I’m inching forward with getting the shower fixed, though it’s still far from usable. Today, the plumber came back and re-tiled the area around the new shower (which was installed a few weeks ago; I’ve been waiting for the plaster to dry out as it got rather damp due to the old shower leaking behind the tiles). I didn’t have enough of the old tiles spare, and they are obsolete now, so it’s a bit of a patchwork job using as many of the old tiles as he could reclaim, plus some new ones that are similar but clearly not identical. It looks a bit odd, but I think it will be ok overall. The alternative would have been to completely strip and re-tile the entire bathroom, and that would be unnecessarily expensive.
Unfortunately, the shower is still not usable, as the tiles need to be grouted and then sealed with silicon sealant – two separate jobs. The tile cement has to cure for at least 24 hours before the grout is applied, so that will mean a separate visit fitting in around the plumber’s other work. However, I’ve not paid him for the work he’s done today, so he has a significant incentive to finish the job! In the mean time, I’m getting used to using the weedy electric shower in my en-suite, so it will hopefully be a big improvement when I can finally use the new power shower.