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...

Heed MillWorkman's advice. Any change of plane, whether it is wall to ceiling, wall to floor, wall to wall, etc.. will almost always require caulk of some sort. !00% silicone for anything around water. In other areas, a siliconized caulk, or paintable 100% silicone caulk can be used. I have done a lot of painting, either for myself or others, and I learned from an experienced pro to put a light layer of caulk in corners, around mill work, and wall to wall/ceiling/floors to prevent the paint from cracking/splitting. Just my 2 Lincolns worth.

We are doing a similar update. Originally our shower was tile that leaked after 8 years. So we replaced it. That leaked after 7 years. We had planned to do tile again but at the last minute switched to flexstone/sentrel panels. So very happy we did. I think this shower is going to last alot longer than tile. Here is a thread on our remodel. Not done yet as we are slow as molasses but so far we are impressed with the ease of installation and the overall look of the product. https://www.houzz.com/discussions/5918286/flexstone-sentrel-panels-calacatta-white-pictures#n=8 Their product can either go over existing tile or be put on new wall board. You can buy direct from the company to get the taller walls, upgraded niche, corner seat etc. Or you can buy from Home Depot that has a subset of the products and the kits. Home Depot also has lots of reviews so you can see what other people think of it and see their finished showers. I don't know if I would go with their shower base due to the material. However I think it is plenty rugged enough for shower walls. We went with Swanstone solid surface and strongly considered Onyx but theirs didn't come with the drain hole in the right place while Swanstone's did.