Thank you so much for the responses. Sorry, I didn't reply sooner. antss - I'll check out the Kohler. Thanks for the heads up. mongoct - thanks for the detailed reply. I really appreciate the time you took. I agree that it doesn't look like we have much storage in the bathroom. However, the closet near the shower is 8 1/2 feet long and the other one is a little over 13 feet. Rather than add another door for a linen closet in the bathroom, we decided we would just have shelving in one of the closets for the excess linens. I think it will work for us given all that space & the fact that we have additional storage for off-season clothing. Yup, already got "beaten up" about the 2' doors on the new home forum (reposted there since I wasn't getting nibbles here & that is more my "home".) Anyway, I thought it was OK since we have a 2' door in our current powder room. Upon reflection, I think we will increase those to 2'4" to avoid banging knuckles when carrying a laundry basket. The WC compartment in our current master bath is 2'8"x5'2" with an in-swinging door which is on the side. I don't know if code is different in TX or the spec builder just got away with it. These plans were drawn up by an SC designer to build in SC. I'll ping the builder about code so we don't have any surprises. I was more than beaten up about this on the other forum with claims that 3 feet wide was absolutely insufficient to exist in. We must just be weird because our current room is fine & this is a touch bigger. We have used our WC room as a "mockup" & measured where the door would swing on the new one. Well, you have me there about the open door. ;^) Like I said, we're weird. I know that I won't be seeing much when its steaming, I was more interested in the sense of light I would get when sitting there. I want to maximize that. The steam shower is mostly for me (& our future septic tank). I take very long showers because I just stand there daydreaming & thinking. We had the idea that if I could sit in the shower surrounded by steam, I wouldn't go through so much water. I do think the seat is a problem. I couldn't get the designer to put in a bench deeper the 12", so I finally gave up & asked for a corner seat. Its seems like a bench should be between 15"-18" deep & long enough so I could lean against a wall & stretch my legs out along it. (I'm only 5'2" so that's not much length.) Do you have suggestions about height, length, depth & which wall to put it along? I've never had a rainshower experience so I don't really know what I want. In our current shower, we replaced the fixed showerhead with a Waterpik, so that is the extent of my direct experience with shower fixture technology. Pretty sad, right? I know we have to have a handshower, but that can also be what we use for general washing, right? I'd like body jets to be able to direct to parts that get sore (my shoulder & DH's elbow). I think if we are going to have a rainshower is should be the real deal as you described it. I was looking at Moen because that is what the plumbing supply house quoted as the basis for our builder's bid, but we're not limited to Moen. Also, our builder has no issue with us providing fixtures & our allowance will be credited. Since I have the quote sheet, I know that the builder's discount brings us in line with what we could get off the internet, so I have no problem going with the supplier for most things. I agree that the Moen system looks like a mess, but DH is leery about the digital alternative which is much sleeker. (And, we're both EE's; go figger.) Thank you so much for the advice about the Hansgrohe. I think that is exactly what I need. I did a quick look online & the (cheapest) trim kit + rough-in is ~$350. I read through the installation manual so I can start thinking about what fixture I want to go to which port. I assume that I can get whatever fixtures I want to work with the Hansgrohe, right? Again, I really welcome the advice & I understand what you were saying about the doors. I will quiz the builder on the WC room swing & code. Thanks - Jo Ann

The floor to ceiling shower doors are for steam showers, and the setup for a steam shower is different than a regular shower. The vapor or moisture barriers are different for a steam shower than for a regular shower. A steam shower needs to have a sloped ceiling to drain the condensate. The ceiling needs to be tiled. You are not supposed to use Hydroban in a steam shower, but you can use Kerdie or Redgard in the steam setup. Hydroban will let the vapor through which is why you don't want to use it for steam showers. The Kerdie and the Redgard will not. Hydroban is a moisture barrier and Kerdie and Redgard are vapor barriers. Installers need to know the difference. Beyond that I don't know. Maybe an expert will chime in about what I just wrote. I am only a DYI and have never done a steam shower. I would do a porcelain tile in the surround if it was me. Marble absorbs moisture. Porcelain is so durable and can be beautiful! DON'T put the rainshower in the attic, your pipes will freeze like Raehelen said. And like Raehelen also said, I would use a movable bench. But that is just my choice. I want the flexability in my shower which will be the same size as yours. I will be using a Kohler shower pan that is 36x60" sized. Here is a rainhead shower that I am installing, in the link below. It is in the wall, and I can't wait. Noopd put it in his shower and that is where I first saw it. See the link below where I asked some questions regarding my shower plans and refer to Noopd's shower. There are pictures too. One last point about the the rainhead shower by Hansgrohe, a friend of mine that works for Ferguson's just got back from an educational workshop at Hansgrohe in GA. She got to try out the shower head and Loved it. I bought my plumbing supplies from my friend at Ferguson's. I wanted the convenience, and to support her and the local economy. I have not been disappointed. I have bought a few things on line and that has worked well too. Ferguson's doesn't sell Toto for instance, so I ordered my toilet online. The down side to online ordering is the return if needed. Edited to say that in the link provided, it states that I will be using a smaller shower pan than I actually ended up with. But that might be clarified further down in the thread. You'll have to look :) Here is a link that might be useful: Mongoct, Noopd, or Others, Please Advise Me on My Shower Plan This post was edited by enduring on Tue, Nov 12, 13 at 7:59

