Tag Archives: bathtub

With Regret

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For those growing tired of my ramblings on the bathroom remodel, feel free to skip this post. Move on. There’s nothing for you to see here.

But I’m having second thoughts.

Until Friday, I’d never actually made it over to a particular tile store very highly recommended to us. They aren’t open on weekends. Or, as far as I can tell, any time a woman with kids could possibly visit.

On Friday, however, Scott took the day off so we could knock out several during-business-hours-only errands and he insisted I go to the tile store. To be honest, I didn’t want to. Even if this store carried white beveled subway tile, the chance of its being less than $2.13/SQFT was slim to none. Waste. Of. Time.

But seeing as I’m still maneuvering for an advantage in the War of the Tub, I made it a point to play along. No sense in uselessly antagonizing my opponent, right?

As far as it goes, I was sort of right. They had no white beveled subway tile. It may still be proven to have been a waste of time, but only because I’ve suffered a massive setback to my ideas of how to make this bathroom beautiful on a budget. This store had such incredibly lovely and unique tile, I’m still trying to recover.

If you think I’m crazy, take a look at this supplier — just one of several they carry. If you don’t fall in love at least once, you might as well stop reading my blog forever. We have nothing further to say to each other.

True to form, I managed to pick out the most incredible marble mosaic I’ve ever laid eyes on. The owner finally agreed to give me a price quote after I signed a waiver to release the store from any liability should I pass out on the (gorgeous) showroom floor. It didn’t exactly surprise me to find out the continuance of my new romance would cost $150 a square foot.

But I was still destroyed.

After a little grief counseling, the owner found a few options closer to my price range. But now I’m torn. I’d settled on the Brazilian Black slate, but it may be because I couldn’t find a true gray marble anywhere. My new enabler has found me Nordic Grey:

…and Ice Grey:

Not to mention endless possibilities of white and gray marble mosaics.

What’s a girl to do? Between spells of guilt, that is, because I’m feeling pretty silly being totally absorbed by such superficial and globally-insignificant questions as:

  • How much marble is too much marble?
  • Is black too dark to complement white marble counters, white subway tile wainscoting and white cabinets?
  • Is marble too much maintenance for a bathroom floor?
  • Do I have to hire an installer for marble tile or can my beleaguered husband do it?
  • Why do I have such expensive taste?
  • Is having expensive taste a sin?
  • Lord, if it is a sin, will you forgive me for my expensive taste after I finish the bathroom?
  • Is $15,000 too much for a bathroom floor?
  • Can I sell a kidney to pay for the floor tile?
  • Would that be a sin?

The preceding program has been a dramatization of actual events. No housewives, husbands, bank accounts or understanding of the theological truths of Sin and Forgiveness were harmed in the course of this dramatization.

It just feels like it.

(By the way, if you need a kidney, my blood type is O-negative. Please call me.)

Brother, can ya spare three grand?

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While the War of the Tub rages over the skies of Camelot, daily life goes on with as much normalcy as we can muster. No, we have not evacuated our children to the countryside to live in the old manor house of an elderly professor. Yet.

Actually, the best I could manage to find was a rusty double-wide inhabited by Earl and Lurlene Bumpass and their sixty-four hounddogs. I think I’ll wait and see if the Axis of Whirlpool crumples before our straits become so desperate as that.

I’m still looking for a compromise. I thought I found one last week, but my dear husband is hard coming to terms with the fact that if I want a freestanding bath and he wants a whirlpool, compromise means an acrylic jetted tub. And acrylic “feels cheap” (to him). Unless it is cheap, namely the acrylic drop-in tub he wanted in the first place, which feels fine to him. Go figure.

Even so, I couldn’t resist playing with the photos of my bathroom, ala Layla, to help us envision what we’re aiming toward.

BEFORE

Possible AFTER

The colors may be a little off — I haven’t made a final decision on the wall or cabinet paint and the floor tile looks more green than it should. The scale of the subway tile, and perhaps other things, is also off a bit. But this is the general idea.

This is a compromise tub. It’s jetted, to please the Axis powers, and freestanding for the sake of the Allies. I’m not a huge fan of clawfeet, and would probably prefer white to chrome, but I was trying to meet him in the middle and this is all I could find.

The Bordeaux Tub

I could live with it, but I no love it.

And of course, as I keep looking, trying to find tubs to please us both in every possible way, I keep finding tubs I love. Pricey ones. Ouch.

Observe.

The Marlborough

This is the Marlborough by Victoria + Albert. I love this tub. It’s huge: 74 inches long. It’s made out of “rare volcanic limestone and resin.” It’s one piece of solid tub-tastic-ness. I want it.

By the way, the real Marlboroughs live here:

Blenheim Palace

I couldn’t find a picture of their tub. But I’ll bet it’s nice.

The Marlborough tub would bring a little Blenheim to my bathroom. But I have this  hangup about spending three [gasp...choke, choke] thousand dollars on a bathtub. Even if we had the money, I don’t think my constitution would allow me to hand it over for something which could functionally be replaced by a horse trough.

The only prayer I have is trolling the web until I find it at some impossible bargain. Maybe Victoria + Albert will decide to part ways and have a liquidation sale. Maybe the Marlboroughs will sue for proprietary use of their name and bankrupt the company, triggering a massive short sale of their entire inventory.

