Bathroom Renovation #3

Do you remember this post of the lovely taps I had choosen for our bathroom. Well guess what when I went back to get them a week later they had been discontinued! They did have one set in stock. "Great" I said "But can you just check that they are suitable for our water system". After a lot of humming and phoning the manufacturer the answer was "Hmm no actually this tap will not work for your water system." Back to square one on the tap choice.After a lot more browseing and hmming. A bit of stropping out of a shop because the sales assistant said I could only have the ugly taps over there with my water system. I will show her I thought. We have choosen the above taps, which are not ugly.

And of course the above matching shower mixer. Which will also work with our hot water system.

Then there is the umming and arghing involved in the choice of shower. Why do I have to be so fussy. We can't have a large shower head with our hot water system, obviously. The shower to match the taps and mixer is a bar type that looks like a microphone, handy for singing in the shower, but not that good looking. Remember I mentioned that I am really fussy and have ideas. Well I had an idea in my head about a floating shelf to put the new basin on. Peter was keen on the idea too. So the nice man at Kirsten's recycling yard has made a brilliant shelf for us. I picked it up today and had to try the new basin on it. I love it, exactly what I wanted. I can't wait to see it all finished.

Sorry can't find a picture of the shower cubicle, it is just a standard frameless shower, with two walls tiled in standard white tiles.

Oh and we are still sticking with the green colour originally choosen. There was a little wobble and another three sample pots tried, thank you to Bruce (who knows everything about paint) at Tumu for mixing them up for me for free. But after all that the one we choose last time is still favourite.

Oh and an apology for boring you with all these details.

Bathroom Renovation #2

The plans are drawn up, the building consent application has been submitted, the fittings are ordered (more about them soon) and the builder is standing by to get started. It then dawned on me that we would need to choose a paint colour. Now you may think that I should do that when the bathroom is finished. Unfortunatly the builder would like me to whizz in and paint the bathroom one evening between the walls being completed and before the fittings, tiles and toilet are installed! I think he is punishing me because I want to do the painting myself. Choosing colours for me takes a long time, both Peter and I are very very fussy and always want the exact right shade. The choosing usually starts with me standing in a shop picking up random colour charts to take home. Our bathroom, which is to become a shower room is small and quite dark, so I thought we would need something bright. Not red for a bathroom. Not yellow as to bright. Not blue as too cold and that is the colour it is at the moment. Not white as all the fittings are white. Which leaves us with green or greeney cream.
Then a few choices are stuck up on the wall, to be hummed over. This is where Peter usually joins in. Against the white the cream did look a bit grubby, so we decided to go for a green.
Next step the sample pots. After waiting for what seemed like hours for somebody to mix up the paint, and being told how to choose a colour by the instore colour consultant, we left with a batch of pots to try. When we got home, one of the pots contained pink paint, we gave that a miss. The pale greens either looked to minty or to bright (yes I know I thought we needed something bright, I was wrong). I think we are going to go with the middle green. Very similar to the colour in our lounge and on one wall of the hall, perhaps a couple of shades lighter.
Finally with one colour choosen and because the whole bathroom is getting ripped out and re gibbed, I have been able to almost paint a whole wall from the one little test pot. We can live with it for a week or so until the builders get started and see if it is really what we want.

I am so looking forward to getting rid of the plastic bowl we have to use as a basin, because of the huge hole in the bathroom basin. You would not belive how many times I have got wet feet by pouring the water from the bowl into the cracked sink, instead of the bath. And I am so looking forward to having a pantry in my kitchen. But not looking forward to the upheavable involved in getting there, or of having to share one toilet and shower between Peter, myself and the two teenage boys. I think my middle son crawls out of bed and sleeps standing up in the shower he is in there so long in the mornings. Though it could be worse they could have been teenage girls.

Renovation Shopping #1

This is the tap I want to go over my new sink. Not what we planned on, but as soon as I saw it I thought, yip that's it. The very helpful man in Carters in Hastings held it up for me to take a quick snap so I could show Peter. Sorry about this, but you will have to be patient with me while I bore you to tears with pics of bathroom fittings for the next few months.