The Shower Project, Day One

This is my big project for the semester break. A long time in the making

Over ten years ago (I am thinking more like twelve...), we renovated our bedroom and bathroom. We hired a handyman to come out, put up drywall and completely redo the bathroom. Among several little mishaps, the shower never was quite right.  We had to take it out immediately and fix plumbing. We tried to maintain as much of what had been done as possible. It turns out that was a mistake.

All of this time later, I had been fighting with caulking that would not stay adhered for more than a few months along the base. The walls weren't holding up to my constant interventions, so last year I purchased an entirely new shower to put in. I was going to do it while Charlie was away for hunting season, but he never managed to stay gone for very long at any of the times, so it went on the list for my break between semesters! Therefore, yesterday I got busy tearing the old one out!

As of last night, the walls from the shower came out, the handles are off,  The handles are a bit of a funny story, somehow the decorative housing was filled with caulking when we re-put it up all those years ago. I won't say how that happened, but it was the most difficult part of the tear down to this point! I also discovered that only about one inch at the bottom of the wall board was concrete backer board, the rest was green board. The concrete board had apparently gotten wet early on, and had just been degrading all of this time, hence the caulk wasn't staying adhered due to moisture behind the shower wall.

I pulled that stuff out and threw it away, then cleaned up after myself for the night. Wednesday, around my to do list for the day, I will be pulling out that green board tot he ceiling, then removing the pan. Charlie will pick up the backer board on his way home from work, since it will not fit in my little car! The scariest part for me will be removing the pan, as I want to preserve all of the tile if I can and only redo the grout at the edge of the shower pan (keep your fingers crossed for me on that one, please, will you? That part is the scariest for me!)

At the end of the night, I tidied up as best I could and put a tarp over the walls. Hopefully, the next update will look far different and have good news! Have you ever done one like this? Any input for me on the project?