Tales of the Homeowner: The Shower

When I bought the house, one of the things that clearly did not impress me was the shower. Apparently, the in the 70's, the one-piece units for bathtubs and showers were the new hotness. I can imagine the sales pitch touting the fact that you no longer have to mess with grout. What they failed to mention were that not only were these things butt-ass ugly, they also consumed more space than a regular tub/shower.To top it all off, it leaked into the downstairs laundry room whenever I used it. Which meant I really couldn't use it until it was fixed, and had to use the hall bathroom. The same one Brother uses.The only decent thing was the shower head...and that was something I bought and installed myself.And it didn't even have a door. Instead, I had to put up a shower curtain.

You can't just change out a shower the way you can just change out a light fixture. It takes a certain amount of time and preparation. I'd been agonizing over this shower since I moved in. It wasn't until I went to the Home Show last year and bought a shower panel, did a new plan formulate in my head.

It wasn't until these past couple of weeks, did we actually start working on it. It's my fault, I couldn't decide what I wanted. I'm sure it drove Mr. Recommendation nuts. When tile was purchased, Mr. Recommendation tore out the old one, where we found suspicious water damage coming from the roof, in addition to a 50 foot chain with no clear purpose, and a whole mess of old wasp nests. Nice!

First, the new shower pan went in. Then, the backer board was installed, building a little recessed area where I can put my soap, shampoo, razor, and maybe my foot when the need arises. The next item on the list was the tile. I picked out the color, Mr. Recommendation created the pattern. I'm not a micro manager with such things, and he has good taste, so I let him have creative liberties on the tile. I figured I would be happy with whatever he created.I was right.

The next item was the shower panel. The much celebrated, and apparently "ostentatious" by one person who saw it in the box, shower panel. Six fixed body jet goodness, overhead rainfall shower head, and handheld shower nozzle to get the hard to reach areas. One of the many great things about the new shower is that it freed up a good 4-6 inches of elbow or whatever room. From there, Mr. Recommendation installed the shower door is selected. My one regret is that I wasn't as mindful when it came to shower doors. I selected a pivot door without realizing that there would also be an overhead component of the frame that the door attached to. Now, tall people have to duck to get into my shower. Not that I have tall people who are going to go into my shower, but you never know. At any rate, I'm toying with the idea of converting it to a steam shower down the road, and the door will probably have to be switched out should I decide to go ahead with it. But for now, it works, and there's no more ghetto-fabulous shower!!Tah-dah! The finished product. Next week, we're going to start planning the rest of the bathroom. Mr. Recommendation has dropped some really good ideas. One of which being a heated tile floor, wainscoting, and a possible laundry chute from the bathroom to the laundry room. When the entire bathroom is completed, its going to kick some serious ass.My inaugural shower was everything I hoped it would be. I even bought a new puff for the occasion.

Mr. Recommendation is available for home improvement jobs, so if you are interested, drop him needaquote@live.com.