Hi! The big window in the shower is part of my 1985 tract house and appears to be a problem for most homeowners in my neighborhood. The original installation was prone to leaks, with water penetrating the inside of the wall. Many neighbors use a shower curtain along that wall, but I wanted to have an unadorned window. We gutted the room, and hired a local "vinyl" window company to install the picture window. It's dual pane with patterned (Industrex) glass. The interior of the window was not rated to be used in a wet environment. The installer caulked areas he thought would be vulnerable. There is no way to know if water is going inside the window, but to my eye I think it's doing great. My tile installer used "old school" techniques, putting wire lath up with layers of mortar which he leveled perfectly. The tile is perfectly square and sits flush against the window. Along the bottom edge, he used sheets of vichithane (sp?) which is a sticky rubber product. He over-did that area to make sure water never entered the wall. The marble sill sits on top of the waterproofing system. A window in the shower is great and I love the design, however, I can't shower at night with the light on. I have no problems with a "peep show" as long as I shower in the morning with the light coming in from the outside. Hope that helps! P.S. The local window company convinced us they manufacture windows, but I suspect they are the same as big-box store retrofit vinyl windows. The rest of the house we used Renewal by Andersen and they're much better.

We chose white marble with small black marble squares because it was cheap at HD ( LOL -sad but true!). About 15.00/sf. And we liked the way it looked with the white Daltile Rittenhouse Square subway tiles. I must admit we didn't even consider ceramic basketweave for the floor - I wish I knew why but I don't; we just both knew that wasn't the look we wanted. Maybe because the marble somehow seemed more warm? In some way, I think it was the texture. I think we needed another texture in the room and marble was just enough of a variation from the ceramic subway tiles, chair rail, window molding, etc. I am a little worried about the black and white contrast being a bit harsh or stark but the basketweave has a lot of grey in it, along with some sandy streaks. We are using some of it as a 4" border on the wall just below the chair rail in hopes that the very small amount of black will be toned down by the grey. And that was why we tried to choose a kind of warm grey for the grout. There are some gorgeous pictures of ming green basketweaves here on GW. They are stunning and much softer looking than the black, IMHO. I wish I could have had both. Maybe we'll add on a bathroom next and I will get to choose green for the next bathroom. I think I remember seeing some lovely blue basketweave. It might have been on the Ann Sacks tile site. It was absolutely fabulous. Had some kind of Hollywood, or Bollywood, glamour to it. The blue was almost a gentian or lapis. Have fun choosing. We are at the port-a-potty in the driveway stage of this and its not so much fun tight now but in a few weeks I think it will all be worth it.

Hm, I had been wondering if you'd taken the past surround *down* or just put the new surround over it. If you've *taken it down* and you didn't see any rot behind the sheetrock when you removed it, then I'd venture to say that you're safe. There was *no* black or otherwise unpleasant anything where the low point was? Checking downstairs will eliminate the other one possibility, which would be that the rot went straight down and didn't communicate upwards at all into anything you removed. Which would be odd, but I guess possible. Maybe you just had *really good* sealing. We don't.

I understand your desire to replace seldom/never-used tub with walk-in shower. We put a walk-in shower (without door or curtain necessary) in our previous home, which we built 25 years ago. It was one of our favorite features in the house and, when we built our current home put in a walk-in shower in the master once again. We didn't include a tub to gather dust. However, we do have a second full bath four our adult disabled child. Our child doesn't like showers and only takes baths. However, we included a showerhead with the tub for possible visitors or in case our shower was out of commission for a while. I think, if you're not worried about resale and don't figure on children/grandchildren in the future, you'd be fine without a tub if that is your preference. However, if, like most of us, you do have the possibility of resale in the future then you would have to be willing and able to put in a tub in order to sell the house. While I don't want a tub in my master bath, I wouldn't want to have a home that didn't include an available tub (even if DH and I never use it).