New Terlet!

It is a sad, sad testament to my life and what it has become when I am excited about buying a new toilet. Really, really sad. As Thom just pointed out, "We're not going to see some cool concert, we're not throwing a party, we're excited because we just bought a pooper." Yeah, that sums it up.

Despite how pathetic it might be, I am excited about my new toilet! After some pretty hard-core research and price comparison I marched down to our local Home Depot and bought this dual-flush sexy thing. 1.1/1.6 gallons per flush. Woosh! Earth friendly and awesome - who could ask for more?

I did read on the online reviews that the seat and wax ring that comes with it (it's an all-in-one model) are on the cheap side so I'll make sure to get new of each. My plan is to start the madness the week of Thanksgiving. No classes and we're not going anywhere so we'll see how much of a mess I can make.

Great Deals from ReStore for Bathroom

So my plan now is to just buy up everything for the upstairs bathroom as I'm able and then do it all in one fell swoop. I made my first foray today into the ReStore in Brewer, ME and was pleasantly surprised. I think I expected a whole bunch of reruns and yucky crap but they had some really nice seconds - and, sheesh, TONS of tile. I got two great deals that I'm pretty happy with - a bathroom faucet to replace our low-rent version in the downstairs bathroom for $9 (on Lowe's website it sells for $68).Also a new granite vanity top with attached undermount sink for the upstairs bathroom for $120 (from Lowe's - originally was $314 but has one little scratch near the faucet area). The picture here isn't exactly the same but it's close.So, we have a few items left to get: toilet (already picked out from HD - dual flush awesomeness), the faucets for the sink and the tub/shower, and then the doors for the vanity. I did decide to reuse the vanity we have in place - it's not exactly what I want but I found this great place that will make MDF doors for dirt cheap. My plan is to reuse the box we have but repaint it white and then attach the new doors. I also think I'm going to reuse our medicine cabinet - it's a bit groovy for the style we're going for but I think it might look cool if I repaint the gold frame silver. If not, oh well, maybe the ReStore will come again to my rescue.

Piecemealing the Bathroom: Tile and More

Recognize this sexy light? Yes, I think it was in my grandmother's kitchen too. Well, in the face of great adversity (or the lack of matching lighting) we have decided to do it up really old school and go with this light for the ceiling in the bathroom. It's certainly retro. It's chrome. And, you know what else? It's cheap! $20, baby. Which means, if we hate it, it's not the end of the world. I think it will go with the other lights pretty well. And, that's right, it's only $20.
After doing the bills this morning I found we had a few extra dollars left so I went ahead and ordered our accent tile for the bathroom and then made a trip to Lowe's for the extra white subway tile. We plan to do something somewhat similar to what we did for the kitchen backsplash but instead of interspersing glass tiles throughout we will do one stripe all the way across, probably about two-thirds of the way up. We had a bunch of the subway tiles left anyway so this will look nice, we think.

While at Lowe's I investigated backerboard for the tub surround area and came across this stuff by Georgia-Pacific called DensShield. It looks lighter and easier to cut and you don't need a vapor barrier. I think this is how we'll go, when we're ready.

I also thought a bit more about the lighting situation. The vanity lights that are currently there are the light/outlet combo type; obviously not to code. I thought, no problem, I'll just slap up a new electrical box under each light and we'll install GFCIs. I'm wondering though if it's actually more complicated than that and if this is a job for an electrician. I read something online that said we'd need a new breaker. Ick. What do y'all think?

Piecemealing the Bathroom: Lights

See them there pretty lights? They're outta here, dude. Since we had to use the last of my summer grant money on plane tickets for the holidays (we love you, family) we will be piece-mealing the upstairs bathroom together. The first thing to go will be these lights. God, I hate them. We instead got these nice ones from HomeDepot that are a little more 1920s-looking.

It says these are "brushed nickel" but they really are more chrome-like. The problem is now finding something relatively along the same lines for the overhead light in there. I'd like something that's more angular, like these, but that doesn't look like a woman's breast (if you've been light shopping lately you know what I'm talking about). I'm not having much luck.

In the meantime, I'm planning and plotting how to piece-meal the rest together. We desperately need to replace the toilet and I'd like to do the floor at the same time. However, as you can see from the photo above, we also have an issue with old cream-with-gold-flecked tile lining the walls as wainscoting. I think I can just take a utility knife and score around the room since the bathroom appears to have been redone in the 1970s or early 1980s with drywall so I can just replace the drywall there for now. I'm fine waiting on the tiling for the walls (if that is indeed what we decide to do). The big problem is the shower since it is tiled all the way around the outside of the bathtub and the entire inside of the shower/tub area, including the ceiling. I am not sure we can afford the new tile yet but I also don't think we can live with blueboard for too long in terms of wrecking it with our only shower in the house. Thoughts?