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ladyamity

So many Bathroom/Shower questions- Warning, Long! w/pics

ladyamity
16 years ago

slc2053 had a thread that is now on page 4 and I didn't know the netiquette about bringing up such an old thread.

That being said, I wanted to thank slc2053 for starting the thread and a Big Thank you to everyone who responded.

Because of you all, your patience, your willingness to respond to us DIYers with clear and concise information, today we, me and Husby, are pulling out the 1950s speckled pink tile in our shower.

As slc2053 said

I feel empowered!

Being on a limited budget, we saved up (a little put aside from each paycheck) and finally purchased our Toto ADA a little over a year ago.

We purchased the drop-in round Chocolate travertine sink about 8 months ago.

We purchased the sink vanity (26" wide and we are putting 5" bun-type legs on it to bring up the height-I have a couple physical limitations) three months ago.

Last Sunday we spent 11 hours going from tile store to tile store, including 2 of the big box stores.

Talk about conflicting information -- Oh my Gosh!

As I told Husby, I'll get the 'correct' information from the people on the Bathroom forum at GW.

After the sticker-shock of pricing tiles had subsided, we went back to one of the stores and purchased just the 12" x 12" tiles, no trims or borders, for the shower stall and floor.

We were given 5 boxes of pebble tile (12" x 12" on mesh sheet) almost 2 years ago (which started the whole idea of redoing our bathroom) so we were somewhat limited in the color/choice of our 12 x 12s.

Thanks to Mongo's perfect information about wet location recessed lighting over the shower, we've purchased the housing, light and ring trim.

My husband has already removed the pocket door wall and extended our bathroom with new walls and new door.

He also took out and replaced the bathroom window.

Over the last thirty years we've tiled plenty. NOT anywhere near or even close-to as perfect or beautiful as all of you have done but passable/presentable and long-lasting.

The pink and white shower tiles will be coming off today (as soon as I get my butt away from this computer so that I can be the go-fer for the trash can dump) and the floor around the toilet will be leveled.

During the expansion/ bathroom walls we found the floor sloped to the outside wall by 1 1/8 inch-----No wonder our toilet always seeped all these years!

In my first post asking about wet location lighting, I think I mentioned that this Master bedroom/bathroom was an afterthought done by the POs who took lots and lots of shortcuts.

After finding out the level of the bathroom was off by so much, no telling what else we are going to find.

(We found a broom stick as a spacer on top of a header when putting in the new bathroom window).

Now, I'll get to my main question of the day:

As badly as we'd love to, we can't fit it in the budget to do Kerdi in the shower.

What would be YOUR next best suggestion for the shower pan/liner?

What I'm looking for is your recommendation of Brand Names for all that's needed to create a decent, long-lasting shower.

(We don't plan on leaving this home unless it's horizontal with a toe tag.)

We got way too much conflicting information from the guys at the various tile stores (one would tell us we HAD to use XXX and another would say we best NOT use XXX or we'd be sorry a few years down the road) and all we came home with was the tile--- nothing to set it with, no backer/cement board, no floor leveler, nothing.

After visiting this forum and reading and learning the last year, I want YOUR information/name brands, not the tile guy who is trying to make a sale.

I know I'm asking a lot but after reading here, and learning a little about all of you, I want advice from people like you, not the tile store guys who my husby says are so young, they still squat to pee.

*grin*

Thank you so very much, not only for all your help but for reading this far!

Amity

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