Master Bath Remodel: Part 2

My brother stopped by the house to check out the demo progress and made a suggestion.  He proposed that we probably didn't need an eight foot long shower, and it might be nice to add some cabinet storage at one end.  I ran it by Nel and she agreed.  I re-routed a few wires and added some extra studs in the walls in preparation.  Since it was my brothers bright idea, I recruited him to help (I bet he never makes that mistake again).  Rather than build a cabinet from scratch, we found a prefab unit and my brother came over a couple nights to help me frame it in.  

It looks simple, but it's actually a little trickier than you would think.  Framing a cabinet in is easy enough, but you have to think not just three dimensionally, but also about thickness.  Every surface you create will eventually be covered with cement board and tile, and it all has to line up cleanly later in the process.  We also framed up a seat for the space behind the cabinet.  Now the shower was ready for the plumber.

The first thing the plumber had to address was removal of the vent line / stripper pole in the middle of the floor.  The only way to do that was to bust out the slab and run the drain and vent line back across under the floor and up through the wall.  

He also valved the shower for two units.  We considered putting one of those extremely complicated multi-head units with lights and steam and everything else, but decided it was probably something we'd never use.  We settled on a standard unit on one wall and a rain shower unit in the ceiling.  

He then floated the floor, basically creating the base for the shower pan with a slight slope leading to the drain.  He left this to dry overnight and planned to return in a few days to set the liner.  I took advantage of the wait to install a couple of recessed lights in the shower.  I recruited Barry to help me with this one.  It was fairly simple and we got it done one afternoon with a couple hours to spare before our golf league teed off.

Our plumber returned and created the pan for the shower.  I boxed out some cubbies  for soap and shampoo, etc., and Nel and I put insulation in most of the gaps.  I'm not sure the insulation is necessary since these are all inside walls, but it can't hurt.  The shower is now ready for the tile guys.  The guy I've used in the past was too busy to do the work at the moment, so I found another company and set it up.

A little DIY tip:  Make sure you don't seal up any cats actually IN the walls of your home when doing construction projects.  Their purring can crack the drywall over time.  :-)

To be continued...