Holly: I'm somewhat bemused to be arguing with you on how long it takes to redo a bath, because I'm usually the one saying "no way that contractor should take a month to remodel your bathroom; it should be 1 week tops!" But I just finished tiling a tub surround with subways and it took 2 full Saturdays for tiling only. Granted, that included a window and a niche, and a glass listello, but there are still plenty of cuts on ends/corners. You also neglected the paint-on waterproofing over the cement board, which needs a day to dry, though you do have the plastic moisture barrier, so that could be omitted. You also forgot the 14 trips to Home Depot for the stuff you forgot to buy or didn't get enough of. Or the new stuff you need because you encountered something unexpected. Oh, and my weekends are only 2 days long. :-) In any case, we're hijacking the poor OP's thread. Sorry about that, clueless. Our 1920 house has lathe and plaster walls but the outside walls all have boards with grooves routered into them for the plaster keys to hold to. Does it look something like this? Also, the wire mesh is used in an older method of tiling, that entails embedding the mesh in concrete, making a pretty thick and incredibly stable wall. However, it's done in lieu of plaster, not behind it, so I'm not sure why it's there in your situation. Bill V could probably tell you how/why it was constructed that way, though I haven't seen him around for a while. You might also try posting in the Old House forum for someone who might be able to explain the construction. What everyone else has said is correct, however: you need to not just put plaster and tile back here. You either need to cover it up short term with something that will protect it from further damage, like a sheet of acrylic or fiberglass surround, or else rip it out and repair it. You could also just rip the whole thing out and put in an acrylic/fiberglass surround for a few hundred bucks and some elbow grease.

I'm no expert, but maybe the experience of a "commoner" might be helpful as well! ;-) My bathroom is the same setup as yours, and dates to 1923 so I have the horsehair plaster over lathe construction. I installed my towelbar into the plaster and it's held up well. If you don't have a handy stud around (can I spare another wink?) then I'd recommend using something like molly bolts to install the towel bar just in case someone grabs at it or something. I've also installed TP holders in the tile and would recommend you get a special tile/glass bit to do that. It's horribly slow-going (seriously, it took me about 30 minutes PER HOLE) but the spade-looking bit didn't crack anything. I tapped a little hole into the tile first with an awl, but then it's just slow and steady with your drill. For my money, I'd rather work with the plaster... good luck!

BrianKK: Yes. Some Corain and other solid surfaces are available in 1/4" thickness, but you could use 1/2". After fitting, clean the substrate and the back of the sheet and apply half-dollar size dabs of silicone every 12" or so. Jam some pre-measured props in place (use blocking on the ends to distribute the load) and leave them for a day then tile up to the solid surface.

I had the same plastic tile in a rental! After I took it off, it took about a gallon of joint compound to level the walls, and even then...those were my newbie days. So dumb I used ready patch instead of mixing up some good stuff that I could breathe while using. The house had been moved three blocks in the 50's and the walls were really off, above and beyond anything my simple patching could do, so I added textured wallpaper in a nod to the lincrusta/analgypta style (except it was the 12.50/roll stuff from HD because my landlord was thrifty-minded): Wish I had a picture without the sagging oak leaves and with the chair rail we eventually added. We enjoyed that bathroom for a good three years until we finally bought our own fixer. And I was glad for the practice on that place; gad what a newbie I was (and I'll be saying the same thing of myself now in 5 years). but at least thanks to casey, worthy, brickeyee, and macv, I use the right stuff on plaster now (bonding agent, durabond, and sometimes easysand, depending on the situation). Anyway the lincrusta look worked very well for us. We painted it with BM blue lapis, then bought the bottom of the color strip (darkest, I think it was simply called Navy or Blue), mixed 50/50 with glaze, and rolled on, then wiped off with paper towels until we had the tone-on tone look we were going for. Man I loved those walls, and got lots of compliments. They were inspired by the bar in the the British show As Time Goes By, if you ever saw that one. Except those were a brownish red instead of blue.