House Week 28: Shower “Foundations”

One thing about owning a house you never stop learning new things.  The new thing this week has been about the foundation items for a stand in shower.  It’s amazing how many thing you have to plan in advance for one of these things!  Luckily there have only been two things we’ve had to “go back and fix”; which given my track record is an all time low.

The first thing you may notice in the picture to the left is the hole in the wall where the shower head will one day be?  Well that was one we just plumb forgot, which working full time on a house and work will cause in live.  The original pipe was not threaded on the end so we had to have someone come in and replace it so we *would* someday be able to install the shower head.  Catastrophe?  Nah, easy solve as the stupendous Tile guy of course knew a plumber he called and had over that same morning…yea!!!

Hector, the tile guy (Bay Works Tile), has been awesome the entire time helping me think about “down the road” and not “just right now” asking tons of great questions to help me plot away.  The most recent was if i was going to put in a frameless shower door, a resounding yes i replied, to which he asked if my framers put the appropriate studs in the walls to support it.  Ummm…no, since i hadn’t through that far in advance.  Here is where something completely crazy happened, the exact place where i wanted the shower door to sit was on an existing stud in the wall, so i didn’t need to do anything. 

Luck?  Me?  I was shocked when we walked through everything and sure enough it was right there without even planning it.First fantastically smooth drywall and now a shower pan that looks like it was designed to be there from the start? Maybe things are finally turning around for me and my doomed house?  I’ll take it ; )

The shower pan ended up even being a standard size, 4’ x 3’, so it should be easy when i go to get glass doors.  Also it feels like the perfect size in the bathroom.  It is definitely a single person shower, but for a gal of 5’5” it’s going to be plenty.  I am also excited that it’s not taking over the bathroom.  I really wanted the focal points to be the tub and amazing porcelain pedestal sink instead of the modern shower, so far so good.

Here are links to the bathtub that is currently lost deep in some warehouse, and the porcelain sink hanging out in my living room patiently awaiting me moving.

It’s full of water for the inspection today, wish me luck!