Bathroom Break

Let's take a break from talking about bathrooms!  I have lots of pictures of cute goings on to share. 

Do you remember when I had my dates for a quilt show wrong and ended up at a resale shop instead? Now they are all decorated for the holidays! 

So is the coffee shop just down the road. 

These are from their Facebook page. Here is what I am drinking at home. I am on the bathroom budget. 

While we are in the kitchen, the last paper bag of green tomatoes ripened.  I made them into a sauce and served over some meatballs. 

Last Saturday I drove 20 minutes down some country roads to a cute little Christmas bazaar where I buy my mincemeat from the Methodist Church ladies.  Most of my family does not eat mincemeat pies which means there is more left over pie for me. 

Last night I attended the Fourth Grade Musical with a special dance number by an Orange Sun. 

Tonight my posse and I dressed and went to another performance. Can you guess what it was? 

Wicked! The witch's hat is blocking my green dress. My granddaughter and I were team Elphaba.  My daughter is team Glinda.

Here's some Thanksgiving Memories. 

My parents were married on Thanksgiving morning. My grandfather owned a jewelry store in town and was open on Friday evenings and all day Saturday. Those were his biggest shopping days, especially so close to Christmas.  They were married in the morning and the ceremony was followed by a breakfast reception.  Afterwards all the guests went home and cooked their turkey.  My dad never remembered his wedding date, it was always on Thanksgiving in his mind. 

This one is a funny one.  I may have mentioned a hundred times that we live in a teeny tiny house. During all the years when my children were young, we always hosted Thanksgiving for both sides of the family.  Now in my older years, I am very confused by this. Why my house? And why me cooking when I had a full time job and five children? Regardless, here are two of the tables in my living room. On Wednesday night my husband, children and I would move all our living room furniture into the garage and set up tables. As you might notice, everyone had to enter through the kitchen as the front door is blocked. I wish I had more pictures, but this is back when we only had so many spots on the roll of film.  I still think this is ridiculous and very funny. 

Happy Thanksgiving! 

The Bathroom Project, Chapter 5090

Well, it's Sunday evening, the week of Thanksgiving with Christmas catching up quickly. We spent the morning with one of us using a laptop and the other on an I-pad searching for shower and sink hardware.  We have discovered for people that "really didn't care", we actually care a lot.  And we have discovered for people that have very simple tastes, we actually have very expensive tastes.  

We visited the store again this week. We had specific items we had decided to order. Unfortunately when I got to the store, I was again blinded by bright shiny objects. We switched between sink bases and sizes several times, the sink I liked online looked incredibly cheap up close and that would influence the medicine cabinet/mirror. 

This isn't exactly the pattern. It should be more gray and have more of a horizontal streaking. 

So. Keeping in mind that we have lived perfectly well with a Formica style countertop with "integrated" sink (as in all one piece) and all plastic for almost 48 years, I have now ordered a custom made countertop in the size I need made of cultured Carrera marble with a separate porcelain undermount sink for only three times what I had budgeted. The bright side is that it won't be here until January which means we will still have bathroom walls for Christmas celebrations. 

We also ordered our original sink base choice (which was also a tad over the original budget) and the matching medicine cabinet/mirror which, I think, was astonishingly in budget. It doesn't exactly match this photo. We went with a second door instead of drawers on the right. 

And this is almost the medicine cabinet except ours is smaller (to match the sink base) with a single mirrored door. 

I can't remember when the cabinet is coming, but the shower walls arrived while we were at the store. Luckily we did not have the truck so my husband and middle son picked them up at 6 am on Friday because that is their time zone. 

Which brings us back to today. We found the manufacturer the plumber was comfortable with (not his first choice, but his second choice) who actually manufactured the very specific configuration of what we envisioned for the shower and that we could order it online. 

We also, after many more minutes of contemplation, ordered a faucet for the sink that coordinates with the shower. We were able to order these online. This took our whole morning so we had lunch and went back to deciding more things.

That left the matching grab bars. Due to a disagreement with the actual photo on the screen and the description, we decided to visit the store. We piled in the car and went to a neighboring big city where we could visit grab bars. They actually had exactly what we were looking for, we verified the color choice, (stainless steel that is not shiny, but burnished something), but the only one of the 18" hand rail was scratched.  The decision was made to return home and order them online so they would be shipped together. 

And that took my whole Sunday.  Tonight I am still trying to clean up the guest room that I started cleaning on Thursday or Friday. Here is an in progress photo I can't explain. 

Keeping it real here at the picket fence. 

This leaves the toilet (I have convinced him on size) which we are having trouble locating in the right height but with NOT an elongated bowl. (who knew). And the flooring which we could have picked out and up today but we forgot. 

And the clock is ticking for the holidays.  Hopefully I can get further on cleaning (or hiding and stashing) items tomorrow before my church meeting and my attendance at the fourth grade holiday concert. Tuesday I think I need to start baking but can clean while things are in the oven and then I have tickets at 5 pm for Wicked with my granddaughter.  Wednesday there is no school and I would really like to have the cleaning, clearing and hiding done by then so I can bake 2 pies, 2 cheesecakes and make a roaster of stuffing for Thanksgiving at my daughters with 30 other guests.  

