“Rocket City Rinse” – A Shower Renovation in Huntsville, Alabama
At Custom Bath & Shower, we’ve seen our fair share of unique bathroom situations. But working in Huntsville, Alabama—aka Rocket City—you come to expect a bit of engineering in just about everything. So when we got a call from Marvin, a retired aerospace technician who spent three decades at Redstone Arsenal, we knew this job might involve more than just tile and trim.
“I want a shower that works like a mission launch,” Marvin said during our first meeting. “No nonsense. Efficient. And no chance of slipping and breaking my hip on reentry.”
Marvin was a hoot—sharp, sarcastic, and incredibly precise. His existing shower was a bit dated, with a swinging door that jammed like an old satellite hatch and a base that had lost its footing, literally. “It creaks louder than the floor of the Saturn V display,” he grinned.
The space wasn’t huge, but it had potential. Marvin didn’t want anything too flashy—”I’m not trying to impress NASA,” he quipped—but he did want it to feel clean, safe, and functional. And, as he repeatedly pointed out, “absolutely zero chance of water leaking and causing a hull breach.”
We opted for a custom walk-in shower, sleek and streamlined, with solid wall panels in a sandstone finish that gave the space a warm, grounded feel (Marvin liked that—“Looks like the lunar surface, but less dusty”). The new shower featured a built-in niche for soap and shampoo—Marvin called it his “payload bay”—and we installed a sturdy, low-profile grab bar, which he immediately tested with what can only be described as mission-control enthusiasm.
“Now this is a structural integrity I can believe in!” he declared, hanging from it like he was testing G-forces.
The highlight, however, was the sliding glass door—one frosted panel for privacy, one clear for light. Marvin appreciated the dual-pane approach. “Reminds me of the old Gemini modules—half tech, half mystery.” He even joked about putting a countdown sticker on the wall: T-minus 10 minutes to rinse.
We also adjusted the showerhead to be extra ergonomic—Marvin insisted on calling it “nozzle positioning optimization”—so it was easy on the neck and shoulders. The end result was exactly what he wanted: simple, functional, and rock solid.
During the install, Marvin kept us laughing with his detailed critiques of everything from local BBQ joints (“Big Bob Gibson’s is good, but give me a pulled pork sandwich at a gas station any day”) to the Alabama weather. “You try working on satellite guidance systems when it’s 98 degrees with 99% humidity. That’s real rocket science.”
In the end, Marvin got the shower he deserved—one that would pass any inspection, terrestrial or otherwise. “If this had been in Houston,” he said, toweling off on day one, “they never would’ve had a problem.”
We just hope he doesn’t retrofit it with launch thrusters. But knowing Marvin… we wouldn’t bet against it.
