Thank you very much Bill. My husband will take your advice and run a 4x4 to the ceiling. We now have another issue. I would really appreciate your opinion on this. We discovered that code requires a 2" drain for the shower. Our drain is 1 1/2". Since we are on a slab, we cannot see how far it is to a 2" pipe to which we could connect. The toilet is next to the shower. drain. It is about 2 1/2 to 3' away. I don't know if that is any clue. I asked about the drain size in the plumbing forum. We had planned to move the drain about 34" from the wall so that it would be more centered instead of close to the shower head wall. One person told us to leave the drain where it is (close to the stack) and it would be fine with a 1 1/2" drain. Another person said that we should either put in a 2" drain and move it to the center or install another tub and shower. What is your opinion on this? If you think we should make the drain 2", how can we do it? Hiring a plumber is not an option for us. Thank you.

Muscat I wouldn't remove the only tub. I personally prefer a shower but only if you have at least one tub in the place, and your option wouldn't allow that. I'm doing two places...in our main home, everything is tiled, ceiling, floors, etc. in granite or a high end porceline. The costs to do that are pretty high. But, in the second place, which still needs to be nice, I am doing the same type of thing, but drastically reducing the costs by using less exensive porceline, and not going with the fancy stuff (ie in the family room bathroom I won't tile the ceiling, and the tub will be a decent quality air jet tub verses a water and air jet tub). In the master bathroom, there is literally room for a small tub and a toilet alone (the vanities are in the bedroom with a partial wall to a 15" ceiling). I don't want to spend the money to make it really lovely...but it needs to be really lovely LOL so I'm going to take out the existing tub/shower combo and go with a shower alone. In that space, because it's so skimpy, I'm going to have to go with a tiled and framed in space so it has the appearance of being pricy...but just pick tile well :) I also will do a stock door verses frameless glass (which is a freaking fortune) so that will give me a huge savings. Then in the downstairs shower, I'm going to use one of the preformed pieces. But honestly, if this weren't the third shower in the house...I'd not do this. I'm only going to feel comfy getting away with it because it's the shower for the sauna, so keeping it simple will be ok I think. But one big savings...is to use preformed shower pans and then tile the walls only. Having the pan made on site is a pain in the arse and it's expensive (it has been for me so far...but then we're on our third tile guy so perhaps that's part of it LOL) Anyhoo, in the master here I'll use one of those preformed pans, which look nice, but not quite as custom as tile would. I bring this up, because I've seen your backsplash :) I don't see why, with careful planning, you couldn't do the same thing...apply tile to the wall and use a preformed pan or tub that the tile butts up to (I know there's more to it than that...but it's not as hard as getting proper slope in a shower floor!) I don't know how hard the ceiling is...I'll leave that to someone else to chime in on, but I think you could do the walls pretty darned nicely, given the example of your existing work. Just stay away from the really hard stuff...natural stone, huge tiles (mine are 24x24 so that's why I bring that up) and don't try to build in any fancy nieches. And post when you're done :oP You know you can do it!

The shower system is a combination of several brands. I mixed and matched to get the function and look that I want. Grohe retrofit shower system in chrome 2786800 is the vertical bar system, the rain shower head is hansgrohe 27476001, the handheld shower head is hansgrohe 4" raindance 28504001, and the control is Brizo oden shower faucet T60075-PC. katrina - I am glad you get a chance to feel the actual pull in your hand before committing to any one. I remember reading somewhere that those hollow kinds are more prone to get dents. Not to mention that they feel cheap in your hand.

Bituthene is a waterproofing barrier product (typically construction exterior use) but not typically associated with showers from what I know, as there are easier, better products out there specifically designed for showers. And with no preslope to the pan your going to have issues with these forever unfortunately. Not going to be a matter of if you redo them but when..........................