A New Shower

During the week Garytt and I were in Kansas, Justin worked extremely hard converting our tub only to a tub/shower combo.

First, he had to take out a wooden window and put in a vinyl, tempered glass window. (This was actually a project we planned to do before I left town but when we opened the special order window, the company didn't send the installation clips needed. So, we had to wait for the company to mail those to us first. He managed on his own though...no worries.)


Old window


New window


New window

Then, the demo started.





Then the plumbing had to be updated. We had a few plumbers give estimates to do the plumbing work and it was a little more than I wanted to spend. So, I convinced Justin to at least try to do the plumbing himself. He had to convert the two knob tub to a single knob tub with a shower. Although I'm fairly certain it was a bit stressful, he was able to do the plumbing himself and it saved us about $500. Whoop!


Old spout with two knob plumbing (Yes, the shower backs right up to the master closet...thus Justin's shoes in the background.)


New valve

He also had to build up the wall at the end of the tub because it was only a half size wall. Then it was time to put up the cement backer board and start the tiling.


New wall and backer board started






Cement board sealed and tiling started




Tiling around the new tub spout and shower head

Justin worked extremely hard to finish the project while we were away. But as all home projects seem to go, it took a little longer than expected to complete the project. The tiling was mostly done when Garytt and I got home. So, the following weekend, he was able to finish the tiling. Fortunately, we were able to still use the tub to give Garytt a bath by sealing off the tiles with plastic.


Functioning tub spout prior to tiles being grouted

We made the decision to use an epoxy grout on the tub surround because it didn't require sealing. Usually when we do a tiling project, we have a standing agreement that Justin tiles and I grout. However, he felt that maybe being 6 months pregnant and trying to grout wouldn't be a great idea.

So, he started grouting in the morning while I ran a few errands. Unfortuantely, the container of epoxy grout doesn't really state that you have 2 hours or less to use the container. With Justin just working by himself, he had only used about half the container before it started to setup.

During Garytt's afternoon nap, Justin and I worked together using the second container (nevermind that I'm pregnant..hahaha). However, siince we had a lot of waste with the first container, we ended up going back to Home Depot that afternoon to get a thrid container. We finished up the third container after Garytt went to bed that night. It was a push to get the whole container used and the shower finished before the grout started to setup. But we did it! And, although the epoxy grout was challenging to work with at times, I really don't think anything can penetrate it. So, it's perfect for a shower!


The tiling and grouting is compelte



We now have a functioning shower in our one bathroom house. It's strange that we have a window in our shower, but we just cut a regular shower curtain to size and hung it in the window with a small tension rod, which seems to be working well.

However, we have had a little snag with the main shower curtain. We wanted to put in a curved shower rod to gain some space in the shower but Justin was worried about trying to drill it into our beautiful tiles. We tried to use adhesive instead. After trying two different adhesives on the brackets and waiting several days before trying to hang the rod with no luck, we just decided we will have to drill into the tiles afterall. We will try that this week. Yikes!



In the mean time, I setup a temporary shower curtain situation because I just couldn't stand the idea of showering in our chilly basement when we had a fully functional shower upstairs just waiting for a shower curtain! I just put two finishing nails in the exposed studs on either side of the tub and hung up the curtain. It's not pretty, maybe even a little ghetto, but it works.


Temporary shower curtain

Ok, so we know there is still a lot of work to be done in our bathroom. We have to finish pulling off the paneling, replacing that with drywall, replace the horrible sinks, replace the horrible light fixtures and replace the flooring, but I am so thankful to have a fully functional shower in our bathroom! I will never take for granted having a warm shower in a comfortable environment again because really, who wants to shower in this?!


The basement "shower"