remodel my bathroom

to move ahead with this goal this morning. The shower door fell off at the most inconvenient moment. Trying to hook it on while still wet and not wearing contact lenses is not a great start to the week.

interesting in parts, but could have been better. The main presenter was a bathroom designer and she’d invited representatives from companies selling bathroom fixtures,glass, and tiles to speak about their products. I would have liked to have heard a bit more about the design process rather than the products.

However the designer was useful in explaining the order in which work is done in renovating a bathroom. The bathroom fixtures woman was also very informative on the advantages and disadvantages of various surfaces, and the differences between the budget and premium ranges she sold.

The bathroom designer also had seriously bad PowerPoint skills. She went through the presentation in the editing view, rather than the slideshow view, and didn’t appear to think there was anything wrong with this.

I’ve signed up for a bathroom design seminar. This sounds as though it might be useful for learning what I need to consider, and what possibilities there are. It’s a month away, but that’s close enough.

the catalogues and brochures I picked up on Sunday. Some of them have prices for the fittings, so i went through and added up the cost of what I would need, looking at the more modest end of the scale. It comes to just over $3000, although the biggest cost by far is going tlo be the labour to put all these things in, and replace the pipes behind the scenes. Better keep on saving!

I went to the Home Ideas Centre, which takes some getting to because it’s out in the suburbs. I looked at umpteen displays of bathroom fittings, and a few other things as well. I now have a 5cm stack of brochures to study. Not too sure whether this is going to be interesting – how exciting can bathtubs and vanities be?

hasn’t been going too well over the winter. This is partly due to high power bills, but also due to buying a new laptop and fridge. The good news is:-

a) I got a pay rise backdated to 1 July
b) I’ll be working in a polling place on election day, a more responsible job than I did last time, so that gets me about $250 after tax
c) It’s pay day tomorrow and HR have announced the October 1 tax cut will be in this pay
d) In this year’s employment contract, we are being offered the opportunity to take cash instead of a few days of annual leave. As I’ve currently got 23 days owing, I think I might take advantage of this.

All these things should noticeably boost my savings over the next few months :)

While soaking in a hot relaxing bath, I became aware of a sound like rain gently sprinkling, except it was coming from the room next door. I leapt out of the bath to have a look, by which time the water was pouring out of the hot water cupboard. I switched off the electricity to the cylinder and raced downstairs to turn the water off at the main. My neighbours were wonderful – one rang a plumber, while the other helped turn off the water.

A plumber arrived and poked around in the hot water cupboard and located the problem. There was this piping of an old type notorious for splitting. He cut a hole in the wall to see how much of it there was. Turned out there was 2 metres of it in that area. He has now replaced that, and I have cold water at the moment. I can’t turn the hot water on until tomorrow when things have dried out.

There is a possibility there is more of the inferior piping elsewhere in the bathroom, so this is great encouragement to move on with this goal. $288.90 for a Sunday evening plumbing emergency is not something I wish to experience again.

For anyone who lives in my city, I would like to recommend PlumbQuick (0800 PLUNGER). My neighbour rang 5 other plumbers who had big ads in the Yellow Pages promising 24/7 emergency service. PlumbQuick were the only ones who picked up the phone, and the guy arrived in 15 minutes as promised.

I stayed in two houses where the bathrooms had been recently renovated. That’s given me useful information on what works and what doesn’t. For example, one bathroom had one of those handbasins that’s shaped like a bowl. They look good, but it’s so easy to slosh water out of them and on to the vanity. I won’t be getting one of those.

The bathroom is about 25 years old and things are beginning to get worn out. It could also do with better ventilation, so that’s one of the things I’ll look at incorporating. Space for a dryer would also be good, and I think if things were moved around, there might be enough space. It’s very inefficiently laid out at the moment.

I hope to get this done in about 18 months to 2 years time.