Sorry -- I had not checked this threat in a long time. Posting an update for folks. We have loved our pool configuration and the choices we made nine years ago. Heating the spa does require a few hours pre-planning. We ran underground lines for gas in case we wanted to switch to gas instead of heat pump, but the heat pump has worked well enough that we've never switched to gas. Depending on the weather here in the midwest, we will start the spa heating 2-5 hours prior to when we need it to make sure it is comfortable when we get in. We tend to stop using the spa once it gets below 50 degrees out (air is too chilly for us!) If you want quicker heating for your spa, you will need gas. The heat pump has worked for us since we are planners. Most of our pool components have continued to operate well even after nine years. We did go with Pentair lights and at this time (9 years later) only one LED color is not working in one of the lights but otherwise all is good there. A few Jandy valves have needed replacement due to minor seepage (but it has been 9 years!) Also, the spa-side remote from Pentair (maybe called the Spa Command?) has been junk -- we replaced it twice in our first three years and finally gave up and moved to controlling everything via Pentair's wireless phone app which has worked well. The River Flow swim current has continued to work well for us. It has gotten a lot of use this year with the pandemic shutdown. We were very pleased this year to have our own swim current to exercise in! We probably used it more this year than all 8 prior years combined. It does require some work each year to winterize properly (using very large marine plugs). We do that in the early fall before the pool water gets cooler. Overall it has been a fun splurge that is used more to create fun in the pool (currents for floats, etc.) and occasionally for exercise until this year when it got heavy use for safe exercise in our own back yard. Our pool cover also is still doing well. We went with a mesh cover (believe it was Merlin) that had attachments in the ground over and past the raised bond beam wall as well as into our travertine decking. They also designed in reinforcement rubber in spots where needed. We have cushions that are placed at rub points. The cover seems to be doing very well. It is typically used November - March and stored inside when the pool is open. Snow weight has not been a problem due to the mesh design and the milder winters we now get in the midwest. The travertine pool decking has held up very well. We have some minor spalling on a few tiles (winter freeze/thaw), but not enough to cause any worries after 9 years. The travertine has been an amazing pool deck surface. It stays cool in the summer and also does not seem to get slippery when wet. It has continued to look very nice. We occasionally have had a few weeds growing between some tiles occasionally over the years, but it has been minor (maybe because I pull them promptly if I see them!) Overall our pool has been very nice and I very much appreciate all of the helpful feedback I got many years ago when we were building it. Hopefully this information helps the people currently with pool projects "in the works". We are getting close to ten years now with our pool!

Thanks for your thoughts - yes, we're doing the same grey for the shower/bath walls and floor (though a 3" mosaic of the same tile for the shower floor). We do like the deco tile, but it's a bit pricey, so we don't want to go crazy with it. The wood (walnut veneer) is for the vanity - the photo shows some of the different stains we've been playing with, but we're looking at the center stain, which is essentially a natural walnut color. The sidelights actually are a 2"x18" square tube with a 4"square center mount. So they're pretty narrow. But they theoretically throw off 900 lumens each (will have dimmers). Two cans above and behind, along with the Panasonic LED Fan/Light, should be enough. I'm thinking of having the electrician run another wire up on the far end of the room that could be used to power any additional lighting in case we felt it necessary, via a soffit. Also, there is a pretty good sized window over the tub itself, which should bring in some light - although, we're pretty much in the woods facing north on that side of the house, so the light will typically be subtle. But there will be some natural light. I've thought about the idea of going white, but it feels like it might hide things like the sinks, and be too much of a contrast with the rest of the room. Is it too odd to use one color for the vanity top, and a different color for the shower bench surface, beyond the cost of finding a different material? I've been thinking now of trying to use more of the ($) deco tile to highlight some space, such as the right hand side of the vanity, but I don't know.... This is somewhat outside of my normal color palette - I typically go beige/"greige", which we mostly did in the Kitchen a couple of years ago, but DH really wanted to go with a grey for the MB. Fortunately, this grey does have some bits of brown in it, so we can make it work with the wood vanity, but I'm not as confident about what works. I really appreciate any interesting ideas that might liven it up (in a subtle way...) Thanks!