Time to move this down the line of threads ;) Wanted to share that penninsula park smells and looks amazing today and if you are looking for something to do this week it is quite spectacular at the moment and worth a visit. Pictures do not do it justice...but to wet the imagination...

Thanks for the practical advice - that's exactly the kind of thing that would cross my mind. And it isn't even the semi-pro range that one needs to consider with long hair. Watch out for those lower BTU candles too. We were at a holiday party when I noticed the distinct aroma of singed hair and turned to see the woman next to me with long strands of hair dangling over a candle.

With handheld shower head, they typically come with a wall mounting bracket...it can be a bracket on a sliding bar, a bracket on the shower arm that comes out of the wall, or just a plain old wall bracket, for example. You can usually buy additional wall brackets. So, for example, you could keep your "main" handshower set up where it is located in Figure 1, then mount an additional wall mounted handheld bracket near, or over, the bench. You want water on the bench? Just take the handheld off the main bracket and hang it on the bracket on the wall over the bench. Here's an example of a secondary wall bracket, you'll obviously find different configurations for different manufacturers: In several showers I've mounted a wall bracket low on the wall, at thigh/knee height, for shaving legs. So it's not uncommon to have one handheld and several wall brackets that the handheld can be moved around to. You have a 60" shower with mobility issues, so get the longest hose you can for your handheld. 8' long hoses are fairly common. It'll assist with not just showering, but cleaning the shower too. Being able to extend the handheld across the entire shower, or to the other side of a bench or wheelchair, will make things much easier. I understand the desire for the fold-down bench, and the fold-down is indeed a better option than a fixed or tile-in-place type of bench when a wheelchair may be needed in the future. But in showers where mobility may truly be an issue, I do recommend a removable bench or stool. It can be placed wherever needed in the shower. It can be used by a caregiver or by the one needing care. It can be removed from the shower and used as a seat outside the shower if needed. Another option is a "walker/seat" sort of like this one, you can use it to steady yourself as you move in and out of the shower, and to sit on as needed. It's not the prettiest, but it's the first one that came up in a search: There are "medical" looking seats like the one above, and nicer looking ones made from wood, or metal and wood. You can always install the fold down as you have planned, and add a removable bench down the road if the fold down alone doesn't suit your needs. Grab bars...good to think of this now. To economize, you'll want to plan out the bar locations and add solid "2-by" blocking behind the tile backer board for the grab bars to be mounted to. As an alternative to solid blocking, the best grab bar anchors I've found are Wing-It anchors. Expensive, but you can do chin-ups on grab bars mounted with Wing-Its: You have a 30" grab bar on the "north" wall and a 24" grab bar on the "east" wall. I'd recommend running those closer to, or right through, the northeast corner of the shower. That way someone standing under the fixed shower head has an easily accessed grab bar on either of the adjacent walls. I'd consider adding a 24" grab bar in front of the handheld as well. One other thing to consider...most handheld showers that mount on a vertical "slide bar", the slide bar is flimsy plastic, or thin-gauge metal. Not something you'd want to depend on to steady yourself if you had to grab hold of it. There are a few manufacturers that use a slide bar that is rated as a grab bar. They are structurally secure. Sort of the best of both worlds. And finally, you could use something like the following for your hand held shower head; a handheld bracket that can mount to a real world grab bar. Hope this helps more than it confuses. Best of luck with this project.

Bummer, it requires Microsoft's "SilverLight" for viewing. On Linux or a Mac or an old Windows machine, it's not viewable.