I finally finished this project and would like to share a few lessons learned, if anyone is interested: 1. Looking back, I decided to go with a deck mud shower pan instead of the preformed Laticrete one. It was pretty much a cost consideration at the time. I am a bit of a perfectionist and the biggest hangup I have with the job I did is how the shower pan turned out. I struggled getting it right and in the end, it just seems like I have too much slope in most areas and not enough in some. The preformed pan would have helped me there. Given the cost of the overall project, the extra cost for the Hydro Ban shower pan would have been nothing to even think about. 2. I spent much of my life over the last two months after work on this project and grew in appreciation for you pros who do it everyday. Not only is it a very physical job, I could never make money at it without charging crazy money. My hat's off to you folks. 3. Much appreciation is sent to the pros that give us DIYers the confidence we need to get over what would stop most. Your input is invaluable. I will attach a pic of the finished product so that Mongo can take a little credit for helping me get through this one. Thanks for the help! Jeff

Dwalls is EXACTLY correct on this... Since I directly tint a LOT of Reds/Magentas..."I know-eth of what I speak"! (wow...!) If you shake up a Neutral/Ultra-deep/Base-4/Deep tint-base WITHOUT COLORANT, the result is the same... THEY'RE ALMOST CLEAR WHEN DRY. Now...add fairly transparent colorants, like Magenta or shades of Red...the result doesn't get much better. Depending on the specific color, some formulas add a little White (Titanium-dioxide). This helps some with TRANSPARENCY, BUT...it can "mute" some reds-meaning it can lend a "pinkness", if enough is added back in. I've seen some horse-**it paintjobs done by "painters", union or not, who thought "they know it all". (Funny side-story----Last June, I painted DD's Bedroom to C2's Impeccable. A DeepGoldyBrown! Used a tinted primer, and good technique. Looks beeeeutiful! This fall, a "painter who's been painting for 25 yrs." was using this exact paint/color in a big Dental-Suite. Our other Paint Mgr. went over to look at it after they complained about the "streakiness". He said his jaw hit the floor! The "painter" was doing such a crappy job, that our guy had to SHOW HIM how to do this color. By then, a small crowd had developed around this!!! "The painter" was kinda ticked..."I've been painting for blah-blah-blah...". Welllll, he wasn't nearly as good as HE thought...!!!) As I stated, I've literally made that color b4, and I wouldn't have let them out the door without a GRAY primer, and advice about technique used on top of the primer. Faron

I tried to quickly scan through. I don't know if someone made this suggestion yet. Can you put doors on your cabinets? We had open shelves on either side of our fireplace. I had my husband make doors for them. He made frames and covered the inside of the frame with cane. (we had to since they hold our tv components and I was afraid that they would melt down if no air got to them.) But, you can get tons of different sized cabinet doors at the restore or something similar. With the ones my husband made, I just painted them and put them up with regular old hinges. They look pretty good. I was going with a more natural/coastal theme. So, they work well in here. Oh! I was thinking. If you have odd sizes (like we do) you could just have lowes cut you new doors out of that mdf and paint them. Just don't get really super thick mdf. It paints like a dream with a roller and you could get the odd sized cabs covered. Melamine doors if you don't want to paint. But... you don't have to do all of your shelves. Maybe just the bottom half. It will break up some of the visual clutter. And, you can hide actual clutter (like we do!) which is really the main thing. :) Kim

If you want to seal the rusty areas and prevent further aging, you can use furniture wax (Minwax); it is a good idea to rub the wax to prevent little wax white spots when dry. Rejuvenating oil is also a good option, the oil penetrates the metal even more than the wax; same with the wax, you need to rub down the oil otherwise it'll form bubbles/bumps when dry. Boil linseed oil also works, application of this (and the rejuvenating oil) is a little tricky, you must wait until it dries, usually 24 hours or more. My favorite method is the rubbed wax, I don't like spray clear coats. Attached are pictures of rusted steel components after and before the wax treatment.