While I wish this were a post about Deven starting potty training, alas he's shown no interest, so I will blog about why I now invite all my friends to a Potty Party: We have a new bathroom! That's 2 total; and what luxury! What a joy! What relief!
The images:
- Into the new bathroom from the bedroom (into the shower, pedestal sink & medicine cabinet in front)
- The new pedestal sink & light fixture (2 images)
- From inside the shower back towards the toilet / bedroom
- Image with the green walls, not "October sky" beige, is the new look of the right side of the current bathroom; note the new medicine cabinet on the wall, and the remote control for the fancy toilet seat (no I'm not kidding) mounted by the toilet.
The main bath is still quite large; it now has the heated-bidet-toilet-seat-combo which has its own remote control (no kidding) and wipes your bottom for you (see link below); the new bathroom is small but quite functional and precisely what I wanted with a pedestal sink, toilet, and 38x38" tiled shower.
WHAT WE GOT RIGHT
- Chose to do everything above-board, to-code, with a solid General Contractor and permits.
- Splurged on higher-end fixtures: Grohe rainshower shower head & handheld shower; Toto toilets and Washlet S300 that wipes your bottom for you, nice Kohler and Robern mirrored medicine chests.
- Saved on tile: ~ $3/sq ft for nice porcelain tiles that look like stone, where we could've easily spent 100x that amount; and it still looks very nice because we had a little bit of a design tiled-in by the contractor
- Bought neutral colors for the new bathroom: (we hope) it'll help with resale value to have muted beige-colored tiles, walls, classic white toilet & pedestal sink, etc.)
- Insisted that the paint-job be smooth (this took 2 painters and a few tries to get right)
- Went away for the 1st week of demolition and major plumbing work (allowing the team to make 1 wall in our bedroom, move/replace the 1 toilet, always having 1 working toilet and saving us from major hassles)
- Thought about space - we installed 2 built-in medicine chests, a built-in nook for shampoo/soap in the shower, and double towel-bars in the current bathroom, as there will really be 4 towels regularly hanging there: Yogesh's, mine, and the boys'
- Made the GC / plumber re-do the shower height and handle height, when it wasn't correct the first time (now we have a nice shower that's higher than standard, and could accommodate a very tall man, like 7' tall!
- Had the GC install grab-bars in the current bathtub and new shower stall
- Made Daadi happy; as we moved her into the new bedroom and she now enjoys the new bathroom en suite to her bedroom. :)
WHAT WE GOT WRONG
- Chose an architect who didn't have strong attention to detail (!?!) and didn't think through every little mark he made. This left us with, for example, a slightly-misplaced outlet in the new bathroom; so should we ever want a Toto Washlet there, too - the wall plug will be misplaced and more-obvious. A deal-killer? No, but a minor thing that should've been done right.
- Changed our mind partway through, from a prefab shower to a tiled-in shower. This delayed the process substantially.
- Went over-schedule and well over-budget. Sigh.
WHAT'S STILL UNDONE
- Outlets: Installing in the walls separating the 2 back bedrooms.
- Tile work: Completing tile- or baseboard-work under the heater in the main bathroom, and tile-work behind the pedestal sink in the new bathroom.
- Plumbing question: Ensuring the 'return system' works as the GC said.
- Baseboard heat: "End caps" on the heater in the main bathroom.
- Lightswitch in the new bathroom - one of 3 switches is still 'bent' oddly.
Would I do this again? Yep. Do you now need to come visit? Yep.
Are we gonna have a POTTY PARTY sometime soon? You betcha!
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