Home Improvement Update

[darkemeralds]

Since Tread Riser and the Bathtub of Resuscitation, there have been delays in my bathroom remodel. Most of them have had to do with my own uncertainty about spending that much money.

So I decided to consult a real bathroom designer, and she and her sidekick visited the project site, aka my house, yesterday.


The verdict is mostly positive:

• My proposed layout received their professional approval.


• My choice of bathtub is very "now".


• The budget I've got might actually be enough. Barely. Maybe.


• They can specify all the technical stuff that I don't understand, like lighting. And complicated faucets. And where things like niches and grab-bars go.


• They didn't turn their noses up at my tiny house or the still-iffy neighborhood it's in.


• They both thought Monsoon was adorable, so I know they're good people.

On the other hand, there were a few disappointments:

• I really won't be able to go to Europe on any leftover money from the project, because there won't be any.


• My flooring choice (bamboo) is silly for a bathroom. So it's back to the drawing board on that.


• I can't begin to afford the heating system I wanted--and the hot-water system is in doubt.


• I will have to scale back my fantasies on the faucets and showerheads and stuff. Mid-range. Not high-end. Which makes sense. It's not a high-end house.

In two weeks we'll meet to go over a final design. Then, sometime after that, the nightmare of actual remodeling begins.

My 50th birthday is in December. It's my goal to celebrate it, at least in part, by getting up to my neck in hot water in my very own bathtub of resuscitation. Wish me luck.

Comments

[roxymissrose.livejournal.com]

How wild is this-- I was just thinking about your remodel and how it was going (yes, yes, i have no life of my own)
Lots of Luck! And keep us posted-- I hope ther are no wildly interesting posts about it, (in that 'may you live in interesting times' kind of way...)

[kispexi2.livejournal.com]

Argh! No! No con? Come on - you guys have an enormous deficit anyway, what's a few more hundred dollars?

Seriously, I'm very sad to think you won't be able to come over, but I can see the attractions of having a decent bathroom. Although I'd be wanting some hot water for it ...

Good luck.

[executrix.livejournal.com]

The designers work for *you* so where would they come off being snotty about your house and your neighborhood?

The good thing is that there's a knock-off for every fashionable object, so I bet a little bit of surfing will provide way-lower-cost alternatives for the faucets etc.

My 53rd birthday is in January, so put 'er there, pal.

[emeraldsedai.livejournal.com]

Well, the con isn't entirely out of the picture--the trip in question is the three-week walking tour extravaganza next summer. Now I'll actually have to save for that. Damn. I suck at saving.

The con is still probably on. After all, you only turn 50 once. Thank God. Gotta do something mad and tellable, right?

[emeraldsedai.livejournal.com]

Yay, tertiary prefrontal cortical development!

The meeting was in part to decide whether the design firm would be working for me. I was pleased that in a world of $150,000 bathroom remodels, my little fraction of that was of interest to the pros. And I was especially pleased that they got the whole small-but-cool city living thing. I didn't want a design firm that only does McMansions and starter chateaux.

[emeraldsedai.livejournal.com]

Aw! I was thinking about you, too, knowing you'd expressed some interest in The Bathtub and some solidarity on remodeling nightmares. I was hoping you might weigh in!

*waves at Roxy*

Hopefully it'll be just interesting enough to blog, but not interesting enough to make me completely insane.

[kispexi2.livejournal.com]

Oh, if you could just see my face now. I'm smiling. A rare event. I'd thought you'd escaped my evil clutches, but yay! not so much. My soul quota shall be filled, Dark Lord.

Mad and tellable, yes, let's make it that.

[kispexi2.livejournal.com]

Can a baby of just 48 put it there too?

[emeraldsedai.livejournal.com]

Quit yer braggin', kid.

[emeraldsedai.livejournal.com]

Sometimes, you know, you kind of scare me.

[kispexi2.livejournal.com]

But look how cute I am!

[executrix.livejournal.com]

Sure, kiddo. We need someone to feel sorry for because it was so much better Back in the Day.

[emeraldsedai.livejournal.com]

You really are. You look like a giddy girl of 23 in that photo. From what you tell me, the giddy part, at least, is perfectly true.

[forodwaith.livejournal.com]

Plumbing fixtures are ridiculously expensive. When we redid our kitchen two years ago I had to give up my dream of a goose-neck faucet with integral pull-out spout -- at least if I wanted a new dishwasher too. :P

Good luck with the remodel. I am eyeing your tub with envy. Hot water up to the neck, bliss...

[emeraldsedai.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I was going along blissfully looking at a set of faucets that I loved, knowing they were higher-end and thinking, "What, three, four hundred bucks?"

Yeah, TIMES FOUR! Holy crap. That was the point at which I started saying things like, "It's a tube. That water pours out of. My God, how much of one do I need?"