First of all, did you know that Urban Barn has a neat little online room planning tool on their website? You plunk in the dimensions of your room and drag and drop furniture that is properly scaled. It’s fun. TOO FUN. I was playing around with our master bedroom so I could determine if we could fit a chaise lounge in there. (Note that the windows and doors are for placement only. I didn’t measure them out properly and I also didn’t bother adding the three small windows over our bed.)
This is my family catching me in the act of an afternoon snooze:
It’s great way of virtually rearranging your furniture and seeing what works best.
So our assignment this past weekend was to nail down some of the plumbing fixtures. We even had a list. I secretly hoped that we’d be able to get everything at one store, but this was not to be. (WHAT WAS I THINKING.)
Truth be told we suffered a bit of sticker shock, and I was reminded AGAIN of how much I gravitate to expensive things even if the price tag is no where to be seen. Why am I like this?
At the Electrical and Plumbing Store in Bell’s Corners I liked one of the most expensive shower sets in the entire place. It was $3600. Behold:
What’s the saying? Champagne tastes on a beer budget? That describes us pretty well, but I think if we saved some cash in some other areas we can put it towards a similar shower we love (although not that pricey).
For example, this is the kind of sink we’re looking at – a white oval undermount. Turns out that it costs $88.00 pretty much anywhere you go (Preston Hardware, Lowes, Rona, Home Depot). A good deal, right?:
We need two of those for the vanity in the family bathroom, and these are the faucets we are thinking of pairing with them (from Lowes):
Kitchen sinks can cost an arm and a leg. I really liked this one from Preston Hardware:
… but as it turns out you can get pretty much the same thing at Home Depot for a lot less:
We haven’t shopped for toilets yet but that’s next. I’m going to check out Westend Plumbing today because they carry Toto. We have a Toto toilet (it runs about $500) and it is – in my experience – a superior toilet. (I once wrote about Toto toilets here, THAT’S how much I like it.)
Out biggest issue this weekend was choosing a shower head set and the kitchen faucet. Why is it that everything seems to be either very cheaply made or really expensive, with not a whole lot in-between?
After MUCH painful deliberation, this is what we picked out for the kitchen at Lowes. (In fact, Mark had pretty much given up at this point):
It’s a Delta touch model. I’m pretty excited about it. (FYI you can get more information and watch a video all about our new faucet here. Note that we did not choose this because it looks like “a graceful flower, heavy with the morning dew.” Ha.) We had a Delta faucet before the reno and we never had an issue with it. Go Delta!
Still on the to-buy list is a faucet for the new bathtub (which we picked out long ago at Boone). We need a wall-mounted set and I’d like it to have a hand-shower attached to it. Something like this might be nice but I haven’t seen in anywhere in Ottawa yet. (And can we get it for under $500? Ugh.) As for the shower, we are still undecided about what we’re buying. I would really like something old-timey that fills the space nicely but not have to pay nearly $4000 for it. I want it to be well-made, something that will last as long as we’re in the house. It seems that where plumbing is concerned you get what you pay for. What do you think?
