8/29/2006

Then again, maybe not

Just when I thought I had the next year in home improvement all laid out, we started talking again about remodeling the bathroom next instead of the dining room. Why would we do this? For starters, we HATE the bathroom. It's functional, it's clean, it's not falling apart, and it's even fairly aesthetically pleasing. It even has plenty of storage. However, it is easily our least favorite room in the house, beating out the torn up office for that honor. We don't really have a good reason for disliking the bathroom, other than that everything but the floor tile and sink cabinet is half-assed and/or cheap. We even had a nicer bathtub in our rental hovel...

So, for the sake of being able to take a bath again, and have an oasis in the chaos, we're seriously thinking about doing the bathroom.

Due to it being the only full bathroom in the house, the plumbing to the bathtub can't be disconnected for very long. We can shower at work if we have to, but it would be better if it didn't come to that. At least not for any length of time. Of course, we also don't know jack about plumbing. I can install a water filter, and Shayne can unclog a drain, but that's about the limit to our experience. We're going to have to hire this one out.

It's looking like every fixture in the room will be moved. I can't say that I'm thrilled with that, but the current layout sucks and doesn't leave us with much useable floor space. By moving the fixtures, it will open up the room and make it feel larger than it does now. It might also cause problems, since the long wall is an outside wall... Below are the current and expected floor plans. The boxes next to the tub and sink are ceiling-height cabinets.

We've got the basics figured out for the materials: beadboard wainscot, subway tile shower surround, 1" hex tile floor, pedestal sink, and a cast iron drop-in tub. I really wanted a clawfoot tub, but Shayne's dimensions apparently aren't standard enough for a standard tub. 14" of water in a 5' tub means that almost all of him will be out of the water, making a bath rather pointless. Kohler's Tea-for-Two tub is the deepest (19.5" of water at the overflow!) cast iron tub I can find that is under 6' long, so I'm hoping to find one of them on sale...!
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1 comment:

  1. Kate F.10:41 PM

    I don't know if you'll ever see this, since it's almost a year later, but I think you'll be happier with a drop-in tub since it's your only bathroom. Don't regret the clawfoot! We *just* moved into our condo in a 1901 apartment building, and the only thing in the apartment that was updated was the kitchen. The previous owner, when he heard that to sell he'd have to fix the old bathroom, went ALL OUT on a complete reproduction bathroom complete with shower fixtures imported from England. It's gorgeous. However, the clawfoot tub is a giant pain to use as a shower. There's no good place to keep your shampoo (we've ordered baskets that clamp to the shower pole but that still means the curtain is gaping and letting water out), and you're tightly surrounded by shower curtains on both sides. Blech. It makes showering really stressful, actually. For baths it's great, but I honestly wish he hadn't gone with the crazy-expensive lovely clawfoot, since it's not practical. A guy at a bathroom store told us "hmm, sounds perfect for a second or third bathroom. Not functional as your first."

    Sorry for the loooong comment but I hope it makes you feel better about no clawfoot!

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