Good news and bad news

I have good news and bad news this evening.

The good news is that I finally finished the shower stall and that I have pictures.

The bad news is that I do not have holiday tree pictures. I got home too late and had to cook dinner, which means I had to do some dishes first to find the stove, etc. And now we seem to be missing a box of ornaments. Very important ornaments. Miami Sound Machine ornaments. At present we have only the weakly blinking Bird of Prey, which I think could really be enough, but my beloved seems to want the shiny balls and little characters on hooks. So the tree goes up tomorrow. For now I am going to show you the pictures of the shower stall. Tomorrow you'll get the tree. Deal.

First, this is how things looked when last we checked in:


Today I boxed in the exposed wood and put sheetrock on the side of the wall that will be next to the toilet:


Here's a better look at the bottom of that wall:


And now the top of that wall:


I added some trim to the top of the inside of the shower as well to finish it. I had to make some persnickety cuts to replace the old molding, but I think it works. It will look fine with a coat of paint.


Here is the shower head rig. Remember the pipe that went straight up through the top of the wall? Well, I put the trim board on, drilled through it, and slid the copper pipe up through the hole. I then put some dope on the threaded fitting and screwed it into the brass shower hot/cold mixing unit and tightened it with a wrench. Then I polished up the top of the upright pipe, smeared on some flux and soldered the elbow and fitting into place. I let it cool while I fiddled with drywall and trim and then put some teflon tape on the plastic fitting and screwed it into place and added the shower head in the same fashion. This is what it looked like when finished:


Because I made the exterior of the shower stall a little bit bigger than the old one, I had to trim the existing window trim. This means I had to notch out the new trim to accommodate the existing trim. Here's what it looks like there:



I'm just thrilled that the window has enough clearance to open. Although leaving it open while you're in the shower might be painful to the getting in and out of the stall part of things.


On the back of the wall with the water pipes inside, I put up sheetrock and trim, but I had to allow access to the pipes for repair and maintenance. I cut the drywall into three pieces, hung the right and left permanently and then used the middle one to make a frame of trim wood that could be removed. There are four galvanized three-inch decking screws holding it in. I put putty over all the other screw holes so there would be no confusion. Here are a couple pictures, one top, one bottom:



And here is a close-up of the top that shows the screws:


Now I'm off to bed. Tomorrow holds promises of freezing rain, sleet, snow and all kinds of nastiness. Luckily, I think I will be spending a good part of the day playing with the tree. Provided I find the box of decorations. TTFN.