We have made considerable progress since Episode 5.  Drywall is up and painted.  Electrical is about complete.  Plumbing is nearly complete.  All that is left there is the shower drain.  Instead of trying to build my own shower pan, with vinyl liner and concrete, surely to be a huge mess, I opted for a pre-formed shower pan.  I ordered a custom pan made of composite material.  For a 4′ x 6′ shower, the fellow I talked to at the company suggested two drains.  It would make for a shallower pan and promote better drainage.  The $2500 wonder appeared one day and the truck drive and I struggled to get it on the front porch, where it sat for several weeks waiting for the preparation to be completed.  My wife and I enlisted the aid of some nearby family members and four of us lugged it up the stairs and into the master bathroom.  The day finally arrived and my wife and I carefully shoved it into the opening onto a bed of thinnest mortar.  Success!

I could then build the stub wall at the opening.  I had reviewed some on-line recommendations for stabilizing the wall, since I didn’t want it to wiggle.  It would crack the grout at the base of it.  I ordered some brackets that would hold a threaded rod tightened with nuts at each end to compress the wall against the floor, hopefully making it rigid.  Well, that didn’t work too well.  I plan to remove the brackets and rod and cut a hole through the floor through which I will pass a 2 x 4 bolted to the joist below.