Market Ready

A large walk-in shower could be a selling feature, but the answer really depends on your home’s size and the existing features.

“I see people wrestle with this question regularly,” said Michael Shapot, a senior vice president with the New York office of Keller Williams Realty. “The industry trend is to have walk-in spa showers.” However, he said, “There are people out there who need bathtubs.”

If you plan on renovating only one bathroom, and there is at least one bathtub somewhere else in the home, then “go for it,” Mr. Shapot said. But if you’re contemplating replacing your only tub, you should carefully consider the types of buyers who might be interested in your property.

“If the target market is empty nesters or the elderly, a walk-in shower is great,” Mr. Shapot said. A large luxury shower would also appeal to many single professionals.

“But if it’s a family-sized apartment that would appeal to a young couple that could grow into the apartment and have a child there — like a convertible two-bedroom — you need a tub.”

Robin Elmslie Osler, an architect in New York, said that her residential clients frequently request large walk-in showers. “I think it’s because the idea of taking a bath, in urban areas, carries a connotation of leisure and time,” she said. “And it doesn’t seem like that is something that New Yorkers, in particular, have much of.”

Bathrooms in urban apartments are also often quite cramped, she added, and a generously sized shower can be more appealing than a tiny bathtub — one of the reasons Ms. Osler hopes to replace her own tub with a shower someday soon.

If you do decide to convert your tub into a shower, she recommends using a glass panel to separate the shower stall from the rest of the bathroom, rather than a solid tiled wall. “If the shower is located somewhere near the window, and it’s glass, you can bring the light in,” she said. “We’ve used a lot of translucent glass, but I think clear glass is also a really nice way to go.”

To create an even greater sense of openness, she suggests forgoing a shower door — unless you plan on adding a steam generator or body sprays — and leave an opening at one end of the glass panel, which “visually extends the space of the bathroom.”

For a seamless look, she also recommends using the same type of flooring you have in the shower in the rest of the bathroom, whether it’s concrete, stone or ceramic tile.

The shower can then be finished off with high-quality fittings (Ms. Osler prefers Dornbracht controls for modern or traditional bathrooms), and maybe a rain showerhead, “if there’s enough water pressure in the building.”

2e Adventure Tiles: Dungeon Expansion 02

Mapping out a detailed dungeon for your players to maneuver their minis on can be a chore. With a good gridded battlemat and a handful of wet erase markers, straight rooms and corridors are easy enough to plot out. Large, detailed circular rooms tend to become simple squared halls. Transitioning over to printed tile sets often gets you the same type of rooms you would comfortably draw freehand.

The second dungeon expansion to SkeletonKey Games’ 2e Adventure Tiles provides the GM with a large 75’ circular room. Two versions of the room are provided: a dragon cult room and a “plain” room. The dragon-themed version has a central dais, a dragon statue, worn floor stencils, and copious amount of litter. The plain version has an additional entrance and support pillars. The plain version is designed such that you could print out one side of the room twice and swap the second copy of the side for the opposite wall, giving you a room with four to eight columns. This tile set also contains two special tiles that make this room transition into some of SkeletonKey’s earlier tile sets.

These tiles run 6” square, which means there is a lot of white space left on the page after printing. Most tiles from other manufacturers run 8” square. This means if you take the set out to have professionally printed on cardstock you are getting 56 cents for your printing dollar, compared to other tiles.

At $5.99 this tile set is a bit more expensive than comparable tile sets from other manufacturers. The set’s twenty pages of tiles appear to make only two rooms, the dragon shrine room and the plain room. If you factor in being able to swap portions of each room with each other, as well as combining the corner pieces to make a smaller 35’ round room, the price is much more reasonable.

There are cheaper tiles of similar quality being made by other manufacturers, but if you purchase 2D tiles based only on price you will miss out on a well-designed round room. This particular room fills a void found in many 2D tile offerings.

New Quicksilver Catalog Updates SilverDust Products

QuickSilver Controls new 48 page catalog provides a review of the full range of QuickSilver's motors, drives, and controls that feature their high pole count, 2phase permanent magnet motors when operated in a vector control made as a full 4 quadrant servo motor system. QuickSilver's electronic drives and controls utilize size 17, 23, and 34 hybrid step motors as full brushless servo motors. Copious motor performance torque-speed curves are supplied.

