Thanks, I am very short, with short arms. I thought about turning the shower head to the wall, but unfortunately, there are 2 of us and I know my husband won’t remember to turn the shower head. The handle in the bottom picture might be easy to flip on and jump out of the way. I really didn’t want to put in bypass doors, but I really hate cold water.

before you turn on the shower, step inside and turn the shower head to the wall. step out, turn on lever. or tell husband to help you out.

there's a slight delay when hitting the lever and the water coming out. you should be fine.

Thank you. I am also checking out your suggestion for the Smart Shower option. BTW- You did a beautiful job on your neighbor’s shower. That glass is amazing!

thank you. they're very happy w/it.

BTW, the Kohler purist fixtures here, and on the vanity, were purchased seperately off amazon.

would you believe it was cheaper this way then going to lowes and getting an all-inclusive pack?

all of these fixtures came to less than $800

(and kohler has lifetime guarantee on their finishes. or maybe it's 5 years. I had one in my own shower that was coming off. sent them a pic and they sent me a new shower head. So save your receipts !)

We have a shower door that is hinged so it can open either by pushing it inward or pulling it outward. Our control lever is on the same wall as the shower head which makes it easier to reach in and with the delay there is time to get out of the spay. Having your control on the opposite wall seems awkward and I can't say I've seen this configuration before.

Thanks. The pic is just an example of the shower door configuration we wanted. I wasn’t sure how to reach around the glass to get to the controls and get out in time before getting soaked.

The controls are on the right, opposite end from shower head. you open door, turn on shower and voila, are still dry.

Just get a handheld shower head - get in the shower, take it of the wall mount, turn on the control and hang it back up when water is warm. Hold it away from you - works perfectly in our shower - same configuration

Looks to me like you already have the solution. Faucet on the right, shower head left. Works very well for us and so easy. I don’t know why all showers aren’t like that.

The valve to turn on the shower is one end of the shower where we can reach it through the door. The shower head is on the opposite end of the shower where the glass panel is fixed

Wehave identical set up with the kohler handle Beth mentioned and it works perfect. One difference is we have a large rain style shower head and I do not get wet. Being able to preset the hot/cold water flow means I don’t have to adjust before getting in. (ok - I get in after about one minute 😉).

Since you're building it from scratch, just see if the plumber can move the controls to the opposite wall like in your inspiration pic. It might be surprisingly easy and affordable (or not, lol). But I'd sure check.

Moving the plumbing to the opposite side may or may not be an undertaking depending on what's behind the walls. I would consider what someone else had suggested, a handheld showerhead on a slider. This gives you so much more convenience, you can raise or lower the showerhead if someone much taller or shorter than you needs to shower (for someone 6' or taller it's annoying to bend over to get under a fixed head that's installed too low) and until you've used one, you don't know how convenient it is to clean your shower with a handheld shower. Spray on whatever cleaner you want and grab the handheld to hose off all the walls. Grohe makes some nice ones that are great quality and won't break the bank.

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This may be what others are describing, I'm kind of plumbing challenged: we have an arced rain shower head and a handheld mounted on the wall to its right, with the control lever underneath the rainshower pipe. More like Beth's neighbor's set-up. The control lever only turns on the handheld's water, not the rainshower's.

The handheld is far enough to the right that I don't get wet when I turn on the water. I guess if the handheld was pointed at the door it could get you, but not when it's facing straight into the shower.

(Rainshower gets turned on via a button that doesn't get pushed until water is warm.)

I had exactly the same concern when thinking about a fixed panel for my shower. I got a couple of quotes on the glass which came in around $3k. I decided to go with a white cotton shower curtain. It cost me $50 for curtain and rod, it's infinitely configurable ie I can reach in to turn the shower on and then close the curtain again, It keeps all the water off the curb and it's easier to keep clean as I just put it in the laundry once a week.

But if you must have glass, just make sure you can access the valve from outside the shower, so put it close to the opening or I have seen holes cut in the glass panels.

That's quite a bit for glass panels! We have a single piece of glass, frameless, with two chrome hinges and a plastic sweep on the bottom. We upgraded to 1/2" glass (which is a nice luxury, IMHO) and it was less than $1,000 here in San Diego. It's a bath/shower combo so a shorter piece of glass but I can't imagine a pricetag that high, unless you maybe have more than one panel and a frame or something else. Unless it's just inflation! Curious if your quotes were via a bath showroom or a window & glass place. We got ours through a window & glass place.

"how do you start the shower on cold mornings without getting blasted with cold water?"

Easy: forget the swing door, install a sliding door, and locate the shower head on the same wall as the valves (i.e., on the right).

1. There is plenty of attractive sliding door hardware.
2. You'll only have to slide the door open a few inches to reach the valves.
3. The valves will be conveniently located near where you will be standing to shower rather than across the stall.
4. Changes in water temperature will be felt immediately rather than after a long delay because the water won't have to travel all the way from the valve across the length of the shower stall to the shower head.

@Karin W I'm glad that the quotes were quite expensive as it was the final nail in the glass panel coffin. A curtain does not look as sleek or "designer" as glass, but I find it works better and certainly costs a fraction of the money.

Number 1 advantage of a shower curtain: you won't have to upgrade the shower.