bj - I used to think that, but we had a house with two showers, no bath, for 10 years. Never missed the tub. We now have a house with a big shower in the en suite and a bath in the other bathroom, plus a separate shower there - and after 16 months, neither we nor any of our guests has used that tub. I'm very much of the view that, if you have young kids, you need to have a tub somewhere, and if you're really into soaking, likewise, but if neither situation applies, just go for the shower/s. Of course, if resale value is an issue, that's something else to take into account, but for actual living, I sort of wish we'd nixed the bathtub in our new home.

I think it depends on whether there is a young family in the home or not. And for resale purposes, it’s not a big deal as the buyer will determine their own personal need/priority accordingly at time of purchase. Stand-alone shower is much better though. The room looks much bigger. The use of tiles is great. And a huge standout for me is that the mirror frame sets off the tiles. It needed that something extra to bring it all together - you’ve hit the mark fabulously. Just needs a plant (real or faux) in there now :)

I am struggling to find any pictures of where someone has the shower fittings higher than their shower screen to see how odd it actually would look like. One of my 101 learnings about getting the wrong tradesperson to "project manage" my bathroom renovation (until he went MIA), was not voicing louder to the plumber's assistant who actually did the shower connections, that what the "project manager" had suggested for heights of shower connections was way too high. I had actually double-checked it on the previous weekend with a friend and we both thought that it needed to be lowered by 100-150 mm, but when I said this to the "project manager" he ignored me as did the plumber assistant who made the connections....I know how a handheld shower only (which is all I wanted) fitting that is at 2070mm in one bathroom and 2020mm in the other bathroom. As there is no shower rail (because I wanted things to look simple), I get my daily stretches just to reach the handheld shower.....I am happy with the progress of my bathroom, except for all of the stuffups caused by this particular "tradesperson/project manager". We live and learn....I can't do anything about what has happened, but can only minimise the impact where possible and learn from all the things that went wrong, if there is ever a next time. I should make a list of the learnings once bathroom is finished.

no, don't make a channel under any circumstance. This is what is known as a fixed panel and will be installed into a small ally channel AFTER tiles etc unless you are using a "frameless" system. then it will be a few brackets and silicone fixing it to the tiles. I personally think the semi frames systems look much smarter and neater than frameless