Continuous torque for the smaller Size 17 brushless PM motors starts at 35 oz-in at 900 rpm (35 watts) duty up to 700 oz-in at 1500 rpm (700 watts) for the Size 34 brushless servo motor. Maximum speeds are 4000 rpm. The SilverDust controls product line RS232, RS435, and CANopen protocols with Ethernet and Modbus TCP as an option. Voltages range from 3.5 amps in the smaller Size 17 and 23 SilverDust drives and up to 10 amps in the large Size 34. Typical input voltages are 12 vdc to 48 vdc.

The SilverDust controller uses sophisticated motion control algorithms to maximize the high torque capability and properly handle very high load inertias reaching 100:1 inertia mismatch.

The Romance Reader: 'Quicksilver'

"Quicksilver" by Amanda Quick; Putnam (2011), 327 pages, $25.95 (hardcover)

Once again, Amanda Quick takes readers to the shadowy side of Victorian England in her latest installment of the Arcane Society series.

"Quicksilver" is the second in a trilogy within the series.

This three-part story began in Jayne Ann Krentz's contemporary book "In Too Deep," when psychically talented Fallon Jones and Isabella discover ultra dangerous psychically charged weapons that had been created during Victorian times.

This second installment takes us back to the initial discovery of these strange yet deadly weapons by Owen Sweetwater and Virginia Dean. (Amanda Quick and Jayne Castle are pseudonyms for Krentz. She writes historical books as Quick, and futuristic stories as Castle and contemporaries as Krentz.)

Like the other heroes and heroines of the Arcane series, Owen and Virginia use their psychic abilities to pursue evil and evildoers. And in this case, evil weapons.

Virginia has a psychical ability that allows her to "read mirrors." Basically, she can look into mirrors and reveal what they have seen. She uses that talent to make a living for herself, rather like a fortuneteller.

Owen's psychic abilities help make him a good investigator.

When Owen saves Virginia one night, the couple becomes a team, searching for a serial killer who uses psychic talent and psychic weapons. While it's a dangerous mission, Owen and Virginia find time to fall in love with each other. It's a rather tepid courtship (at least in most ways), but by the end, Virginia understands that Owen definitely means business and that his love is pretty absolute.

The world that Quick immerses readers in with this series is a bit different than the usual view of balls and high society courtships with rides through Hyde Park. It's a less glamorous part of that world, with characters that are just on the fringes of that "high society." But that sets the scene for the shadowy world the characters must roam to thwart the bad guys.

HOW IT STACKS UP

Overall rating: 3-plus of 5 hearts. As in previous books in this series, the psychic stuff can become tedious. But the underlying story is interesting, the intrigue is compelling and the characters and their interaction with one another is engaging enough to overlook any wearisome passages.

Hunk appeal: 10. Owen is a rather enlightened guy for Victorian England. He appreciates Virginia's talents and independence. He balances that with his need to protect the woman he loves - and it's another point in his favor that he recognizes and accepts how much he needs Virginia in his life early in the story.

Steamy scene grade: XXXX. May be why he so easily accepted.

Happily-Ever-After: Good. Owen gets to be a hero, and all the loose ends are tied up. Well, at least as pertain to this segment of the trilogy. The final, a futuristic under Krentz's pseudonym of Jayne Castle, is due out in the Fall.

Also this week ...

"Fortune's Just Desserts," by Marie Ferrarella (2011 paperback) 3 of 5 hearts. This April Harlequin book is another in the "Fortunes" series. In this cute, fun and quick read, Wendy Fortune has been sent from her Atlanta home to Texas to end her aimless ways. Her parents prevail on a friendship with the Mendozas to secure Wendy a job in their restaurant. Restaurant manager Marcos isn't happy about it, and doesn't hide the fact that he neither respects nor likes the heiress. But Wendy isn't what he expected, and while he refuses for most of the book to accept that, by the end he not only recognizes her aptitude and talents, he really appreciates the - some more than others.