Setting myself up for a fall...

[susandennis]

My shower is a bathtub. I have lived here for nearly 30 years and never once taking a bath. I would have replaced it with a walk in shower years ago except I never used it at all since I swam every day and showered at the gym.

But now I don't. And it looks like eons before I will again. Now I risk life and limb every time I climb in or out of that sucker.

So today I started the process which I know when drag on forever and end up being incredibly invasive and painful and will fill entry upon entry here on LJ. But, hey, why not?!

I started by sending our ever so prickly building manager telling him what I wanted done and asking him if he had a vendor or vendors he liked working with in the building who could do the job. He responded pretty quickly and gave me two. So I wrote to one. I'll wait to hear before I write to the other. If they both fail, I have another option I'm ok with trying.

This is one of those times when I regret living alone. I'd love to dump this on my living with partner and then just sit back and bitch about however he or she is handling it.

But, no. It's me who will need to be both the doer and the drama queen. So not fair.

And Twitter just told me that Hugh Downs has died. Since I would have bet real money that he was older than dirt when he retired a hundred years ago, I am more than a little shocked to learn that just last week he was still alive. Wow. Makes you wonder who else is still alive.

Comments

[maju01.livejournal.com]

We have two bath tubs with showers over them, and it makes no sense to me. I really wish one of them was just a walk-in shower, and we've talked about making this change, but now everything is on hold until the pandemic is over (or as over at it's ever going to be). Meanwhile, I always stand on a rubber mat when I'm showering ever since I once almost slipped over getting out.

[bill-schubert.livejournal.com]

Yeah, sorry I can't be there to help and ignore your whining. I'm qualified.

That bathtub is definitely a hazard, though. You could have a stall and a stand up storage space next to it.

I remember when Hugh Downs retired. It was early in another century.

[susandennis]

Storage!!! I didn't even think of that! What a great idea. See? I need you. If only to deal with Jathan.

[coercedbynutmeg.livejournal.com]

Beverly Cleary is still kicking it at age 104.

[susandennis]

well, there ya go.

[fauxklore]

Olivia DeHaviland just turned 104, too.

Roberta McCain is 107 I think.

[rsc.livejournal.com]

The recent death of Carl Reiner reminded me that Mel Brooks is still alive. But he's a mere lad of 94.

[chocolate-frapp.livejournal.com]

I've always preferred showers to baths, the last time I took a bath is when my apt was being renovated a few years ago and the old shower door had been taken out but the new shower curtain hadn't arrived yet so I had to take a bath rather than get water all over the new re-tiled bathroom floor. (I wanted to get a Psycho shower curtain because I'm a film geek and I have a crazy sense of humor but the Psycho shower curtains were all super expensive)

[vysila.livejournal.com]

I just switched out a tub for a walk-in shower earlier this year - one of the smartest decisions ever. You will love having just a shower! Very wise decision and you can enjoy in safety.

[adminbear.livejournal.com]

Many years ago we had our bathtub replace with a walk-in shower. It was done for safety reasons, the same ones you mention. Now that I've gotten older and my back has gotten bad, I would *KILL* to have a tub to sit and soak in, but that's not an option any longer. Think ahead.

BTW, I always enjoy reading your posts. Thank you!
jack

[susandennis]

Jack, I'm glad to hear you enjoy my bon mots. Well, some aren't so bon but glad anyway.

You raise the very point that prevented me from making the conversion years ago even before swimming. I know the week after I do that, I will develop some pestilence which requires soaking my ass in espom salts or some other bathtub requirement. And, honestly, that may be the deal breaker yet. But the vary idea of my lowering my giant ass into that tub and then trying to get out again is a painful vision so the debate continues. Thanks for the voice.

[roasted-beets.livejournal.com]

My shower occupies the same footprint as a full-size tub. I didn't need storage and it's not claustrophobic. It has a seat molded into the opposite corner from the shower head. I've only ever used the seat to rest my foot while I shaved my legs, but you could sit if you needed to.

