Breaking Bath

Alright, so maybe that's the title I should have used back on our post-halloween-party bathroom breakdown blog. But I just now thought of it and feel like it's just too cute not to publish, even a little late.

So, how goes the bath battle? Well, in our last episode, Mike had just begun installation of a new subfloor. Last weekend, he finished that subfloor with scrap pieces of wood we already had in stock. Sure that meant making his own tongues and grooves, but it worked out perfectly. (And now we don't have any additional costs and extra pieces that we probably won't use for anything else.)

Sunday, we started our fixture shopping at the local Lowes. Our main reason for picking the Lowes over our usual Home Depot - vanities. In our last bathroom remodel, we were both completely unsatisfied with the DeepHo's selection of vanities. They were expensive. They were ugly. And few came with a sink top. (For that job, we were lucky to find an inexpensive open-box model at the HD that we really loved - sink included on that one!)

Lowes did not disappoint in the vanity department. We found a small vanity, nice modern styled wood cabinet, with sink and mirror included. $200. Awesome.

The trouble came when we went to look at stand-up showers and toilets. In the shower department, we were immediately drawn to the space saving corner units. (And I use the word units lightly.) You had to purchase the bottom separately from each side and separately from a glass door. Add it all together and a full stand up shower would cost about $700. Our tub kit for our basement bathroom from Home Depot only cost about $450. Why wasn't the stand-up shower sold as a kit? Additionally, the signage was confusing and it was difficult to tell which prices went with which models. We were not satisfied and did not make any shower purchase.

It was the same story with the toilet... kind of. They had plenty of those - and all the parts came in one box, thank god. However the Kohlers seemed pricey to me at around $200. (That's the brand we have downstairs and have been thus far satisfied with it.) We did not make a toilet purchase either.

We did select a faucet for the sink... but since we'll be going to the DeepHo to check out showers and toilets there, I may take a comparative look at their faucets and return the Lowes one. (It's a no-name brand too - I would much prefer a Moen or something like that if prices are comparable.)

A somewhat frustrating trip overall, yes. But we're both very happy with the vanity, so I still consider it a success.

Today I did some homework over at the HD during my lunch break. They had a stand-up corner shower kit that I liked - and that seemed well constructed - for $515. Their Kohler toilet was $138. I didn't have time to look at the faucets, but did snap some pics of the shower & toilet info sheets with my iPhone so we could measure.

2nd Annual Christmas bath purchasing comes again! If we keep a similar pace as last year, we should have an upstairs bath by March. (Much less to this one - hence the shorter time estimate.)

Hostile DeepHo Takeover

Two empty carts and orange plastic in our pockets. An empty bathroom department, just ripe for a hostile takeover. Dream Day Sunday at the Home Depot.

Yes, there we were, picking out all our fixtures with all but blatant disregard for their prices. It was incredible.

First, the tub and shower enclosure. We chose the sturdiest tub option with a smooth shower enclosure that included built in shelving. Cost as expected, about $200 for the tub, $200 for the shower enclosure. (Caulk-less installation, cool!) That filled one cart. Mike dropped it off at customer service and returned with another.

Toilets. I wanted a name brand with Water Sense savings and high flush power. We chose a mid-range priced Kohler with those two features. $188.

On to the sink/vanities. Here, we ran into a snag. Mike wanted wood colored. I wanted white. We both wanted something of a decent size with the sink included in the price. There was nothing with a sink included that we could agree on, and the prices were outrageous. $400-$600 and no sink?! That was not what I had planned on. Then, around the corner, in between the aisles, there was a clearance vanity. A beautiful dark walnut colored, good size vanity with a white marble inset sink. "I like that one," I said. Mike liked it too, and it didn't have any major damage. Just some drywall dust a some small dings from a prior attempted installation.

We quickly brought over the sales lady who looked up the price, $199. SOLD. She even told us that we could probably get another 10% off at the register. We hungrily loaded it up next to the toilet.

Next stop, fixtures. Mike and I both immediately gravitated towards the brushed nickle and picked out a low to mid-range priced set for both the shower/tub and sink. (Matching at that!) Just over $100 each.

We didn't even bother with picking out the remaining needed lumber. This was a full truck load.

Amazingly, bringing it all into the basement was as difficult as we'd expected. The toilet was no prob. The vanity was a little awkward, but still no prob. The tub wasn't even a prob! The only challenging bit was the large shower enclosure back. No way was that fitting down the exterior basement door/stairs. But turns out we were able to easily bring it through the house's main entrance and down the interior basement door/stairs.

With everything in the room, it took just 15 minutes to arrange, rearrange, and decide on a layout. (And it definitely wasn't what either of us had originally imagined - yay for early fixture purchase!) The tub will go in the left corner, a closet will go across it on the right. The toilet will sit next to the closet and the vanity will sit between the two doors. In the end, this was the configuration that made the most sense to us.

Yesterday, our plumber friend came out to look at everything and advised Mike on clearances and all other things-good-to-know. The two of them will work together to plumb it out... hopefully soon.