uneven bathroom and tub placement

[Justin C.]

Hello BP!

I am in the middle of a bathroom renovation where we are relocating the tub and vanity.  The place where we are putting the new right drain tub is very uneven.  The left side of the tub is 1-3/8" lower than it needs to be. Its also worth mentioning that the tub has a piece of insulating foam approx. 9x36 down the underside touching the floor.

Here are my 2 questions:

1) Do I level the floor which would create a step into the bathroom?  What is an acceptable step into the room?  This is the side where the door is located.  This would create a clean aesthetic look of the new bathtub/shower install.

2) Cut a portion of the floor on the right side out and sink the bathtub to rest on the actual joists?  This would not completely solve the problem as its the original floor boards at 3/4" or so, so I would have to shim the left side also a bit to buy the complete 1-3/8" level.  I do not believe this would create a clean and aesthetic install.

Are these my only two options?  Its too late to go back to the original layout plus this is way worth figuring out as it makes much more sense the way we currently have it designed.  Thoughts?   Thank you in advance!