Cob and Bathrooms

[Keftydia at aol.com]

Hi all,

I'm still designing/dreaming of the home I want to build.  My dream bathroom
has a sunken tub and a separate open shower.  However, this brings concerns
regarding the use of cob in high moisture (and possibly wet) areas of the
home.  While I'm sure cob will be fine for the actual walls of the bathroom, I
don't feel it's suitable for shower walls and/or backsplashes.  I think any
material put on the walls as a moisture barrier could be detrimental to the
cob, ultimately causing structural damage.

So, my question is, for those of you living in cob homes, what steps have you
taken to protect showers and other high-moisture areas?  I'm thinking of using
tile or some other moisture-proof material, but at the same time I'd like to
keep the home as natural as possible and avoid using any type of mass-produced
building materials.  But if cob will work, that would be great.  I think in
previous posts Uwe (Tag Uwe!) has recommended a soap-like wateproofing for use
with cob.  Plus I've read the posts concerning cob cisterns and such, so I'm
curious what the rest of you think.

Oh...for anyone curious enough to look, I've posted a quick page of the house
and plans at http://members.aol.com/keftydia/dreamhome.htm.  The house is
ambitious, so I may well scale it down, but I don't think it's unmanageable.

Metta to all,

Ron Cameron