a peek inside the fishbowl

My favourite smell is…

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(This is one of mine, along with freshly mown grass and BBQ briquettes drenched in lighter fluid. Ahhhh.)

This weekend was a blur… a blur of East-end traffic and money leaping out of our wallets.

We crisscrossed Ottawa looking for the best deal on stoves and fridges and we eventually found them at Universal. (See previous.) We also took a cursory look at plumbing fixtures and lighting. Can I just state for the record that I hate it when showrooms don’t post their prices? Ugh.

We also looked at tiles. If there is one thing that struck terror into my tiny beating heart was the thought of choosing tile. How do you pick one tile style out of the thousand types of tiles in a dozen different places to buy tiles in the Ottawa area?

Olympia Tile was recommended to us so that’s where we went. I’m not sure what I expected; perhaps piles of tiles stacked in tippy pyramids around a dusty warehouse. But that’s not what we got at all. We were quite impressed by the staff, and the store itself. (Which, ironically, had a few tiles missing out front.)

Olympia gets top marks for their helpful yet non-intrusive staff. (I don’t like it when they hover, do you?) A fellow asked us at the beginning if we needed help and came back later to check on us, but not in a pushy way. And he actually helped us out quite a bit.

Olympia has a very large display area, and it’s very bright. No teetering piles! There’s lots of room to move, even when it’s busy.

Our mission was to find some tile for the family bathroom.

First, here’s more or less what the space will look like. There have been smallish changes since that drawing was given to us. The shower area is now much longer and has been turned into a kind of a wet room/shower… so picture more space leading into the actual shower area.

And here are a few photos that inspired our tile choices. Keep in mind that we are trying to maintain the look and feel of the age of this house. We’re aiming for traditional with a twist!

• Like this
• This
• This
• This
• And this.
• I will also request this soap/shampoo holder

After MUCH angst, time spent on Pinterest, saying thing like “LET’S REVIEW,” and have many “what-if-we-did-this” moments, this is what we’re 99% settled upon barring any last minute inspiration or panic attacks.

Main bathroom area floor (including toilet/tub area and part of shower room):

Walls of shower and behind tub:

Dark grey tiles for the “pan” area of shower (basically where the water falls) and maybe some trim?:

Problem is I also really like THIS and I don’t know what to do with it. Hmm. Maybe we are not 99% after all?

You know what’s interesting? The tiles I liked best also happen to be the cheapest. Woot! Perhaps that makes up for the money we spent on the stove. ;)

… AND it was on sale at Universal Appliances. Woot!

I’m in self-cleaning, five burner, dual-fuel, warming oven heaven.