Small bathroom remodel - 4.5 ft tub. Help!

I've got a question regarding small bathtubs and bathroom layout
planning. We're looking at completely updating our bathroom (built in
1954, hideous sky-blue fixtures). The bathroom is very small, about
5'x7', and a lot of the floor space is currently taken up by a large
boxy vanity and an 18" deep bite out of the bathroom for a hall
closet. The tub is smallish - it's 54" long and I think regular width,
but replacing it could be hard because it's fitted in an alcove
between the back wall of the bathroom and the back of the closet. This
means that there's not really much scope for moving fixtures around,
which is fine (keeps costs down), but we want a deeper bathtub and
aren't sure how to fit it in.

We're planning on removing the vanity with a pedestal sink and putting
in a smaller toilet, which will open up a lot of floor space so the
room doesn't feel as cramped. The nasty vinyl flooring will be
replaced by ceramic tile, and we'll be putting ceramic tile on the
walls and shower backsplash instead of the current cheap plastic
surround (ugh) but we're scratching our heads over the tub. What we'd
really like is to put in a deeper (not necessarily longer) soaking
tub, but all I can seem to find are standard 60" models. Neither of us
is really tall, so the extra 6" of length isn't a huge deal. Could I
possibly fit a 54" clawfoot tub in the alcove and would it be a good
idea to do so? That would give us depth without the extra length, plus
they are a nicer shape to soak in. Would we need to build a deck
around it to keep water from splashing on the floor? Or do they make
54" soaker tubs that are deeper than the standard  54" models?

The obvious route is to knock out the closet to extend the bath for a
60" tub, but we don't want to do this for the following reasons:

1) it's a small house, closet storage on the main floor is at a
premium
2) removing the vanity storage means that we want to keep the closet
space
3) walls are lathe and plaster. knocking out the closet and replacing
the wall will be difficult

I've done an ASCII floor diagram here ...does anyone have any ideas on
replacing the tub, or should I just suck it up and replace it with
another 54" standard depth drop-in?


|----------------|
|{ }--|   |      |
|{ }--|   |      |
|         |      |
|----     | bath |
|    |    | 54"L |
|    |    |      |
|sink|    |      |
|    |    |__ __ |
|    |    |hall  |
|   /     |closet|
_____    _________

thanks,

- ScorpioChick