A: Hi, Kristy. I did a series of columns not long ago about critters we may find in our toilets. As you found out, it's not that uncommon for creatures like tree frogs to jump down your roof plumbing vents and end up swimming in your toilet! Anyway, lets hop back to your question.

I get a lot of questions from homeowners with bathtubs and they want to install a shower stall. I also get questions from homeowners with shower stalls who want a bathtub. As with many things in life, it seems that we all want what we don't have! Nowadays, it's a moderate to easy job to switch out a bathtub for a shower stall, since many manufactures make a 5-foot shower base that should line up with an existing tub's water and drain lines. Many baby-boomer home owners are removing the tub for a low profile shower base to avoid climbing over a tub wall every time they want to get in and out of the shower.

However, in your case you want to remove the shower stall for a bathtub, and this usually does turn into a major project. The main reason that shower stalls are around 3 feet long and standard tubs (as I mentioned) are 5 feet long. Even if you have access to the old plumbing and the extra room to install a bathtub, this is still a very big job. The old shower stall walls and floor will have to be removed, the plumbing drain and water lines will have to be re-piped to fit the tub, and the new tub will have to be framed in and the five foot enclosure built around it.

In my opinion, you would be better off gutting out and remodeling the entire bathroom. As you said, you would like the bathtub for your children, so remodeling will allow you to make other updates and kid-friendly changes to the bathroom. This will give you a better return for your money. Bottom line, if you're going to go for it, I recommend spending a little extra money and going all the way, or don't go at all.

Just like the frog that jumped down your roof plumbing vent, sometimes you just have to close your eyes and take that "leap of faith!"