In one bathroom, the tile is original - 50 years old. The tiles have starting popping out from the wall and the drywall next to the shower is bubbling. In the master with the walk-in, it was a very bad DIY tile job. Grout in the inside corners (now cracked), bottom is not properly pitched causing a significant puddle, 2 of the floor tiles are loose and somewhere water is getting out and under because the wall next to the shower is deteriorating and the grout where the bathroom floor tile meets the wall gets wet (even though the curtain seals out any splashes -- water goes under the shower curb). 3 out of 4 tile showers I've owned in 2 houses have been leaky. I'm also not very good at keeping up with cleaning the grout, especially the floor. So I really wanted to go solid surface this time around.

I've got a honed Indian Autumn slate shower that has been used since Feb of this year and I've had no problems with it other than an issue witht he type of sealer I used (topical) which is peeling off in areas. Eventually that'll all come off and I'll use the good stuff. Anyways, no soap scum problems at all. We switched to liquid soap. We also squeegee after each use. I towel it down. My wife doesn't. I clean it every couple of weeks quickly with Stonetech Revitalizer and it's fine.

Well, I'm back .. for punishment or for info either way ... I never received any email updates on this thread so wasn't sure it was getting any attention or updates .. wow my surprise! Where to start .. well, we didn't hire a CG - which was a bit of a mistake in planning our back bathroom and car port area that was converted to a room - but nonetheless we're learning as we go, as many people do in their first reno. I'm not going to get into why this was converted into a room, we didn't do it, but the previous owners did. They had a leak issue in the room so we fixed it last year. This year we decided to take care of the room itself, and had no ideas what we wanted. We added radiant floor heating, raised the ceiling 2 ft (in the room not the bathroom because of joist limitations, ect), and had roughed in plumbing (without really thinking of a pre-fab shower pan or custom tile and custom glass - this was one of our costly mistakes). Not having a CG - or asking questions ahead of time - cost us. But we're happy with what we have. Now onto the work itself ... behind the walls are DensShield with latricrete HYDRO BAN and HYDRO BANî Sheet Membrane taped seams everywhere ... the grouting lines and tiles were vertical at the top because the house isn't square, and in fact neither are the walls. You'll notice in the picture the tiles get larger on the inside of the shower than they do on the outside. My tiler recommended the lay the tiles that way since the top row would then have a small piece which would be larger on one side than the other. A tapered subway tile Vs what you see now wouldn't have looked as good. So I took his advice. The shower pan he built as well and is in fact sloped 1.5" to the drain from where the glass will start (installation next week) - 2" actually to the inside of the drain. Anyway, we're happy with the job with what he had to work with, tile, colors, ect. The room was painted last night and once the toilet, sink and stacker washer/dryer are in, i'll re-post with the finished color and product - no matter how much criticism. This post was edited by tdub111 on Fri, Oct 24, 14 at 12:35

Kendog-- As to the first two choices, I think either one would aork aestheitcally speaking. It would really be a matter of which look YOU like best. We're planning to use pencil rail around our niches as well as above and below the stone and glass liner. Would it look best with pencil around the window as well or could we just overlap the tile there? I would NEVER just overlap the tiles. Being you're going to use the pencil liner for trimming the niche, I don't think it would look out of place if you were to trim out the window as well. The pencil trim has a higher profile than the tile. Should all of it be cut down at the back to make it more flush with the tile if we use it to cover the edge where the tile meets the wall? No-- it's MADE to have that kind of protruding profile. Trim will be needed on the opposite wall where the half wall ends or maybe we could try to bullnose this with a router? The color of the tile edge nearly matches the color of the tile face. Nearly isn't close enough. Either it's exact, or it's not good enough. If you'd rather not use the pencil liners there, I'd use one of Schluter's bullnosing strips. as for the curb, you could always use a marble threshold, thereby elliminating the need for bullnose. Not sure about yours, but most curbs, after backerboard and tile, are about 5 1/2" wide, and a 6" wide threshold set flush to the tile on the outside of the curb, will give you just enough of an overhang on the inside to provide for a nice drip edge. This will do a couple of things for you. First, it'll provide another layer of protection for the curb. Secondly, it'll provide for a nice flat surface for the shower door to sit on, and third, it looks alot nicer than two back to back bullnose pieces. Like this: The floor is about 18 square feet. Do you think it would work well if we cut our wall tile into 4 inch squares to use for the floor? Could we just sand the edges to make them smooth or would we need to use a router? You COULD cut them down, but if the floor isn't perfectly flat, you could end up with uncomfortable edges under your feet. Again, unless the face and edge of the tile look exactly the same, you don't want to use ANY kind of abraiding process (router, sand paper, grinder, polishing wheels) that will show in the finished product. Our tile is rectified porcelain and we'd like to use 1/16 grout lines if possible. If it's rectified, that shouldn't be a problem.