Browsing Archives for Loo

Originally posted October 2007

For the past year, Dennis and Jordan have shown up just about everyday to work on this house.

Aside from electric, plumbing, foundation, interior paint and some dirt work, they have done the work themselves. Framing, roofing, trimming, staining, siding, stairs, windows, doors, and the trillions of tasks in between.

Did I ever mention that Jordan is Dennis’s grandson?

Jordan usually calls Dennis, “Boss” or “Bossman” or sometimes “D”. Every once in a while though…

He calls him “grandpa.”

They make a great team.

I have boys. Four boys. In their current bathroom, they have four drawers. Two of them are completely empty. They do not need curling irons, barettes, ribbons, clippies, head bands, lip gloss, eye shadow, hairspray, self tanning lotion, mirrors, moisturizer, loofahs, nail polish, jewelry, or hot wax. Their morning routine requires only a comb and a toothbrush. Thus the empty drawers.

I grew up in a house of women. Our bathroom was very different. Between my sister and I we probably had twelve different kinds of avon perfume in collector ceramic figurines. The bride was my favorite. We also had a vast collection of Mary Kay cosmetics in pink plastic cases. Our bright yellow vanity was littered with hot rollers, a regular curling iron, a brush curling iron, a blow dryer, combs, brushes, and a pink plastic pick.

We fought a lot in that bathroom. I learned later that the color yellow can stimulate aggression, so I blame the bright yellow vanity on which our hot curling irons rested. We often picked them up and used them as battering rams agains each other. My boys fight in the bathroom too, but thankfully all they’ve got are toothbrushes, and hot water.

This is the cabinetry color and the possible choices for the boys vanity top where no hot curling irons will ever be used as branding irons during their lucky little childhoods.

Feel free to vote – I don’t know how many more of these type of decision I can make before I short circuit and throw myself on the mercy of my mom and sister who will gladly come in and decorate my entire house for me. With little to no regard for my opinions.

Is there anything more fun than shopping for hardware? Sink hardware, tub hardware, door hardware, cabinet hardware, the end must surely be in site, if I find myself shopping for these particular items.

Our plumber, a man of infinite patience and wisdom has a preference for Delta, so most of our plumbing hardware is coming from that company. Our kitchen sink is a massive old farmhouse sink that I bought on E-bay. Then I bought another old sink on E-bay. Then I bought another old sink from Architectural Salvage in Kansas City. (A fabulous shop to which I plan to take you all on a little outing someday. We will then take a trolley ride and buy peanuts from the man with the monkey.) Then I joined Old Sinks Anonymous and switched from buying old sinks to buying old light fixtures.

I was worried that finding hardware for these old sinks would be difficult, but they are all standard 8 inch on centers. Doesn’t that make me sound impressive, like I actually KNOW something useful? Here were my top two choices

Faucet #1

Faucet #2

I actually didn’t pick my favorite one (the first one) because I just didn’t think it suited the sink as much. So I went with faucet #2. In the shiniest, chromiest most glaring finish they offered – which was plain old standard chrome. Aren’t you all relieved!

We are also doing that Victorian faucet in the master bath, but for they boys I chose this faucet.

Seemed a little simpler to operate for my little simpletons.

Oh yeah – that’s right – it’s my birthday – toilet shopping today…

I made our selection from the Toto Co. – or as I like to say totoco. And now for a few very important factoids regarding toilet purchasing.

1. Universal height is just about an inch shorter than official ADA. So go with universal and save

2. Universal is nice for people with handicaps and people who are tall – like me and mine.

3. G-Max flushing is what you want if you have people in your home or on holiday visits, who tend to plug things up.

4. There’s other more serious flushing available if you need even more power, but it can be noisy. You may want to think twice before adding the power flush in the bathroom adjacent to the dining room.

5. Don’t put bathrooms adjacent to dining rooms.

6. I grew up with a bathroom right by the dining room. I don’t know how many times I was forced to listen to various people “using” the bathroom during dinner. My sister and I never used that bathroom.

7. My mother rarely shuts the door when she uses the bathroom. Especially the one by the dining room. This was very embarrassing for me growing up, and has resulted in various bathroom psychoseseseses.

8. I think a pretty toilet is worth the extra cash. I mean hey – why not? It is one of the most important seats in the house. It should be nice.

9. Can’t think of anything else.

10. Goodbye.

It sure would have helped me if I had been able to find a resource to show me the difference between grout colors for our tile flooring. The tiny slivers that display the grout color options at Home Depot are grossly inadequate. Finally after seven entire minutes of frustration, I threw up my hands, closed my eyes and pointed and chose the grout color closest to my index finger.

However, after a recent trip to the Brookville Hotel, I am at least able to offer a few pictures comparing a hex tile with black grout and a hex tile with white grout, so that maybe a few people in the world will not have to endure the seven minutes of agony that I did. I hope you appreciate this! I am just trying to make EVERYONE else’s life easier than my own. That is what I do best!

Black and white one inch hex tile with black grout as seen in the Brookville Hotel.

Black and white one inch hex tile with white grout as seen in the mudroom bath at my house.

White two inch hex tile with gray grout as seen in the master bath at my house.

White two inch hex tile with no grout, but it kind of looks like black grout if you want an idea of what that would look like.

Now maybe…just maybe…I have made someone in the world’s life a little easier. That is all I could ever hope for.

I have a thing for old sinks. I have tried all sorts of new age therapies, homemade herbal remedies and straight up chemical detox and I still have a thing for old sinks. I just think they are soooooo beautiful. Why did they stop making them?

Oh! Maybe because they weight 17 tons. People must have been tougher in the old sink days. Because I can’t fathom why they would even bother installing these things when instead, they could just wait until it rains to wash their dishes. That is how heavy these things are! What were the shipping costs? Plumbers must have been former professional weight lifters!

I bought the kitchen sink on E-bay. I looked for a long time trying to find one that I could afford and that had two bowls, at least one side which had to be fairly deep. I was hoping for both an apron front and a backsplash, but the price on this one was hard to beat. This one was listed under “old sinks” instead of “vintage” or “antique” sinks – so it did not get nearly the bids that some of the sinks I was going for received. As a result it was truly a bargain. Until you ADD THE SHIPPING!!!

And above is pictured our lovely laundry room sink which I also got on EBay, for 10 bucks. It was located close by, so I picked it up and paid zero shipping. It is in pretty rough shape. I may have to get it re-surfaced. Which will make it not such a bargain anymore.

Above is pictured our main floor bathroom sink. It was originally a wall sink. When I bought it , it was in almost perfect condition. The large chip happened while at the cabinet shop. They are going to pay for the repair. I decided to have the sink placed on a base. I think a longer “skirt board” is needed as well as a shelf on the lower half to sort of break up those very long legs. I am going to paint the wood when it is all done. Trust me – this is going to look great. You just have to believe.

And here is our free footed tub. Eric, our plumber salvaged it out of a rental house he owns. He told us if we got it out of the house, we could have it. It will also have to be re-finished. I was under the impression we could get it re-finished on site, so we hauled it up the stairs to the master bath. However, since I would like both the inside and the outside of the tub re-finished, it has to be done in the re-finisher’s shop. So now, we have to haul it back down the stairs. A task I will probably try and accomplish today. So if I never post again, you will know that I have perished – crushed beneath a twenty ton tub.