A Little More Headway on Outdoor Shower Project

When I got up this morning, it wasn't raining so I immediately went outside to collect tools and building supplies for one part of this outdoor shower project that has been nagging at me for quite a while.  

I had originally planned to use some leftover roofing membrane as a sort of shower pan to lead the water away from the house and toward the French drain.  I couldn't find any of my leftover roofing membrane though.  My next option was to bend my own aluminum flashing in place of the membrane.  

So, this morning, I collected the rolled aluminum, some shears, my hand seamer, a hammer, and some straight lumber to use as a makeshift bending brake.  I had planned to head indoors at this point to get ready for my day and eat breakfast but it was quite nice out there this morning so I stayed out there and started working on shaping the rolled aluminum into a flashing resembling half of a shower pan.  

This flashing would protect the exposed lower part of the wall of the house while then bending away from the house directing water toward the French drain.  This wasn't my original plan for directing the water away from the house but it should work just fine.  

I had this flashing bent to shape and installed within an hour!  It turns out that the hand seamer was the best tool for shaping this aluminum.  Using wood as a makeshift bending brake wasn't of much use, unfortunately.  

I was pretty amazed at how quickly that went!  The above photo shows the flashing installed.  The piece of wood in the middle of the photo is temporary to hold the flashing in place until I install the boards that will hold the pipes, valves and showerhead.  These boards will match the side walls to the shower.  

At this point, I headed back indoors to eat something and dress more appropriately for working outside for the day.  

I knew I had enough supplies to keep me busy outdoors today if the weather cooperated so I decided to work outside on this project until either the weather or my health put an end to the work.  

So, it is still looking a bit rough and the back end of the house is also looking quite messy but this photo, below, shows what I accomplished today...

Between the horizontal 2x4's holding the posts in place, I will install 1x6 fence boards vertically.  On top of the white gravel seen in the photo will be large pavers and then smooth gravel installed around the pavers (smooth gravel so it is easy on bare feet).  I still need to dump about another 12 bags of mini marble chip gravel in the shower and dressing room areas.  We need to get above the drain pipes...  well...  very near to covering the drain pipes.  The pavers and smooth gravel will add another 1-1/2 inches on top of this mini marble chip gravel.  

Today I managed to install the 4x4 posts around the shower area after I installed the flashing and gravel (what gravel we currently had on hand).  To the left of this large shower will be the dressing area.  There will be a roof over the entire shower and dressing area too.  

I still have a lot of work to do but I had a surprisingly productive day today...  I can barely walk (my extensive spinal injuries are screaming) but it was a productive day.  I will likely have a down health day tomorrow.