http://www.forbes.com/sites/timworstall/2012/09/20/monsantos-gm-corn-and-cancer-in-rats-real-scientists-deeply-unimpressed-politics-not-science-perhaps/ "Their claim is that the rats fed GM corn and Roundup got more such tumours earlier than the control group. The criticism of this finding is that the control group was simply too small to allow such an observation to be made with any certainty. And they have not conducted, or at least not presented, the standard statistical tests which would allow they or us to determine whether the results were the outcome of pure blind chance." http://arstechnica.com/science/2012/09/anti-gmo-researchers-used-science-publication-to-manipulate-the-press/ "Any journalist that wanted to receive an advance copy was required to sign a non-disclosure agreement before receiving one. That agreement prohibited the outlet from sharing the results with any outside experts before the embargo lifted. In other words, if a press outlet wanted to be one of the first to cover the story, it would have to run the story without having any experts sanity check the paper." "The embargo lifted during a live press conference from the researchers, hosted in London in cooperation with the Sustainable Food Trust. The SFT conveniently had a press release prepared; a release claiming that the research was "supported by independent research organization, CRIIGEN." However, this neglected to note that the paper's lead author, Eric Seralini, is on the CRIIGEN board." Conflict of interest, and keeping the newspapers from doing any fact checking before publication ... that's not accepted protocol. https://embargowatch.wordpress.com/2012/09/21/stenographers-anyone-gmo-rat-study-co-sponsor-engineered-embargo-to-prevent-scrutiny/ " One of the main reasons for embargoes �" if you take many journals at their word �" is to give reporters more time to write better stories. Part of how you do that is talking to outside experts. And scientists �" ones interested in science, anyway, not those interested in spin and political points �" should welcome that kind of scrutiny."

Is the membrane you now have sloped? Or is it flat on the floor with "sloped concrete" on top of it? That point aside...if you are intending a true built-in bench that is closed underneath (like the one in Bill's post on Apr 16, 08 at 19:46), then I prefer the waterproofing come down the walls, be lapped over the bench, across the top and down the face of the bench, and then tied into the pan membrane. But that's me. Since your membrane is already in, have you considered a removable teak bench? It can be in the shower when you need it, out when you don't want it, and anywhere within the shower that you want. If you can;t find anything commercially made and you have a metal shop nearby, they could construct you the frame for a full-width bench, just like a Better Bench. It can be retrofitted into and hung off the existing walls just like a Better Bench. But it can be whatever size you choose. I've gone that route a couple of times.

Thank you all for your thoughts and support. The community here helped me pick my granite--I had one really long post with photos and had people give their opinions. Laura, I got it at a company called Cosmos; they are in several cities. Gemini, I love ABBS! Shorter to write, that's for sure. Mizinformation--I am rooting for your success! Our shelves weren't adjustable and given the number of other cabinets we needed, we opted to completely start over. Did you have those wonderful soffits to remove? We all had a turn with the Sawzall at least once. We did save a number of 2x4s from the soffits, and I have pix of my mother-in-law pulling nails out of them. B/S: I am leaning toward a light blue for the backsplash to pick up the color in the granite. I have seen some glass ones I like (kinda spendy for my budget) but now I'm stuck on what I'm doing with my shower. (I'd want all the tile done at the same time.)

kensnh, really, if you think it's not safe, I won't do it. However, i do feel obliged to mention that eBay has nothing to do with this - I only referenced someone's EBay auction because the manufacturer's own website doesn't list the specifications and the guy selling the same thing on eBay did. But these devices are not devised by random charlatans on EBay, but rather (in this case) built and sold by Miele, a respected and esteemed appliance manufacturer who I assume wouldn't or couldn't sell unsafe merchandise. I wasn't actually planning to buy this on eBay, but rather directly from Miele or Bosch or their authorized retailers, and if need be have them drive out to my home and install it. The only thing different about my situation than that of a typical buyer is that instead of a 240V/30A outlet near the dryer, I have a 240V/40A outlet about 10 feet away. I thought, maybe, there would be some safe, legal way to use that to power a laundry appliance since it is currently unused. But if not, I can continue to use the more common 120V/15A washer I have now that plugs directly into the nearby outlet. It doesn't heat its own water and draws from the water heater tank, but I can continue to avoid using the washer and the shower at the same time. FWIW, I don't like using extension cords either. I'm very careful with the ones I do have - they're not dangling where they can get tripped on or squashed or have things fall on them. But I *do* tend to believe that if a respected major company sells something, it's probably safe. Not always, obviously.