Two weeks later and against the advice of my wife, Efiwym, I was going to start on the shower. Stepping into the master bathroom, I noticed the poor job I did removing the silicone. Using fingernail polish, I removed the silicone residue from around the wall edges. Once I cleaned them up, I needed to find out why the walls were not square.
I looked at the furred-out studs. Apparently when I moved the studs closer to the shower base, the studs pushed the back wall out in the corners. But why could I not get the walls to square up? I finally checked the back wall. As I put the 4-foot level on the wall I could see the bowing out in the middle. It was not minor; it was significant. I did not want to get a replacement knowing it would take another 2-3 weeks to get it here. I wanted to get this shower done!
Now that I knew what the problem was, I moved the studs back to the original positions. I wanted to verify this would fix the problem. I needed to dry fit the walls again. My left arm was still weak, but I was able to get the back wall in place. I needed just a few screws to hold it in place. While painful, I got the side walls locked in. I put in a few screws for each side and the walls were square at the base and at the top of the walls. Not so much in the middle.
I would not be able to use the glass corner shelves that came with the shower enclosure, but we had a shower caddy that would work.
I took the walls off again. I installed the back wall and back side wall without issues. I installed the front side wall. I tore off the plastic covering. The wall had a huge crack near the bottom. Oh no! I never inspected the wall before I installed it. I took the wall down and wiped off the silicone on the back wall and side wall. A replacement would take 2-3 weeks.
The thought was the home improvement store might have the exact shower enclosure that I had. I went to the home improvement store to possibly have them give me the wall of the display. As I got to the display, it was not the same enclosure. I found a sales associate and explained my dilemma. According to their inventory check, they did not have the wall in stock. It would need to be ordered.
As the sales associate was completing the order, another sales associate stopped by. As they talked, the other sales associate said he just received a shower wall from a customer. The customer received the wrong side wall and he placed an order with the manufacturer to get him the right one. He said to me, “I think I have the wall you need”. He walked over to the box and wrote down the number. He verified it with my order. Still not satisfied, he tore away a part of the box to expose the wall. He showed the wall to me and asked if it was the one. It was!
He wrote an order and indicated that I would need to pay for it. I needed to return the bad one to get a credit. That was the least of my worries. With the wall on a cart, I walked to the cashier. I paid for it, and headed home.
Another delay averted, I redrilled the holes for the shower valve and head, which were still off again. I installed the wall and discovered a small crack in the corner. Nope, I would not remove the wall. It was high enough to not cause a problem. I thought I could fix it later. I investigated the material needed to repair it, but it still has not been done.
After wiping off the excess silicone, all the walls were in place. I still needed to caulk the joints, but I would wait until I had the shower and bathroom cleaned up and free of debris.