A new shower set-up!

Thanks to Andy Davis, we have a safer shower in the bathroom next to our bedroom. For the past fifty years, I have been showering downstairs. My study is downstairs, and my dresser and clothes closet are downstairs also. The shower downstairs is not in a tub, it is rustic stall shower we built when we built the house. It has not had any grab bars, but is narrow enough that I can brace myself against the wall. Since the advent of Parkinson's in my life, this has been workable, but has become increasingly problematic for two reasons: (1)I have come to live my life primarily on the main floor where the livingroom and bedroom are located. Taking a shower has thus involved going down the long stairway to the ground floor and back up again. (2) Standing while showering has become increasingly difficult. To "solve" this latter problem, I put a stool in my shower, and also put a building jack inside the shower that I could grab on to when getting up and down off the stool, and to steady myself while showering. That helped, but was not ideal. And it was still downstairs. I think I reported here that a few weeks ago I responded to an ad I saw on the internet for a walk-in shower upstairs. This involves taking out the tub and putting in a tub-sized shower stall which is easy to walk into and has a seat built-in and grab bars. A young man representing his company drove over from Albany, NY, looked over our situation and gave us an estimate. I was shocked by the price: $18,000 if we agreed to buy it that day. $20,000 if we bought it within 30 days,and $22,000 if we bought it this year. Obviously, there is sales pressure built into that three-tiered price system. But there is no way I was going to pay even the lowest price for a shower! Andy Davis was here when that sales rep made his pitch, and after he left, Andy said he thought he could do better. And he has. He has built a waterproof wooden bench that is built into the back of the tub and extends outside the tub so that I can easily sit on it, using the bathroom sink to brace myself as I get down and up off the bench - very much the way I currently use the sink to help me get down and up off the toilet. Once I'm on the bench, I can easily slide over into the tub. Andy installed a new shower head which is at the end of a six-foot-long flexible hose and can be hand-held while sitting on the bench. It has a "pause" setting, so I can easily turn off the water while I soap up. This means I can be seated throughout the entire shower. Ellen has to help me set the water temperature using the faucets and also adjust the shower curtain, which is fine. Otherwise, I can do everything on my own at my own pace, and do it feeling safe. And all for a few dollars! Yay Andy! This set-up also works fine for a regular stand-up shower in the tub. A grab bar in the tub would be useful - I think we can figure that out.

An example of the sort of shower I was being asked to pay $20,000 or more for.

The bench Andy built. It is handsome. It can easily be lifted off the tub and stored somewhere if needed. It has flanges that fit over the side of the tub so it is super solid.

The new flexible shower hose and head that easily reaches to the bench.