Any recommendations for a good handheld showerhead? Brand? There are quite a few good ones out there nowadays. Do realize that the handhelds made today are nothing like the leaky weak-flow heads of 20 years ago. In my own house I have a Grohe Relaxa Top4 hand held. While it has different settings, we usually just keep it on the standard spray pattern. Gives a good vigorous flow. The handheld head is probably $75, then you'd need the bar, a hose, an outlet nipple, etc. Probably less than $200 for an entire setup. But there are other good ones out there too. Is one type of shower storage preferable? I really have no idea on this one. Personally I prefer recessed niches over projecting corner shelves. Niches can be bought preformed, or they can be custom fabricated on-site. The latter allows the niche to be as large or as small as you need it. Corner shelves are less expensive than niches. Then you always have aftermarket baskets or racks. What is kerdi? If you're suffering from insomnia, read this thread. It'll educate you on Kerdi and help you get to sleep. Would travertine be hard to maintain? Natural stone is usually more difficult to maintain than ceramic. Some natural stones are more difficult to maintain than other natural stone. Travertine can be up there in terms of maintenance. Much depends on the quality of your water. Hard water, dissolved minerals, etc. Porous stones can require sealing and cleaning with pH neutral products. That said, travertine is a common material used in showers. What do you think of 1" tile on the floor? It can work fine, and look fine as well. Again, smaller tiles mean increased under-foot traction. That's good. But smaller tiles mean more grout. In a well-built shower that's not a problem. In a shower with a poorly pitched floor, with inadequate ventilation, with hard water, all those things can mess with grout. In a well constructed shower pretty much anything can work well. Heck, years ago I did an end-grain teak tile floor in a shower.

Hi Kathy, I responded over in the bathroom forum of extending your ceramic tile around your room including your shower. But wanted to mention that if your husband is concerned about the porosity of travertine there are some new sealers on the market that are truly wonderful. You can have the travertine that you are using on the floor cut down to whatever size you would liek for the shower walls. How thick is the travertine that you would like to use on the shower walls? Below is a link of a sealer that I'm using on my marble and travertine shower. Works great; water beads up and rolls off. Here is a link that might be useful: Senguard sealer

We redid our master bathroom 2.5 years ago so I feel qualified to weigh in and ditto some of what other people have already said. We did something kind of like a pony wall but shower - it is just a bench seat in the shower that the glass then sits on top of. See photos below. In general here are some of my other tidbits of advice: 1. Do radiant heat flooring. We live in Atlanta and it doesn't even get all the cold here but I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE it in the winter time. And it really isn't all that expensive. We did small 2x2'' tiles on the shower floor and I like the variation it gives. Haven't had a problem with cleaning those - however, I also did 4x4 on the side of the bench and the grout between those can get grimy. 3. Along the same lines - do NOT do tile on top of the pony wall or the ledge where the shower glass will sit. We did and this is the one of only two things I would change about our remodel. The grout lines under the shower glass door get slimy. Do one solid piece of granite, corian, or cultured marble. We did the top of our bench seat in the shower cultured granite and it works great. Cheaper than other options but still looks nice. A remant piece of granite would have done the trick too. (On a side note, the other change I wish I had done was 4 rectangular pieces of cultured granite around the drop in tub instead of tile for the same reason more or less. I priced it out for one giant piece but you pay for the part that is cut out for the tub and it was ridiculous. I just didn't even think through doing it with 4 small pieces.) 3. If you are doing two shower heads, which I'd recommend, put both controllers on the same side, near the door. This way, you don't get wet when you turn on the "far" controller. 4. We did a small 28'' glass door which is slightly smaller than what most people do but it is perfect. 4. Lastly, ditto on the two shampoo niches. We have "his and hers" which means I can have 5 bottles of shampoo in my niche without annoying my husband. Hope that helps. Apparently I need to go check out the bathroom forum side and give my advice via expertise over there.

That is a loaded question cataan. There is a number of reasons why but the reasons and the explanations for each reason I reserve for my online clients. I do a lot of shower design, helping people with simple stuff like tile layout and drain choices. I spend years installing every kind of linear drain I could. I've checked on many of these jobs. helped online with dozens and dozens of more installs and formed my opinions of which drains are best. I do still recommend the Laticrete drains on occasion, likewise the Proline, The Kerdi-Line, the Freestyle etc. But the drain I like best is made by ACO. Within their line I only recommend the Plain Edge. This can be tough to install in certain shower builds without advanced planning. I'm learning to keep my trap closed here. If I debate someone posting on Houzz and say your wrong - My post gets flagged. If I share my ideas someone comes along and says - your wrong, go to the John Bridge Forum. What can you do? I know how many drains I have installed. If you read my reviews on Houzz you will find that people hiring me for this little detail are thrilled with the service and value they get. laticrete is a great company. I spend thousands of dollars every year on their product. I have never installed their drains on a real job. Only in my testing lab... lol (my wife's laundry room). I will install their bonded point drain on my next project (Vancouver Steam Shower) and document that for my clients. I'm waiting for Ardex to work something out with Noble. That may or may not transpire - and if it does not then I might be dropping Ardex all together. The beauty of this industry is there is not one way to do something right. Countless options are available to you. I work with products I like. That stick to me and my clothes the best. These tend to be products from Laticrete and Ardex. But ardex has no primary drain connection detail and Laticrete's drains are not my favourite. So I mix and match to get the best look. Ease of cleaning and installation. Sorry to be so vague in my answer. Not all of us online give out info for free. I do a lot, but not the meat and potatoes. Debating with House Wifes, Retired designers, Retired plumbers, Engineers or even tile men who do not build the same caliber projects as I causes me stress and wastes my time. I quite writing on Terry Love's forum because of just this reason. The blind leading the blind.