Eating the sunk cost

Hello! And happy Sunday.

Those bathroom drains... eurgh, they were bugging me, and they leaked. They were also horribly inaccessible, and my brother's obsession with maintainability was ringing in my ears. These were anything but: completely sealed, and fragile. And I read Antifragile this week, so it's been on my mind.

Fixing at this point would've been a pain, let alone in 2 years. Realising the stakes, I took the loss, did a speedrun through the stages of grief and looked for solutions. Starting over I might lay things out differently, but I wasn't messing with the core plumbing now, so I decided to build a simple elevated shower.

With a wetroom tray on order, I started dismantling:

Then I re-jigged the heating pipes (having them run under the shower would've been useless) and built a little frame:

Finally fitting it together, and closing the old gaps with tiling board (although I'm waiting on some extra sealant for the final seams):

So much better. Accessing the drain through that cubby-hole is awkward, but crucially not impossible. The board also has a built-in slope, and I'll probably add a shower curtain.

Then, tiling! The first section I did was under the gunwale (or "inwale" for the persnickety) because I've never tiled before, although tiling upside down in a nook is awkward.

In other news I got the ball rolling with a local marina to strengthen the stern (a new deck, weed hatch, gas lockers). I was hoping to get that done before my birthday in 2 months, but with their schedule constraints it'll be afterwards, which turned out to be a relief. Moving down there for a week, during which time I'd paint the exterior and fit the windows... I'm glad the deadline todo list is that bit lighter.

Until next Sunday!

- Nick