The Bathroom, Chapter 1001

You all are going to get mighty tired of hearing about this bathroom project.  

To refresh and over share, we bought our house in 1978. It had been built in the early 70's.  It has ONE bathroom. It is one of the world's smallest bathrooms. This is not my bathroom. It is a lifted photo from the internet to show a much cleaner and newer bathroom the same size.

We did remodel our bathroom in the early 80's which is now (somehow) 40 years ago. That can't be true. 

I try really hard to disguise the condition of the bathroom with splashy shower curtains and other bedazzlements.  But the fact remains - this poor bathroom has lived through a family of five children and the daycare of ten grandchildren! 

Meanwhile I have been making plans. I am pretty sure the master plan was to gut and redo the bathroom before retirement. Well, that didn't happen. But the threat of tariffs in the new year spurred my contractor (okay, my husband) to service.

The first trip to the store was a success.  We had reached a compromise and purchased the materials he wants in the patterns and colors that I want.  Here is what the shower walls may look like. 

They will be delivered on Monday.  We also purchased all kinds of things like drywall and waterproof insulations and the shower pan and lots of small items necessary in the construction. I think some electrical things and a lighting fixture of some sort.  A bed of a truck full of items on his list. 

The color is Thunder Gray - which I am in love with. The pan is white which I am not in love with, but we spent a lot of time looking at shower enclosures and this one only comes with white.  I can live with it. 

We then went this week for the second part of the purchase, the vanity base and sink and the toilet. We had more on the list, faucets, grab bars, a towel rack.  This trip was not successful. 

I wasn't too picky about the cabinet. I wanted gray, I knew they had gray, I was going to see what was available in the size I want.  I found four. Two were all particle board which is not what I wanted and two were higher quality and higher price. Here are my favorites.

I am going with the cabinet on the right. It seems sturdier and I just like it better. So far, so good. 

Then we got to sink bases. I had one sink in my brain but then I saw it in person and that was not what I wanted. 

Is there anything wrong with it? No. I just decided I don't like it anymore. 

This is the one I want. It is Carrara Marble. Before Sunday, I did not know what Carrara Marble was. It is real marble.  And this countertop option does not come in a size that fits into my bathroom. No matter what I try to figure, it is not going to fit in that room. My heart was broken. 

They had several man-made marbles called "Cultured Marble" and "Engineered Marble".  They just didn't look the same when compared. 

Today I had a talk with myself. The truth is I have lived with a Formica countertop in the bathroom for 48 years. I do not NEED Carrara Marble.  Second truth, I am only putting one countertop in the bathroom, it is not going to have a Carrara Marble top right next to it which I like a percent better.  

We are going back tomorrow night, ordering the base and picking out any old countertop of a manufactured material that will fit. And has gray in it. 

Our next obstacle was the toilet. 

I want a tall toilet for old people. My husband has somehow found one that is 16".  The recommended height is 17"-19".  This is a battle I did not foresee. We debated it at the store.  I am not happy with the 16". I have a feeling I may have to compromise on this and have made up my mind that the next time I fall - and we ALL KNOW there will be a next time, I am going to call a paid contractor and have the toilet replaced WITH THE TALLER ONE. End of that story. Unless I win wear him down in 24 hours. 

This brings us to the final debate at this time in the planning.  Where the heck to put the toilet paper roll.  You can scroll back to the top to see what we are faced with.  Currently the toilet paper is on a stand because there is no place to put the roller.  I googled this question and it turns out it is quite the topic on Reddit. Contractors are continuing to build teeny tiny bathrooms like mine and no one knows where to put the toilet paper. 

You can mount it beside the back of the toilet on the wall, but no one can reach it. You can mount it on the wall across from the toilet which would leave me flat on my face on the floor (again).  Some people mount them on the side of the vanity, but I am afraid we don't have that much room (we might, I think I am going down two inches on the width).  Or you can put it on the stand. Which I am not a fan. First, I have to move it to get in and out of the shower. Second, the base collects dust and I just think it is gross. But I haven't found a solution yet. And my unpaid contractor swears I cannot have a partial wall beside the toilet on the shower side which was in my original plans.  

I know, I know. First world problems. And I know that I talk myself into problems that aren't there. And I know that I am just being silly and prolonging the shopping spree that I am anxious to conclude. 

I have much better news on the flooring. We looked at the four options of waterproof laminate planks in a gray stain and I like them all equally.  Mr. Merry can decide which one he wants to install. 

I have also been counting on my fingers and I am concerned that we may have a toilet with no walls by Christmas. But I am going to wait and worry about that next week.  

Ketchup

 Just a quick "ketchup". 

Doctor confirmed small fracture of nose. Also said it is still swollen (she should have seen it before!). For now we are going to continue to ice it and see how it looks once it is back to normal.  Which I can tell you now is just a little crooked and barely noticeable with my glasses. In my nonmedical opinion - I'm good to go. 

She did schedule another Dexa Bone Scan since I guess it's time already? And I am so good at falling! 

Still haven't started listening to my podcasts so I know what I am doing this weekend. 

We are prepping for the second big bathroom haul at the home improvement store this Saturday. I can't believe we are finally this far along with the project. And by far along I mean just purchasing the materials. Woo hoo. 

Other than that, not much new.