Ok.  Let's shake off that bad plumber crap, that was dark, so chins up, let's rebuild!

I'm slightly outta order here but ultimately, the rebuild is a rebuild.

So Mike, he kindly helped me pick up five sheets of cement board so I had to await his assistance.

See, I love him with every fiber of my being but tasks are tricky.  I have to warn him, like ease him into it, "hey babe, gonna need your help," then "hey babe, gonna need your help picking things up,"  then "hey babe, gonna need your help picking up five sheets of cement board," then "hey babe, when can we go""

Heh, what can I say, he likes his days off lounging on the couch, not assisting me.  Now he knows my secret ploys, rats.
And right, five full sheets for a measly shower"!  Nuts but yep, true.

Magically, my magic Mike squeezed every last three by five sheet into his magic e-Golf then helped lug each sheet upstairs.  Nice!!  He's so good.  I must've had to bake him something in exchange though, surely.

Aw look at him go!So!  Time to install the cement board!

Oh first, I caulked the living sh*t out of the jet tub inside the wall.  And yes, I did around the tub itself too.Oodles of research was done first as I do, mainly to see if there was anything significantly different I should expect about a stand-up shower but no, not really.  That and I wanted to utterly completely t...