I should have mentioned that my husband uses this shower every day!

Depends on the house and its market. You can definitely get away with a prefab insert in a house that is appraised on the lower end of the scale, but if your neighborhood is more middle to high end, I absolutely would not do a prefab shower insert.

A secondary thought is also how long you plan to stay. If it's years, then do what you want since anything you do now, will most likely be dated 10-15 years from now. However if you're thinking of selling in the next 5-7 years consider what the market expects.

There are some solid surface materials that you should send for samples of if you are going to stay long term or if this is a high-end home. Solid surface is Corian, Swanstone, Kohler Choreograph, Transolid, and a few other names I cannot remember right now. They are characterized by having the pigment pattern through-and through, so that if the surface scratches for any reason, the surface can be sanded to make the scratch or other imperfection go away. There is no glossy finish on the surface. These materials will not start looking old and grungy, but should last decades. The shower pan is also made of these materials and colors. You may find something in one of their lines that complements your granite, though does not match it entirely. Kohler Choreograph colors.

Swanstone Barley

Rosemary Seamless Corian Shower · More Info

Custom Corian Glassboro Shower · More Info

Transolid Shower set from Bath1.com

I did order my shower at bath1 and got excellent service - with one exception of not getting an email for tracking, so did not know it had been shipped, so did not know it was being delivered! Otherwise, they emailed back and forth with me for months about what I needed. I did get one piece of molding in the wrong color, but I waited a month after delivery to address it with them and they are actually working with me on it, when some companies would have said, "you had 24 hours to report that and you didn't, too late now." I got an email apologizing, telling me that the ice storm took out their internet and that they are just getting up and running, and that I should hear from them in the next 24 hours. I simply wrote to my sales person, and she is handling it. So they seem like very reasonable people to work with. I had ordered the shower kit, an extension to get the walls to the ceiling height, and extra panels so we could cover the ceiling, as well. I am not even sure what the broken trim piece was for. It was a big order

Thanks for great info. We decided to replace the vanity top. It gives us the most options for the rest of the room.

nancyinmich - do you happen to have pricing on the solid surface?

Yes, I bought my Transolid ADA sized shower at Bath1.com. Alcove showers. They carry many different sized showers in Transolid, and Swanstone. The Sterling Vikrell products there are a brand of fiberglass showers, not solid surface. Watch out , too, for the Swanstone Veritek. They are not the same as regular Swanstone I cannot find anything saying what it is, but it is not the same as their solid surface Swanstone. Here are the Kohler Choreograph Wall Sets, too.

I ordered from Bath1 and had a great experience. My Transolid shower pan, at 63" long and 37.75" deep - a size impossible to find anywhere else that I have looked in a solid surface pan - was $1020, a lot less than my local Swanstone dealers wanted to charge me for a 60 x 32 one. I got the Base, Shower walls, Extension to take the walls to the ceiling, and two panels of solid surface to cover the ceiling, too for $3100. (There is what seems to be a permanent 5% discount code to enter at checkout.) That included the adhesive and the caulk. So to compare it to a tile shower's cost, you would include the tile, making the slope of the shower pan, adhesive, grout, waterproofing, and grout sealant.

I wish I had a break down of what part of my contractor's fees account for putting my shower in place, but I do not. He is moving a wall and maybe changing floor joists to make my shower pan lip even with the floor for a roll-in shower.

If you are putting a shower in a new house or tearing out to the studs, you can look at the Transolid New Construction showers. You don't put up drywall for these showers, saving in labor and material costs. I could not use this kind because I was putting too many holes in the walls for my fixtures and hand rails. If you are using minimal plumbing holes, though, these are a possibility. They are designed for your normal Thermostatic Shower Control Unit and a single shower head.

If you are building over old tile or not going back to the studs, look at the Transolid Remodel showers.

Thanks for the great information on solid surface showers.

I also like to direct people to [This Kohler Choreograph thread in the Bathrooms forum. [(https://www.houzz.com/discussions/kohler-choreograph-dsvw-vd~3420698?n=216)

Although it was started to discuss that product, there are the best photos I have ever seen of a Swanstone Ice shower there, too. Ice is once of their swirly colors that is not speckled at all.

If you do a search at the top of the Bathroom forum page and choose "Bathrooms" you will get the most recent threads that discuss the product you are searching on. Or search "solid surface" if you want to learn about the other choices out there. Searching on Google and specifying "gardenweb" in the search will get you the older forum threads. For instance, the above Choreograph thread did not show up in my search on the forum, I had to add the name of the person who posted the Swanstone to get it to come up. When I googled "kohler choreograph gardenweb" it was the first result.

Houzz acquired the Gardenweb and buried it in its "Stories and Advice" tab when you are on the full computer version. I cannot reach it at all on Houzz on my tablet, I have to enter "ths.gardenweb.com" to get it. The home forums on GardenWeb were originally called That Home Site (or This Home Site, I could never remember!), and that is where the THS comes from. Threads can get long, sometimes, and you get actual conversations, which are rare on internet forums, discussing the ins and outs of products and such. When the professionals jumped in, it was priceless, as they were forbidden from mentioning their businesses, so were there out of a genuine desire to be helpful.