This is not Mumbai…it’s just the latest bash at our house

This is not Mumbai, it is my shower. Any questions?

 

These “mid-century” houses are supposed to be trendy, though we bought ours for totally other reasons.  I suspect Home Depot has a PR firm working on promoting the trend.  Our 1950s house really is built very well.  This shower was constructed with then state-of-the-art concrete and steel wire. 

This time there was no mold behind the walls.  It was necessary to atomize the original shower and rebuild it from scratch because the genius who replaced the drain at some point in the house’s history didn’t bother replacing the shower pan, which eventually crumbled, causing it, of course, to leak.  Total reconstruction was necessary to belay the sinking and rotting of the underlying floor.

The removal of the original material requires a few days with sledgehammer, crowbar, and diamond saw.  Then you install a new high-tech shower pan, put up Hardibacker sidewalls, slap on the Thin-Set, and put up new tile.  So simple, really, and then you have the luxury of a dry, solid shower floor that doesn’t leak. 

We have overhauled both of our bathrooms in stages; this should be the final bathroom remodel for this half-century of the house’s life.  The next will not likely be our problem. 

I took this photo on Day 3 of the take-down.  The “after” picture will be along in a few to several weeks.  My husband has appeared without dust mask and goggles only to eat and sleep for three days.