I had a 36 x 36 cultured marble shower that I removed because it was leaking due to poor fabrication and poor framing behind it. CM is only as good as the local shop. This was builder grade and very poor. I thought I was going to have to go with a tile shower pan because I did not want to move the drain because it is in concrete. When I took out the cm base, I found that the 12 x 12 box around the drain had not been filled in with concrete. I was so happy because I can use some pvc ingenuity and move the drain over. I am limited by the window over the tub on one side and the bedroom on the other side, so the only way I can go is outward. So I am looking at a 36 across and 48 deep acrylic pan from Royal Baths in Houston, TX. I plan on tiling the walls. But even with this, my new shower is going to be very narrow. My thoughts are to create a long shelf waist to shoulder high along one long wall to give extra elbow room. I am thinking about installing a shower head on that wall and a handshower on a bar on the opposite wall to where I can use it as both a handshower and a body spray. I really don't like not having enough room to step back from the shower head in order to rinse off my lower body. Ferguson's Pro Flo acrylic shower and tubs are made by Clarke. The Clarke acrylic, I think, is much nicer than Kohler. The newest approach in tiling is to paint on a topical moisture barrier on top of the cement board then tile on top of that. Water does not get to the cbu. The only thing that gets wet is the grout and thinset. So there is less to dry out and showers dry out faster. If you use epoxy grout, it will dry out even faster. Maintenance involves squeegeeing the walls and wiping the silicone grout line in the corners and between the tile wall and the acrylic shower pan. And wiping off the fixtures to avoid water spots. And have a good exhaust fan. If you decide to tile, search for Hydroban, Redguard, Aquadefense. This post was edited by Anna_in_TX on Sun, Feb 16, 14 at 20:08

re: windows on Washington sounds reasonable to me. im not familiar enough with the materials used in the cranks and mechanical linkages... i assume they are powder coated or other wise painted in some manner? this is a huge long shot... but you ever hear of water resistant hardware? glass fiber reinforced plastics or SS? i cold conceivably have them powder coated, or enamel coat them myself inside my oven... too much work i know... just thinking out loud here. appreciate the feed back WoW. re todinmn: this is a Houston home. should have mentioned that earlier. i made a mistake in stating 60" its actually 47-48" from the floor. 60" was from another window measurement. there is 0 chance i could raise it up that far. i have enough brick for maby 3 courses. ive never tried to find matching bricks for sale though... nor have i researched other options. i admit to being ignorant as to the cost add on for tempered glass... what would you estimate? any ball park figure wold be appreciated here. regarding the general project: gong to start calling the window places next week. the big suppliers in my area is through ABC building supplies and the big boxes. Im assuming i should not even bother with the home depot only simonton Vantage Point windows?

Thanks. My mom did mention possibly one of those white plastic chairs but not only are they unattractive (which they needn't be...someone just needs to care enough to design them nicer) but...then there's the issue of where to PUT the chair when she's not using it in the shower. However, it so happens we were also talking about potentially getting a teak/bamboo bench that's not too 'deep', to potentially put against the currently open side of the bathroom wall. This way folks can sit on the bench while drying if they want, and then the bench could possibly have a lower shelf too, on which to store things. So in this vein, it did occur to me that maybe we could get ONE bench that serves both purposes....goes in the shower when someone wants to sit, and then is put back outside the shower, and against the wall, when done. The only caveat however is...how manageable will it be getting the bench in and out of the shower... fitting through the door angle...and the weight of the bench...

Thank you for the awning suggestion. It is not a large window maybe about 24" height and 20" width. Though it is closer to the showerhead side of the shower, I don't think it should get water directly since most of the water jet will be towards the center and the other end of the shower. I guess the awning window will have to swing open to the outside? Is it possible to have a bug screen that is not covering the whole window? I think any bug screen can potentially create a moisture retention problem.