I worry sometimes about my fascination with Outdoor Showers, and now with a tub which completely opens up to the exterior. It’s the culture, man. I’m a tropical dude and the weather outside is delightful. The tropical plants are all jungle-ish and we even have parrots flying overhead. It’s enough to bring the Blue Lagoon out in anyone.

So when they built a new house on the vacant lot next to our home they created a new level of privacy on our side yard. The side that the master bathroom is adjacent to. I’m looking at my little bathroom window thinking some changes are in order.

It really wouldn’t be that hard.

Standard Bathtub Area with Small Window

Our current situation is standard late 40’s early 50’s. Just a regular tub/shower with a small window up-high. From the exterior, it looks something like the drawing below. (the area wasn’t in the mood for a photo at the time of this writing)

If I decided to put in a slider something like the top picture, I would need to accomplish a few simple steps:

• Move the fence forward to get the window into the backyard for privacy.
• Tear-out a section of wall from just above the tub to just above the existing window, essentially the part of the wall area covered by tile on the inside of the shower.
• Remove the header (concrete lintel in my case) above the window while temporarily shoring-up the structure. (don’t want the roof coming down)
• Beef-up the wall under each end of the new header (lintel, steel beam, wood beam, etc.) to support the weight of both the header and the roof above. How much beefing up depends on a number of factors, so you would want to talk to a pro about that. (engineer, contractor, architect)
• Install a new (probably custom made) sliding window. It would need to be tempered glass and I would probably ante up for safety glass (laminated glass) since we’re in a wet area used as a shower. Don’t want to slip and go through the glass now do we?
• Finish-up the exterior and install a bunch of lush jungle landscaping.

Relax, and enjoy!

Sound like a plan?

~RG

If this fires you up, you might like this post on outdoor showers:

Inspiring Outdoor Showers

Photo courtesy: Sunset.com – speaking of the photo, I saw the picture on day one, I wrote the post on day two, I proofed the post on day four. Only after all of THAT, did I realize that you can walk between that tub and that glass. So my whole premise is based on a lie. I’ve got an appointment with the eye doctor on Friday.