Marc's Musings Reality from Marc's point of view!

The counter arrived today with the sinks attached. I’m kind of glad I was busy at the time (I’m working at home so I can be available for issues but *do* actually need to get my day job done..) ’cause there are a couple of places where door trim got scratched/scraped enough to need repair.

The new counter looks very nice

* WPG2 Plugin Not Validated *

The mirror still needs to be ordered and will hopefully be ready soon. We had the old mirror cut and mounted in the gym so I could do manly poses between reps

Note the handles on the drawers /doors of the vanity.

The fixtures are called Pegasus and I find them pretty attractive.

One side-effect of raising the height of the vanity is that the plumbing was still low for the original faucets/drain. So we needed slightly longer connecting pipes than expected to hook up the new faucets.

Here are the new towel bars. Man, these cost a small fortune but they look very attractive. They’re from the Baldwin Cecina collection and we picked them up from Home Depot Expo

* WPG2 Plugin Not Validated *

Above is Mich’s side, and below is mine

* WPG2 Plugin Not Validated *

I didn’t note yesterday that the safety bars had been installed in the bath area. Mich was against this at first. But a few trials of stepping into and out of the much deeper tub convinced her that, esthetics aside, this is a good idea.

We elected to have a 24″ side-bar for those times when your eyes are full of soap and you may need to steady yourself. It can also be used to help haul yourself out of the bath when you’re seated in it. Also, this configuration keeps it out of your elbow’s way when standing in the shower. I didn’t want to make things feel too narrow.

* WPG2 Plugin Not Validated *

and then one at the back to help getting in and out. Originally we were going to have it either up and down or on an angle like the one above but we did let some esthetics creep in and went with it running across like you see below. Having it on an angle was a little weird looking and up and down just seemed to be in the way when you tried to enter the tub.

* WPG2 Plugin Not Validated *

Here is the new shower head and faucet. Both made by Grohe. The faucet is thermo-balanced so it’s supposed to maintain a set temperature no matter what happens with your water pressure / hot water supply.

* WPG2 Plugin Not Validated *

It’s heinously expensive (compared to what *I* think such things should cost) but I was sold by the intelligent design. Turn the handle counterclockwise and water comes out the faucet. The further you turn, the more water pressure. Turn it clockwise and the water comes out the shower head. Most of the single handle designs I saw seem to have only one flow setting: FULL. To control the temprature there is a knob in the middle. You turn it counter-clockwise until it stops and your water will be 100 degrees. Push it in and keep turning it to go as hot as you like. Turn it clockwise to make the water colder. Wherever you leave it the temperature will be maintained for you.

Here is a picture showing the faucet in relation to the tub. Note that we deliberately offset it so that a) it wouldn’t make as much noise and b) someone can sit there comfortably without having a faucet poking them in the back of the head.

* WPG2 Plugin Not Validated *

By the way, that little white thing to the right of the faucet? *That’s* the overflow. You can actually use ALL of the tub for soaking.

Tomorrow Tommy and Larry will address a number of smaller items in addition to completing the plumbing for the vanity faucets (they came with plastic connectors to the drain actuators and they would like to replace those with steel ones). Then there will be a bit of a hiatus as we wait for the new counter for the guest bathroom and Mich has decided that she likes the cabinets so much that she wants to order our bed tables from Cherokee Cabinet as well. We’ve got a little planning to do to sort out the design for both of these.

Work on the guest bathroom will likely not commence until the week of June 4th (holidays and all for some of the suppliers involved making it hard to get supplies this coming week).

Posted under On the Home Front

The cabinet and vanity now have handles. I forgot to take a picture of the vanity but here is one of the cabinet

* WPG2 Plugin Not Validated *

A closer look at our casement window with the brushed nickel accents

* WPG2 Plugin Not Validated *

And our new Gerber toilet. Wow! It sure packs a wallop! When you flush it NOTHING will be left behind (pardon any puns that may come from that sentence..).

* WPG2 Plugin Not Validated *

I like it enough that I’m thinking of replacing our other two toilets with it. But I do have reservations about how enthusiastic Mich will be with flushing it in the wee hours of the morning. It is low flow and well engineered but there is no missing that flushing noise.

Posted under On the Home Front

Much of the wallpaper is now up, trim has been painted and we’re quickly moving toward finishing touches.

Here shows the wallpaper, trim and sconce in the vanity area

* WPG2 Plugin Not Validated *

Here is a close-up of one of the sconce lights

* WPG2 Plugin Not Validated *

The water closet is now partially wallpapered

* WPG2 Plugin Not Validated *

Posted under On the Home Front

Today the bedroom wall and the window trim were painted.

* WPG2 Plugin Not Validated *

Also, Tommy added the power bar to our new cabinet so that we can keep our laptop and various recharging things in the bedroom and out of sight.

* WPG2 Plugin Not Validated *

The shower doors were installed. These we picked up from Home Depot Expo (Keystone by Maax, Frameless Tub doors). The glass doors weigh in at a hefty 80 to 100 pounds each. They look very nice and were much less expensive than some of the custom items we looked at and every bit as attractive.

One ‘nit was that one of the acrylic handles was wrapped a little differently than the other. It turned out to not only have a slight scratch in it (which was magnified when you looked at it through the handle) but it also was not formed properly. The two bends in the handle were NOT at 90 degrees so the handle simply did not fit on the door. I suspect somebody had already returned that handle and it somehow ended up in our box.

We’ll see about swapping it at Home Depot Expo next week.

* WPG2 Plugin Not Validated *

And the view toward the front of the bath

* WPG2 Plugin Not Validated *

And here is our finished ceiling. The bulb over the bathtub is on a dimmer for setting a relaxing mood in the soaker tub. In the middle is a 250 watt heat lamp on a timer. Next is a normal can light which will house a compact flourescent bulb. Behind that is the Panasonic FV-05VF2 WhisperFit 50 CFM Low Profile Ceiling Mounted Fan. This we selected based on the recommendation of Consumer Reports. It’s much quieter than our former fan and has much more suction too. As an added bonus this one vents outside through the roof instead of into the attic like our old fan did.

* WPG2 Plugin Not Validated *

Posted under On the Home Front

This little turtle definitely has a spirit worthy of our fun loving “Zippy”. Zippy had a great personality and did this with both our cat and our iguana. The pecking order had nothing to do with size and everything to do with hutzpah.

Posted under Amusing

While not 100% the way it is, this is close enough to be worthy of a good belly laugh.

Woo-Woo!

Posted under Amusing

I got a nice little mention on Shak & Jill‘s blog. Check out the May 11 entry entitled “Money Pit or Great Project?” . Her blog is focused largely on real-estate apects of homes – Buying, Improving, Selling.

Posted under General