Bathroom Diaries; Day 3 - the mission

The first thing we do when I get home in the evening (after letting the cat out of upstairs confinement) is to go check out what happened in the "bathroom." It always needs a lot of inspecting - Jacques is much more thorough at this than I am, maybe because he can fit into practically every crevasse.


Including that one (below) next to the yellow ladder. That leads to beneath the kitchen sink - which I know is a mouse condo. Hopefully they've gone on vacation for a while. Fabulous Jeff spruced up the joists (below). That's a shot of the ceiling by the way. And in case that still doesn't clear things up for you - I'm thrilled - that's all that matters. At least I can believe that I can jump up and down in the bathroom on the third floor - and not fall through into the bathtub on the second floor. :)

So - today's drama started at 8am sharp! Jeff showed up and laid down the law - he needed the faucet, toilet, tub and fixtures TODAY! He probably would have said yesterday if he could. I tried crying him a river about all I've had to do in the last few months but he wasn't havin' it. So i took the day off work and ran around like crazy and bought everything.
When I left to run around this morning - I was still trying to accept a blue toilet/green tile possibility. My only option for a blue toilet is a skylight color. Hmmmm sort of a light periwinkle. It looks fine - but very very specific. I really would have had a hard time accessorizing the thing.
I went to Restoration Hardware first. That was the first adventure - it is on the Main St. of Manayunk - a place I always got the impression was a yuppie-bar-hopping street. Turns out - there is alot of cool stuff there. Will have to go back. Anyway, the lovely ladies from California gave me a very generous gift certificate and I have bought some great stuff with it! I got a beautiful glass shelf for under the mirror - and a mirror to make everyone jealous. It's 24x30! I tried to order one that takes 10lbs off every time I look in it - but the salesclerk said they were out of stock. Huh - what a surprise.
Then it was off on the mad hunt for fixtures. I stopped at two Kohler "showrooms" before I gave up and went to Lowe's. On the drive to Lowe's I made a final decision. I'm going back to what I originally wanted in my bathroom. The flower mural:

Before the cobalt blue toilet - I wanted a flower mural in my bathroom. I like this one. I sort of became attached to some lime green tile - and I think this would be really cool. So I also gave up any blue toilet or bathtub idea - and it will have the flowers on the wall with sink, and mirror and the floor and back of the tub will be tiled: although, I hope your screens are calibrated better than mine - this is not showing up too well. It really is lime green - not avocado green. That's the next thing I have to order. But that's tomorrow's project.
So I got to Lowe's and unfurled my list of demands from Jeff. Mr. Italian Tom - who has been so great in helping me throughout the process - wasn't there, but two other young guys were and they got the ball rolling. First I ordered THE tub that had Jeff's approval. It's 20inches deep! Yippee!!! - I'm going to be able to swim in it! I may have to get a second water heater to fill it - but well, we'll tackle that bridge when we get to it. Then we started looking at faucet fixtures - and then I realized - Holy Mackerel - I have two final crits to give!
So off I raced to Moore - collected all kinds of interesting final projects - had a very interesting discussion with my goofy second class (whom I loved - but they are goofy) discussing "What is a book?" Some very good ideas which led to a big argument about books vs. ebooks. One said, "Nothing on the Internet is a book!" Ok then.
8pm hopped back in the car to race back to Lowe's - and Mr. Italian Tom was there. Yeah!:) So I picked out THE MOST EXPENSIVE faucet imaginable. Ugh!!! I hemmed and hawed about whether to get it or not and since I'd saved $150 on the tub and just got a plain simple toilet I decided to splurge on the faucet.

Did I mention I have a vessel sink? It will sit on top of an old oak night stand. This is a wall mounted faucet. Great. Decision made.
WELL.
Those bastards at Kohler just keep adding required parts to the original faucet. So what was already a stab in the heart - almost made me toss my cookies because it practically doubled the price once I got all the required parts. Oh well. I'm going to have the coolest faucet on the whole planet - just you people wait. I also got a very standard shower fixture that will probably need the detachable-over-head-shower-thingy, and the toilet paper rack and some towel racks. OH - and I even got the light fixture for over the mirror.
And now it's 12:30 am - I have a meeting in New Jersey at 9am - and then I have to meet with a student at noon and somehow grade those final projects and hopefully be able to clean some more in my disastrous studio.