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The shower is almost exactly 3x6 feet in size. The end corner is just out of the photo, several inches to the left. There's one more column of tile to the left, where it joins the corner. The shower is one step up from the bathroom floor, so that its drain can run over to, and inside, the tub deck to go down.
The shower pan is custom-built. After the framing, drain line, and plywood were installed, the tilesetter laid a sheet of heavy vinyl shower-pan material. This sheet sandwiches between the two flanges of the ABS drain assembly with a non-drying butyl caulk, so it doesn't leak. If any water were to get through cracked tiles or grout, the vinyl pan would route it to the drain.
Atop the vinyl he installed a mortar base (appropriately shaped to slope to the drain), then the nonskid 2x2 shower floor tiles.
The shower head is just visible at the top right, at the 7ft level. The valve is positioned so you can start the water and wait for it to become hot before walking into the spray. The shower fixtures are by Kohler.
The window at the rear overlooks the stairwall and living room, which has two entire walls of glass. The window's "outdoor" side faces the shower.
There's plenty of natural light through that window, plus there's a 2x4 skylight overhead in the bathroom. The photo was taken with flash, but you can see how much additional light there is. The bath was completed in July 2000.
To clean the blocks, I just run a wet washcloth over them to remove some of the water spots. Since the blocks are not totally transparent (due to the wavy pattern), it isn't critical that they be as clean as a window. We have soft water, which helps tremendously in keeping things clean!
The edge blocks are generally available only in the Decora pattern. There are two types: corners and edges.
The top block where it joins the wall.
The outside corner at the tub deck. Within the white mortar, there are thin metal "ladders" laid down between the courses of block. These act as rebar to reinforce the assembly. The wall tile was ground to allow for a better bond between mortar and tile. If we had it to do over, we would have installed extra wood blocking inside the wall, so the tilesetter could drill through to solid wood. As it is, the glass block assembly is solid and has not shown any signs of separation from the wall. I think the tilesetter used a few small screws to attach the rebar to the tile, but through screws to wall structure would have been the best.
The inside corner; the tub is to the right. The mortar and grout joints are shiny because the shower's still wet. (It almost looks like silicone sealer, but it isn't.) (I see the shower floor needs a shot with a scrub brush. The sealer on the tile and grout make it very easy to clean in a few minutes. That gunk that doesn't stick to the grout.) All grout is sealed, including the white glass-block mortar. The boundary wall between the shower floor and tub deck has a course of tile to bring it up to the deck height. The glass block is installed to the top of the deck.