A: Marie, this is a question that I believe many of us have thought about whenever we use a smaller bathroom and find ourselves hurdling the toilet to take a shower. This is not only inconvenient, it can lead to a bad fall.

The reason for most of these toilet roadblocks is very simple: having to work with a tight budget in a tight bathroom space. This combination of the two leaves little choice but to install the toilet in front of the tub/shower valve and drain assembly.

Plumbing fixtures obviously require water lines installed in the wall to supply the fixtures with water. This setup is called a "wet wall," and the more fixtures that can share one wet wall, the less expensive it is to install the plumbing system. On bathroom jobs with a little bigger budget, two or more wet walls can be installed in the bathroom, and that would allow fixtures to be spread out a bit -- or in your case might allow the toilet to be on the opposite side of the tub/shower assembly.

Unfortunately, to do either of the solutions you mentioned, moving the toilet or flipping the tub, would require some very extensive remodeling of the bathroom and might not be worth the costs. The rule of thumb for remodeling is to get back as much of the investment costs as possible with a higher resale value for the home. All that work for moving a tub or toilet a few feet may not pay back for you.

A more simple solution to make the area safer and help get you in and out of the tub easier is to have a professional contractor install custom grab bars. With professionally installed grab bars, the resale value of the bathroom should increase a bit and your investment will be a fraction of the costs of a major remodeling job.

This option will help you get a "handle" on how to deal with houses that have tight bathroom spaces!