HELP ME, Canada -- Plus, A Peek into My Shower Re-do

I'm Planning a Short Holiday

to Québec City. 

Please help me, my Canadian friends! What Should I do and See When There?

What a beautiful city . . . can't wait to visit!

Looking forward to hearing your ideas of where and what to do in May.

Now, to share my shower re-do. The goal was to keep it on budget, meaning the footprint of the space was to stay the same. Additionally, the ceramic floor had to remain.

Here's the Before -- a fiberglass tub:

Here's the AFTER:

 

Since I had the depth and space to add shelving to the right, I asked the guys to do just that. (The Before scene entailed only wall space, no shelves.) Here's a closer view of the new shelving, which is tight but still very usable:

 

A Shout-out goes to Heather at Shavano Mountain Interiors who helped me with my materials selections. She was very helpful. I told her what I was looking for in terms of style and look, and she edited their inventory down so I could quickly make a decision. Loved that!

I wanted to use a combination of man-made and natural materials -- to help control costs while also ensuring a more "natural" look. I went with this ceramic for the walls, hoping it would mirror the look of a slate:

 

When it arrived, I panicked a bit. I thought it might have a lot of conflicting movement. But, when they began to position it on the wall, I liked it. A lot. I don't recall the manufacturer's name but can get it for anyone who needs or wants it. Each piece measures 12" x 12".  If I had gone with the real-deal, my costs probably would have doubled.

Since I like the satisfaction of having the real McCoy, I did opt for real slate borders with glass insets inside the shower. A nice compromise. You can see it below as well as above. Note the door swings in as well as out.

The slate and glass inset strips came about 15 lines deep.  Heather offered up a great idea, which entailed cutting the slate strips in half. This one above is 7 deep, post split. So that's what we did. Saved money and created a more balanced accent look. One line of the accent stone, of course, is one line deeper, but it's not noticeable.

 Laying river rock on the shower floor creates interest and reduces incidences of slipping.

 

Outlining the exterior of the shower is a limestone trim. It's also used inside around the inset shelving.

As you can see, there is no bull nose tile outlining any area of the shower.. At first, the guy laying the tile freaked, but I think it worked out just fine -- probably because of the thinness of the tile. A small triangular seat was added in the corner, as you can see above. The limestone was used as the actual shelf layer.

I have gray-white walls in the bathroom with brown faucets and knobs. The floor is an off-white ceramic. I took that scheme into the shower as well. Below are knobs for water control as well round adjustable jets.

Dual white sinks once sat in a low-tiled vanity in the original bathroom. I happened to have an old sideboard in my garage. I had the blah vanity removed so I could have the sideboard adapted into the space. It fit perfectly . . . a meant-to-be situation. The old sinks were placed in the piece of furniture along with new fixtures. The long burnt-brown light fixture above the sideboard replaced a dinky gold one. The mirror had been there all along. A simple wood frame was added to finish it off.

That's the story, in a nutshell, of a remodeled log cabin bath/shower.

As always, thank you for visiting! 

Please, please leave advice about Eastern Canada. I would appreciate it!!