Okay, yes, I’m really grasping for straws. Chances are better I’d win the Lottery.

The Lottery. Hmmm…

A Little Ketchup

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Well, not that kind, exactly.

I actually decided to celebrate my “blog-iversary” with a little vacation to the Bahamas.

Okay, that’s not precisely true either. But it sounds a lot more entertaining than: “I’ve been too busy to post,” or, worse still, “I just didn’t feel like it.”

Both of which statements are true.

As to the first, I haven’t been exactly laying around. Since my last post, I have:

  1. Moved and/or rearranged a magnitude of furniture.
  2. Shifted my youngest son’s entire wardrobe into the room he’s been sharing with his older brother for a couple of months now.
  3. Watched all my carefully-planted begonias shrivel in the relentless sun, despite the combined efforts of my husband and I to save them from such a grim fate.
  4. Completed my set of Harry Potter by buying the first four books off a college-bound lad for a mere $20 American — and then reread the entire series.
  5. Continued negotiations in the Great Tub Debate of 2010. No cease fire in sight.
  6. Accepted the practicality of using an RSS Reader to follow all my favorite blogs. I held out for as long as I could.
  7. Broken the headset for my cordless phone. Which might as well have included cutting off one of my arms for all that it’s done to my productivity.
  8. Finished Phase 1 of the South Beach Diet. Eight pounds down, thank you.

As to the second of the above statements, I’m sure it’s been due to equal measures of ferocious heat and hunger for food I’m not allowed to have, but I’ve been less than motivated the last couple of weeks. I just get plain grouchy when I can’t have what I want, and you all don’t need to hear about that, eh?

But now that’s behind me, it’s time to get back into the swing o’ things. I have posts in the works. If I were serious about a teaser campagin, I would say they may include:

  • South Beach-friendly recipes that kept me sane
  • the debut of a major contemporary artist
  • more craft projects
  • and who knows what else?

But I’m not much of a tease. So you’ll just have to wait while I get it all sorted out.

Have a happy,

The Tub Rub

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So maybe you don’t remember, but we’re planning a big remodel for our master bathroom.

I think I might have mentioned it once or twice.

As I go round ‘n’ round, trying to figure out how to afford things I really want and want the things I can afford — and somehow make those two rivals fall in love with each other and live happily ever after — I keep coming back to one consistent source of dilemma: the bathtub.

I have finally, after lots of wrangling, come up with a plan that I’m happy about. Except that now I have a much bigger obstacle to clear.

In order to mask the identity of said obstacle, I won’t mention names. Let’s just call him My Husband.

I knew going in that the tub discussion was going to be a bit of a battle. Apparently, there was some question — in his mind — as to whether or not we should even replace the existing, swirled cultured-marble, off-white, ugly, hideous, dated, tacky, boring, repulsive tub.

Yeah, I was pretty ambivalent about it, too. Can’t you tell?

So I did what any wife would do. Let’s call it finesse. And I don’t mean the shampoo. And, inexplicably, replacing the tub became an accepted point on our remodeling checklist.

[SIDEBAR: Do any of you blogging ladies ever wonder if your husband even reads your blog? My answer to that question is, perhaps, forthcoming...]

However it came about, we did progress to the accepted fact that the tub would be replaced. At first, I thought we would rebuild the supporting frame with some nice wood mouldings and panels, surface the top with Carrara marble and drop in a new jetted acrylic tub. I even bought a Roman Tub Filler to match the sink faucets.

But the downside of the remodeling process is the time. Lots of it. Lots of time to think and rethink. So I did.

Now I want one this:

There are, of course, some trade-offs. The freestanding tub is not a whirlpool. And Scott wants a whirlpool, mainly for the sake of resale value. Which I understand.

But my rationale is that the slipper tub has drama. Romance. Panache. Cachet. (In case you’re wondering, that’s the full extent of my French vocabulary.)

My main goal for this remodel is to “upscale” the bathroom. I want it to look more high-end without being overly elaborate or freakily-customized. I think if we achieve a really show-stopping bathroom, nobody will care the tub lacks jets.

And another thing. Look at this photo again.

You see that ledge under the window and to the left of the existing tub? Drives me bananas. It’s totally useless — a complete waste of space. If I had the cash to install one of those elevators to conceal a flat panel TV in there, ala The Tonight Show, then maybe that little nook would make sense to me. But until then, I would need to cover that whole area in the same surface as the tub surround. Which was…marble. Oh yeah.

However, if I used a freestanding tub, it would give me the room to build a small-yet-functional window seat. Maybe with a touch of storage underneath.

So here’s the thing — the tub “rub,” if you will — my hubby wants more opinions than just mine before we commit to a freestanding tub. I’ve asked a couple of friends, including a realtor, for their thoughts, but I’d love to have a few more opinions to round things out.

Is lacking a whirlpool tub a deal-breaker? Would you forgive our jetless state for a nice cast-iron, double slipper tub like the above?

(I wish I were Layla Palmer and could manage a “presto-chango” for you to reference, but it is not to be. Just use your imagination and leave a comment telling me what you think.)

Have a fab week!

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