Day 415: The First Shower

Apparently I should end more posts with "knock on wood." We did, indeed, get our functional shower before the end of the week. The installer came on Tuesday and this baby was in action by Wednesday. Ladies and gentlemen, we can now shower in our own home. What a luxury!

Glass enclosure for our curbless shower with heated floor... luxury, indeed!

The installer did use channels rather than just pure silicone to attach the glass panels to the wall. This is seen by some as an inferior not-truly-frameless approach to the whole glass shower enclosure thing. We actually appreciate the channels because the uneven tile would probably look even more uneven if giant globs of silicone were needed to create a seal with a very straight glass panel.

Handy towel hook on the small panel beside the door.

We asked that a small towel hook be added about 6" from the edge of the door. This means it's off centre on the 10" panel, which does look a bit strange. This was a function over form decision. We measured a few towels hanging on hooks and they tended to be 8-10" at the widest part. We didn't want the towel to keep getting stuck when you close the door so we went with this off centre placement. It's been working perfectly.

We had also debated a few other options like a towel bar on the outside of the door or a hook or bar on the large, fixed return panel but none of those seemed to work very well. They either blocked the door from opening fully, blocked light from entering the shower (which is really the point of a fully glass enclosure), or were too hard to reach (some of us have short arms).

Fixed panel on the right with metal channel, door on the left with seal, and gap in between.

There is a 1/8"-1/4" gap on either side of the door but any water that has splashed out amounts to about as much as if you stepped out of the shower dripping. We've got a rectangular bath mat that we've since pushed up against the glass and we can open the door into the shower no problem.

Shower door hinge fixed right onto the tile.

In case you're wondering, this is what the door hinge looks like. We considered doing a small fixed panel on this wall with the door hinging off the panel but having the door hinge off the wall maximized the door size (26").

Let's just say we're pretty jazzed about showering. After nearly a year of living in the house, I'd say it's about time, wouldn't you?