Bathroom woes

Tuesday morning we got a call from our building maintenance guy Franny.  He informed us that there is a leak coming from our condo unit and it is leaking into our downstairs neighbors place.  Turns out there is a leak in my bathroom, but its behind the wall.  Our maintenance guy shut off the water (now I have no shower or toilet and have to share with Ed!) and wait for the plumber to assess the damage.  The Plumber came by Thursday and talked to Ed at length about what to do with the bathroom.  At one time Ed and I were discussing removing the bathtub and putting in a shower stall instead....so now is the time to do it, since the plumber is already having to remove tiles to get into the walls.  

We have decided to go ahead with replacing the tub, but Ed and I are disagreeing on what to do re: shower doors.  Initially I was considering using Bath Fitters to install a shower.  They apparently do it in one day, but after doing some research online I found a lot of bad reviews for them about how they use a lot of "high pressure" sales tactics to get you to buy their product.  They basically offer a "free"estimate.  They send out someone to come out and measure and then you have to sit and listen to the sales pitch until you cave!  One woman claimed that she had a bath fitters sales rep in home for over 2 hours, and that he refused to leave until they signed the contract!  No Thanks!  The other thing that sort of bothers me about them is the fact that they just put the shower unit OVER moldy tile, they don't replace it....so while your shower looks great....underneath all that mold and mildew is still there eating up your wall!  Gross!  So now Ed and I have decided to go with a tile surround, which is what the plumber recommends....apparently he hates Bath Fitters too!  The only place Ed and I are disagreeing is what to do about doors/no doors for the shower.  I feel that we should create a step up into the shower and then use a shower curtain in the opening.  Ed wants to go with sleek glass doors. While the glass doors look awesome, I'm constantly thinking of all the work involved in keeping them clean.  Naturally, Ed does not consider this, since I'm the one who does most of the cleaning.  Ed's shower door currently has a half inch layer of soap scum on it, and at this point, the only way to clean it is to just replace the damned door!  We are planning a trip to Lowes this weekend to see what kind of tile we want to use.  I'm thinking of just plain white tile or subway tile to contrast all the gray tile covering all the walls in the bathroom.  I would also like to use an accent stripe of tiles in an iridescent gray color too, to add some visual impact.  Ed is having a hard time envisioning what I'm talking about, so I figured a trip to Lowes would help us both out.  I have to admit, having a glass door would definitely make the bathroom feel less enclosed....but I will miss my lovely West Elm shower curtain.

  My tiny bathroom that has floor to ceiling gray tiles. 

 Ed and I both like this, but we really need a sliding door rather than one that opens out, since the space is so small.  I like the idea of the stripe, but not crazy about what they used in this photo...I was thinking of something more like these tiles choices for the stripe:

 

I'm really drawn to these iridescent tiles.  I'm also considering colored glass tiles too.  Will be interesting to see what we find at Lowes this holiday weekend. 

Hope everyone has a great Labor Day weekend!