Please, can I buy a Shower?

Please, oh please, can I just buy a shower? The kind that has a floor with a drain, and at least 3 walls? I don't care if it has a door or if it requires a curtain. Any shower will do, as long as it's 36"x36".

This, my friends, is no easy undertaking. Little did I know what I was in for when off I went to my local Do-It-Oneself big box store. In fact, I went to 2 such places. What I found was, that apparently one cannot buy a shower such as described above. Oh, no, that would be way too easy.

Nope, one can buy any of the following:
- a floor containing a drain that fits a shower, no walls or doors
- a floor and some doors for a shower, but no walls
- walls for a shower, but no floor or doors

But, one can NOT buy a complete shower! Craziness! Who on earth would try to buy one of those other combinations? Who, indeed?

And of course, everything comes with its own dimensions. Apparently one has to have lots of patience and an aptitude for puzzles in order to buy and assemble a shower.

After having help from the entire Bath & Plumbing department, 1 person from Electrical, and 1/2 the Millwork department, I managed to assemble all of the parts in their boxes to complete the Shower Puzzle at home. It only took me about 4 hours.

Now it was off to the cash register to pay, and then I needed help loading the parts into my truck. I had a truck, the type with a nice-sized bed and even a topper. I thought that this would handle my shower purchase just fine.

Nope, fooled again! It was just part of the conspiracy that is against People Buying Showers. Now the floor of the shower fit into the truck bed just fine. It was the walls that were the problem. In their box, the walls were 1" too large to fit into the truck - even when placed on a diagonal! ARGHH!!!

Back into the store I go with my giant puzzle pieces, this time to the service counter. Here they said, that even though I had already paid for my pieces, I only had until 2pm on Monday to pick them up. What could I do but say OK? Back home I went with my shower floor, to wait until Monday.

At least our contractor is related to us, so he didn't mind using his much larger truck to go and pick up the walls of the shower on his way home to bring back to the house the next day.

After all of this, I really need glass of wine to recover!