Shower Upgrade

Here’s what my dad used to call a “15-minute job.” This got it’s name from when my dad and his brothers would visit my grandparent’s place in Denton to, for example, replace a ceiling fan. “Should only take 15 minutes” would turn into an all-weekend project, with 3 sweaty, frustrated guys taking turns running down to the hardware store for more stuff.

The Shower Frame

This was a builder-grade chrome with gold accents walk-in shower (ew). Nothing mechanically wrong with it, just needed some cosmetic touches to bring it into the new millennia, if you know what I mean.

I masked off the glass, then painted the chrome trim with metal primer, followed with black satin metal oil-based paint. Easy. Just took a couple of coats. Major improvement!

The 15-minute part

When it came to the shower valve, that’s where it went sideways. What should have been a few minutes turned into a stripped set screw that took several failed attempts to drill out the set screw, then tried a screw remover kit. Finally, brought in the saw-zaw (Makita reciprocating saw) to remove the external valve kit.

Once freed, the installation of the new kit went in quite easily (helps to use a Moen kit with a Moen valve).

You’re probably asking, “where are the before pics?” Well, I dropped the ball on that. Trust me, it made a huge difference!

Future Plans

I’m thinking I’ll take it up a notch by adding some black penny tile to the pan and doing subway tile with black grout on the sides (keeping the “trim” as an accent). The shower is fully waterproof, so I’m not worried about that– just need to rough up the panels so they will give the mortar something to stick to.