[zoefruitcake.livejournal.com]

You’ll appreciate it once it is done

[jaywil.livejournal.com]

I have both a walk in shower and a separate tub. I love the tub but my days of getting in and out are pretty much over. I just turned 73 and my knees have taken an ugly turn. I love my shower and really have never had a reason to soak anything. A hot shower can cure many aches and pains. Can't believe it has been a year since you picked up the boys. I have enjoyed all the antics and pictures!

[days-unfolding.livejournal.com]

I think that they sell walk-in tubs. It has a little door on the side of the tub, and you can use it both as a tub or a shower.

[jwg.livejournal.com]

I've considered getting one of those. Every once in a while I like to take a bath - if my back or upper legs are bothering me soaking in Epsom salts helps me.

[howeird]

When I moved into my house in Sunnyvale I made the mistake of hiring someone who advertised in the mobile home park's monthly magazine to redo my bathroom. It took way too long, they did expensive things which were not needed - and messed up the air ducts.

The sliding doors on the walk-in shower were a FAIL, so I ordered better ones from Home Depot, who sent a contractor to install them. He did great, and asked me why I hadn't ordered the whole shower from them.

So maybe that could be your Plan C. Lowe's also does installations, but I don't think there is one close to you.

[davesmusictank.livejournal.com]

I much prefer a shower to a bath any day and at the moment I don't have a bath.

[dadi.livejournal.com]

Sometimes these jobs actually aren't as horrible as one fears. We had it done 3 years ago because my dad and mom simply were unable to get into the tub and it took 2 weeks and 4000 Euro and not much chaos at all. It wasn't pleasant, having people traipsing through your house and destroying your bathroom never is, but it was not as traumatic as we had feared.

[mhaithaca.livejournal.com]

I would use my bathtub if I really fit in baths. One of my lofty goals for the house is to turn the main bathroom (in the hall) and the half master bath (off my bedroom) into a single larger bathroom that has a big jacuzzi tub I can actually use.

My newly rebuilt basement guest bathroom, nominally a 3/4 bath because it has a shower and not a tub, has its shower floor way too high off the floor floor. I'm trying to get the contractor to fix it, because as it is, it's a difficult climb up to get in (I can't imagine my mom doing it) and a precarious step down to get out.

Until you get around to the work, there are "shower chair" and "shower rail" products that make it easier to get in and out of the tub. Some of the chairs have sliding seats where you sit down outside and then just slide in, but even a solid rail would probably help you get in and out plenty.

[msconduct.livejournal.com]

Getting a walk-in shower put in is an awesome idea! My bathroom remodel took three gruelling months (ending on Christmas Eve) and my shower was out of commission the whole time, so I became intimately familiar with my mother's deathtrap of a shower over curvy bath. I nagged her to do something about it until she had it ripped out and a walk-in shower put in. Six months later she broke her arm, and hoo boy was she glad she wasn't having to clamber into the bath. It's super handy to know it's safe when you need it to be. And more pleasant to use, too.

[rsc.livejournal.com]

We have bathtubs in both houses, even though we never take baths. When we put in the new bathroom in Cambridge, it doesn't seem to have occurred to guys to do a stall shower. Of course that was in 2001 when we were still "young".

The tub in Gloucester has a grab bar on the rim that's left over from when jwg was recovering from neck surgery in 2014. I use it occasionally.

[amw.livejournal.com]

One of the things i have most enjoyed about my apartments here in China is not having either a tub or a shower stall. The whole entire floor of the bathroom is the shower. At first it felt a bit odd to be showering in the same place where the toilet and sink are, but now i like it. No annoying flapping curtain. No hinge where gunk or mold builds up. And you can use the shower head to spray down the rest of the room, or even as a douche in a pinch. It's great.

The one thing that might be a bit worrying is the slippery floor, but i imagine with American engineering you could get a fan that could dry it out much more quickly than my technique of "just open the front door and window then wait a few hours".

[susandennis]

Wet room bathrooms are rare here. Some vacation homes have them like on the first floor where you come in muddy or sandy. I've always been intrigued by them. It seems so efficient. But then I hadn't considered the slippery floor...