Hello- I wax my shower panels also. Use car wax, let it sit til it's ready to buff out. Cover the tub base with plastic or newspapers for easy clean up. Wax in the tub can create slips. Also cover my fan blades with car wax and buff as usual. Dust won't stick to the fan blades and it makes for easy clean up. Radd

Bill, thanks for the reply.. Attached is a photo of the exterior wall. The tub lip will be near the top edge of the lower piece of blue insulation. With the window, the additional furring around it, and the cross furring there is not that much rigid insulation. The plywood on the exterior wall was to take the place of furring strips to move the durarock out to fully overhang the tub. This would also give me more to screw the durarock to. As a byproduct, I hoped to gain a bit more insulation. Is the concern more the plywood (as opposed to furring strips which would allow more air movement), or is it the rigid insulation trapping moisture, or the combination? Would plywood be ok if there was no rigid insulation? From other posts, it was recommended that if using fiberglass with kraft facing, to cut the kraft paper face every foot. This would allow moisture to escape. Since the rigid insulation is not wider than a foot I thought it would allow sufficient moisture migration. As an alternative, I could just peel 1 inch of unfaced fiberglass insulation and place it on the exterior wall instead of the rigid insulation. I did this in the paneled basement that has a similar exterior wall (and it helped). Or if the concern is more the plywood, I could put furring strips in. Yes the existing furring strips were not very level. I replaced 2 (both sides of window), and added another just above the tub lip (for screws). Then with the plywood, shims and screws planned to make the surface more level for the durarock. From your post, I interpret that you may also be suggesting durarock directly on the existing furring strips (with vapor barrier). Thus no plywood or additional furring strips to move the durarock out farther and fully over the tub lip. Floating the wall might be easier, but I have my experience with thinset and tile so hoped to stick with that. For the 1.5 2 inches on the ends, I was going to again use plywood to furr the wall out. I planned to split the difference and make up some of the gap on each end. However, based on your suggestion I now plan to sister the 2x4 on the back wall and put most of the 1.5-2 inches there. Attached is a photo of the floor for completeness. I added another joist (2nd out from wall) between a steel I-beam and a wall that sits on a concrete floor below. The new joist was cross braced to the existing joist along the exterior wall. It was placed to sit under the left set of feet on the tub. The position of the tub feet are marked with white paper in the photo. I then used joist hangers to support the joist to be cut (3rd out from wall). I placed the cross support to sit almost under the right front tub foot. I then cross braced to support the tub left back foot. So all the tub feet will sit directly over a structural member. The tub feet are referenced from someone sitting in the tub facing the drain.

:) Sorry, the world is littered with 3 and 4 letter acronyms, based entirely on venue and context - makes it hard for some (me) to know who knows what when. Anywoos, tile is relatively easy to install, especially is your walls aren't soggy from mildew and dryrot. There are many online sources you can find that can help. At least with the Schluter, you don't ever have to worry about a bad tile job causing water damage. Pick up a book online, Ebay is a good place to look. Search for "tile books" I am sure you can come up with some book that will help. One thing I want to mention - green/blue/cement board used for backing tile installs ARE NOT WATERPROOF - these materials are considered WATER RESISTANT. There is a big difference. Only some sort of water PROOF membrane is truly water-proof. Put another way, the difference between resistant and proof is the difference between you needing to re-do your shower now or never. Good luck!!

Thanks everyone, By "very dated" I meant awkward - thats as kind as I can be. The best label I can come up with for this house style is contemporary mountain. But this bathroom was late 70's early 80's uber country, I couldn't see how it fit with the rest of the home. But after many many hours looking at design photos I think I can make it work visually, it just really doesn't seem very practical. But I guess practical isn't everything! We have had 3 pre-1850's houses before, so I understood them in that context, it just took me a while to see that it a claw foot could also work in a more contemporary setting. sushipup1 - I'm not terribly worried about the first round of interest rate hikes - maybe I should be - but when we bought in spring 2004 rates were on the rise and it seemed like houses were snapped up as fast as they were listed because buyers were trying to get in before the rates went higher. Anyway thats what I'm telling myself. Plus we are moving to the other side of the country and wanted to give DH time to settle into his new job before having to decide on a new place to live.