Bathroom remodeling in California runs into the age of the house and the kind of moisture the climate actually delivers. Fog-belt and beach baths stay damp long after the shower stops, especially when the only exhaust is a tiny fan or a window that people leave shut. Inland and valley baths often sit in houses that were closed up around cooling equipment, so steam has nowhere to go and it settles into old plaster, grout, and the back of a vanity. The finish you like does not matter if the room cannot dry.
Most of the baths that need work were planned for a different life. Bungalow baths are small, with a tub that also serves as the shower and a door that hits the fixture. Ranch hall baths sit in the middle of the house with a single window or none. City flats squeeze a full bath into a former closet, with a stack buried in a wall you cannot casually move. Tile from an older generation is often cemented to plaster that wants to come apart once you disturb it. A pretty surface over a weak pan is how a ceiling below gets ruined.
Plan the wet area first. The shower pan, the valve, the drain, and the fan decide whether the room survives. Then look at layout. Moving a toilet or a tub is a plumbing and floor question, not a tile question. In slab houses common across the south and parts of the valleys, the drain is buried in concrete and a casual move becomes a much larger job. In older raised floors, you may find a soft patch of subfloor that has been quietly failing under a loose toilet. See that before you pick a finish.
Call with the room as it is. Say whether it is the only bath, whether the fan vents outside or into the attic, and whether you have seen stains, soft floor, or a smell that returns after cleaning. Say if the house is on a slab or a raised foundation, and whether the climate is damp coastal air or a hot interior where the house stays shut. The work should fit that room, not a photograph of a different house.
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