tubs and taps

Today's photos are from visits to various tubs, taps, and rug stores yesterday with Jeff and Ginny in preparation for our upcoming renovations in our New House (possession in 39 days!). Our planned renovations include:

(1) Adding a wall to the bedroom. At present, none of the rooms above the basement currently have doors except for the bathrooms; the current owner did this to open up the house, let in more light and space. We love the result, but before we bought the house, I insisted that we agree to get a door for the bedroom for privacy but mainly for my own sanity: I tend to get up earlier than Jeff and want to be able to use the rest of the house (have breakfast, shower, etc.) without waking him up.

(2) Revamping the master bathroom. The room is quite small, with a bathtub and no stand-up shower. We're going to be replacing pretty much everything, including the bathtub and vanity, replacing the tiles and wallpaper, adding a shower.



(3) Finishing my half of the basement so I can use it as a home office. Right now the room has a concrete floor and is not insulated for regular use; it was pretty cold when we've visited, and the cold floor chilled my feet even when I had slippers on the second visit.

We'll also be doing other renovationstuff like replacing the carpet, but the changes above are the major ones.

Anyway, now we're starting to choose bathroom stuff and carpetstuff. My mom-in-law used to be an interior designer, so was a huge help in taking us to places that specialize in the kind of things we need. But wow, what an overwhelming amount of choice. I've never seen so many different types of taps in one place, for example. And holy cow, some of the showers we saw were huge elaborate things, with all kinds of nozzles and buttons and settings. Jacuzzi tubs the size of small swimming pools. Crystal basins that looked like they'd be more at home in an art gallery than a bathroom. Computerized toilets. Taps that cost the same as a new iMac.



The photo at the top of the page is of me trying out a tub for size. I'm a HUGE fan of baths, as you may have noticed from past Blatherings. One of my favourite relaxation activities is soaking in a very deep tub with a dog-eared comfort book. Sometimes I'll pass on the book and just light candles, turn off the lights, float into blissland. Anyway, I did a lot of climbing in and out of tubs yesterday.

For me, the perfect tub needs to:

a) Be deep enough for a truly satisfying soak. I hate the tubs in most hotels because they're way too shallow. They also don't tend to have good enough lighting for reading, but I digress.

b) Have a comfortable back slope to lean against. Too vertical, and you end up sitting instead of leaning...a problem with some older tubs, and some claw tubs.

Everyone goes ga-ga over jacuzzi-style tubs, but we had one at our old place and I rarely used the jacuzzi feature. Too noisy and too much of a hassle for me. They also add about $1000 to the cost of a tub, so we opted for a non-jacuzzi style.



Eventually, Jeff and I hope to put in a Japanese style tub as well as a small sauna in the basement, but that will probably have to wait a while.

The photo at the bottom of the page is of the rug I think I've decided on for my home office. I wanted a relatively inexpensive but good quality carpet that was fairly hardy and with interesting colours or texture.

Thanks for all the feedback to my Mainstream chic post, in both private e-mail and public message board. One private e-mail reminded me of something else that drives me nuts: the tendency of some people to like a song UNTIL they hear it played on a popular radio station.

Anyway, here's a selection from the public postings:

Bill S.:

"You know, in the same way that just because lots of people like something it isn't necessarily GREAT, just because lots of people like something it isn't necessarily crap.

My taste is my taste, and my choices are my choices.

Of course, coming from someone who publicly admits to liking "Chevy Van" by Sammy Johns, this probably means nothing *grin*"



Annie W.:

"Mike Whitaker once threatened to make a small run of T-shirts which read something like:

"Monogamous, married, straight, vanilla christian. Dare to be different!"

I want one.

I liked 'Twister'. Enough to buy the DVD and quote great lumps of dialogue. I loved "The Da Vinci Code" too.

I remember someone once saying that they couldn't believe I was "buying into the whole 'dress girls in pink' thing". Why not? My daughter looks cute in pink!

Guess I'm mainstream too. And I like vanilla icecream the best ;-) "

From Andy:

"Re: schlock
On the one hand, as far as I am concerned, feel free to watch whatever crap you like. I enjoy watching steaming rubbish as much as anyone else. Whenever Total Recall is on TV, I always watch it, so I know schlock. However...

I have two arguments against it.

First; if all you ever get is schlock, if all you ever read is lowbrow crap, then your brain will atrophy and you will become a boring person with no deeper thoughts that "That's funny! Adam Sandler said 'poop'!". Fortunately, you have Jeff, who has pretty decent taste in things, and frequent contact with parki, whose taste is nearly as excellent as mine, so even if you wanted to live a life of pure schlock, you'd get some culture by osmosis.

Second: Movies are a business. If the people who make movies see that Charlie's Angels 2 makes a pile of money, and Eternal Sunshine doesn't, guess what kind of movies *I* will be stuck with next year? Yeah, Charlie's Angels 3. I'm the one who suffers because you like crap.

The solution? Watch it on TV, or steal crap on the internet, and spend your money on things that *I* want. Pretty good plan, eh?"

From Allison:

"It's kind of like being a "Lost" fan right now. In your heart of hearts you know there are thousands of people like you planning their lives around Wednesday at 8 p.m. but to read LJ you'd feel you're the worst kind of mainstream hack for liking the show :). Hee, I'll keep watching it, anyway.

And while I won't listen to one movie critic, I will listen to a bunch. If fifty movie critics are saying a movie is terrible (say at "Rotten Tomatoes"), odds are -really- good a movie is terrible :). Just like if those same fifty critics like a movie I might not have considered, I may just give it a chance. Once I'm there, though, I'll make up my own mind."

From chirosinger:

"Hey, I like ABBA and Titanic too. I even listen to Neil Diamond and the Carpenters! I think mainstream is just fine. But hey, we're musicians which puts us out on the edge of something, right?"

Rug for my new office!

From Lady Turpentine:

"I've said this many times: I like what I like and make no apologies! Yes, I like Hall & Oates, Goo Goo Dolls, Gin Blossoms, Kiss and Bon Jovi! And so what if I like chick lit and big, trashy novels? If it makes you happy, it can't be that bad (yes, I like Sheryl Crow, too!)."

From Erin:

"Debbie, the movie you were referring to was "13 Going on 30," which I have not only seen but own on DVD!

Like Lady Turpentine, I also unabashedly love the Goos and Bon Jovi...hey, sometimes you just need a hot front man and catchy tunes. ;)

And ABBA is great, too. Loved Mamma Mia! Heehee... "

From singlemaltsilk:

"Hey, I liked the first CA movie too, and I can't tell you how many times I've watched "Miss Congeniality" ;)

And vanilla? Allow me to quote my response to a friend who, at the time, was bemoaning her vanillitude:

"Vanilla (which comes from an orchid and is considered to be an aphrodisiac) is one of the most expensive pure spices in the world, second only to saffron. Every chocolate recipe I have that's worth a damn includes a healthy shot of vanilla, but I have plenty of vanilla recipes that stand alone without the aid of chocolate."

See? The mainstream is the rootstock of the alternative. Without us, they're just so much tinder. Neener neener neener. ;)"

April 2005 comments: Read Blatherchat | Post in Blatherchat | Livejournal comments