whole budget and I was lucky enough to be able to afford to do what I wanted within reason from my savings :-). For example, my designer used the $145 square foot Artistic Tile as an accent that was framed - a whole wall of the Artistic Tile would have been too much - both aesthetically and economically LOL.