Shower power

Here are "before" and "during" shots of the construction of our new shower stall. Believe it or not, when we bought the house, there was no shower in the bathroom. That corner was completely empty. There was a tub, of course, and a sink and a bidet, but no shower. We have a small shower stall downstairs in the utility room and we used that for the first two years. It was fine in the summers, but quite chilly in the winters. We're using it again now.

The old pre-fab unit is now history. Before 2005, this space was empty.

In 2005, we found a plumber (who has since retired) to install a prefabricated shower stall unit in the empty corner of the bathroom. That required bringing hot and cold water up from below and running a drain pipe to take away the used water. The stall was nice. It looked like something from a space ship. Shiny-white plastic and curvy glass. Very sleek. But lately it was showing signs of age and several cracks had appeared in the plastic; we worried about leaks. And we wanted something a little larger, as well.

The new shower stall takes shape. You can see the new drain hole in the floor. The dark stuff on the yellow wall is a coat of waterproof primer.

So, we decided to have a larger stall built and tiled in rather than go for another pre-fab unit. The demolition started on Wednesday with the old unit being dismantled and taken to the dump. Then the plumber drilled new holes through the floor for hot and cold water pipes and the new drain. He had to carve a channel into the concrete-block bearing wall for the water pipes (it's already been filled in in the "during" photo above). The tile guy built the shower bench and the little wall next to it yesterday. Today they'll lay the shower pan and connect the drain.

The tile work will be done next week (once the tiles of the correct color arrive). After that, the fixtures will be installed and the rest of the shower will be enclosed with glass. Then the whole room will get a fresh coat of paint.