Malleation Monday

malleation ~ hammering; a hammer-mark or dent

I think I’m going to have to create a page dedicated to the bathroom renovation, like I did to the book nook. Although I think out of necessity the work will be going much quicker on the bathroom than it did on the nook. At least I hope that’s the case. ;-)

When last I wrote, the hubby had started removing the bathroom tiles, carefully in case we wanted to reuse them. Notice the use of the past tense. To be perfectly honest, the original tile did not go with the colours of the porcelain fixtures, and painting it would have been more trouble than it was worth. So after a long search, we found the perfect tile online ... or so we thought.

The tile we saw on the Home Depot website was a blue/grey with rust coloured swirls through it. It looked nicer than it sounds. Having a son-in-law that works at Home Depot comes in handy at times. We had him check to see if they had enough of the tile in stock - they only had eight boxes instead of the nine we needed, but it would be no problem ordering in more. Then he mentioned there was another tile - same brand but a little more brown in it.

I am so glad curiosity got the better of us and we went to have a look! The original tile we’d picked out was nothing like the colours online - the blue online was gunmetal grey in person and the rust was brown. So disappointing! And to make matters worse, there was no consistency to the colours. A few of the tiles were the swirled pattern, most were a solid gunmetal with just a hint of other colour.

The tiles the son-in-law mentioned were better, but still not great. However, on the way out of that aisle I noticed a completely different tile - it still had some greys in it, but more browns and beiges, and the tiles were more consistent in appearance. And it was cheaper. We now have a stack of it in the music room at home.

Next up was the toilet. Hubby tried to order it online, but the website told him he could only buy it in-store - the problem being it appeared every store in the province had them except ours. So he printed off the specifications and gave them to the son-in-law to see if/when they’d be getting more in.

Turns out they did have one after all, only it wasn’t showing up in their inventory so they weren’t sure how to sell us something that didn’t exist. In the end, they gave it to us for half price. Score!

This weekend it was sinks and taps. Who knew it could be such a hard decision? Since this isn’t our primary bathroom, we decided on a vessel sink, which is one of the sinks that sits on top of a stand or counter. The one we both liked was a glass sink that’s kind of amber and brown from Home Depot.

A vessel sink also meant a stand to put it on. So darn! I had to go looking in some of my favourite thrift stores to see if I could find anything suitable. I didn’t find a suitable table, but one of the stores was having a dollar sale on clothing so I didn’t come home empty handed. ;-)

The hubby and I discussed it while sitting out on the deck, and being the handy sort of guy he is, he’s going to build a stand. Of course we’ll have to get the sink first, so he knows how big the stand needs to be, but the stand should be easy enough. But it’ll have to wait until he finishes the toy box (that looks like a treasure chest) that he’s building the grandbaby.

Next on the renovation list was a set of taps for the sink. Once again, not as easy a task as it sounds. There are a lot of taps to choose from. On a whim I checked the Lowe’s website and found a very reasonably priced set in a dark bronze colour. Only one problem. Our town doesn’t have a Lowe’s.

However, I just happened to have plans to go Toronto with a friend on Sunday, and we were going to have to pass several Lowe’s stores on the way. And in fact, there was a Lowe’s in the mall where she stopped for Starbucks. Looks like we’re all set for the bathroom.

In the words of Hannibal Smith, I love it when a plan comes together!