Shower Partial Transformation

So, if you remember in my previous post from February this is how the shower was left after Bump demolished it.

Well we made a few phone calls, got a few quotes and decided to let the pro's do our shower right. It's hard for me to admit that I can't just do everything myself, and I am sure that I could have done this, but it would not have turned out as well.

First, our long-time friend and handy-man extraordinaire, Paul Crowther, came to help us hang new green board. I didn't want to tackle this because of what the outside wall looked like with no studs (see here if you don't remember). When he got here we talked about other options to let more light in from the window (ie. glass wall, or no wall, etc.) and I didn't love anything that he was suggesting. We even talked about putting in a tub instead, but the window placement wouldn't allow it. Then he suggested that we face the shower door the other direction. Why didn't I think of that right away? It was the perfect suggestion and so Paul tore out the old wall and rebuilt a new and improved wall on the other side. When he did that he actually increased the size of the shower another 4 inches, or so - every little bit helps when it comes to showers right?

It also solved the problem we had with the vent in the bathroom. The heat/ac vent was on the floor right when you got out of the shower, so I had a hard time with where to place floor mats and water dripping into the vent, etc. It drove me crazy! It's not easy to move a vent and where do you move it to? Anyway, no more worries about getting out of the shower onto the vent. Hooray! Here is what it looked like when Paul was finished.
Next, our friend, the AP from my mission and our cousin-in-law's brother (all of which are the same person), Scott Bangerter, from Gary Bangerter Plumbing in West Bountiful - came and redid the plumbing for us so it's all up to code and the proper height, etc. No more leaky valve (this is what started the whole process in the first place).
Then yesterday the installer from CMS (Cultured Marble Specialists) in Woods Cross came out to install our cultured marble surround. Things didn't start off too well and I was really glad that Bump stayed home from work with a migraine and neck ache. When the installer tried to remove the drain the bolts were so rusted that they just broke off - dang! I had to leave the kids (I was watching 2 extra) with Bump and quickly run to the plumbing supply store in Tooele to get a new drain. Then Bump had to crawl down in the crawl space to undo the old pipe so the new one could go in. The good news is that the drain is in, but right now we need to re-build the p-trap to fit into the space where he removed the old p-trap. I am sure I am not making sense, but anyway the installer was able to finish his work.

The shower is beautiful! We chose white on white color to keep things clean and hopefully not dated in the future. I hesitate putting these pictures up because things are still not complete. The cultured marble is in and beautiful. I told him not to caulk the front part because we haven't painted it yet (I didn't know what exactly was going to be covered with the marble, so I didn't know where to paint) and they use the non-paintable kind of caulk. So, you can see some gaps on the front - they will be gone. Also, I haven't put the shower handle on or the shower head yet.

You can see where we have started to paint. We painted the top part a nice green/gray that looks really good with our green tile (that I am not about to tear out at this point - too much work). We will be doing the "fake" wainscoting below and painting it all a nice bright white. I think it will look really good when it's all finished.

So, here is the partially finished shower/bathroom.



It's hard to get a good picture when you can't back up any more. It looks so good!

On a side note: here is the Before picture of our vanity area. I am stripping and painting the old vanity to save money, getting new pulls and putting a new top on, new medicine cabinet and, of course, new lights. Hopefully I can get this done sooner rather than later, stay posted!