Remodeling

This is a quick stitch job showing the small bathroom as it exists now. The contractor sasy he can start work a week from tomorrow and we are getting ready. All we have left to buy is 2 new toilets, a tub for the other bath and light bulbs for the new fixtures. The tile is on order and should be here mid-week. The last faucet is in the Greensboro UPS hub, so it will be here Tuesday. I see a lot of chatter about the US coming into a recession. Donna and I are gallantly trying to stave it off because in our household consumer spending is definitely on the upswing. You can thank us later.

The 2008 NCAA Men’s Basketball Final Four is all set. Usually there are three #1 seeds playing with one upstart on the last weekend. The final four has featured only two number one seeds 5 times and has had zero one-seeded teams twice, 1980 and 2006. But this year is the first ever to feature all 4 number one seeds. For the heck of it I ran all eight different permeations of outcomes for the Final Four and of the twenty one people in our office pool there are 13 people with a chance to finish in the money and 8 still with a chance to win the thing. My favorite situation is Kansas beating NC, UCLA beating Memphis with UCLA beating Kansas in the final. If that happens three people would be tied for first so it would come down to the tie breaker, total points in the final game. Two of those three people picked the same total points! Coin toss? Two out of three at Rock, Paper, Scissors?

Last Saturday we were in Augusta for an MMC breakfast event. Afterwards we went over to look for ideas for our bathrooms remodeling project. We visited home improvement warehouse number one and marveled at the selection of stuff to choose from. We looked at new bathtubs, tile for the walls & floor and fixtures.

“It’s not easy, but marriage is wonderful. Let’s face it, every decision that you try to make takes twice as long, because you always have to talk them into it.” — Bernard Nadler

A tub is a tub, so that wasn’t too much of an issue. We think we found a floor title we both like a grayish-blue 12 x 12 and thought we would just go with a plain 6 x 6 white for the shower walls and tub enclosure walls. But we couldn’t agree on faucet style. Well, truth be told, neither one of us could come up with one we liked enough to try and talk the other into it. Off we go to the competition, home improvement warehouse number two, which was literally right across the street. We struck gold on the faucet here, we found a style we both agree on – Savannah by Price Pfister.

On the way home we stopped in at The Tile Center in downtown Augusta and got some professional help. The woman who helped us listened, suggested, listened some more, held our hands until we found our perfect tiles, 13 x 13 blueish-gray for the floor, 10 x 13 white with a slight gray marbling for the walls and a 3 x 3 blueish-gray accent. Thanks Janie.

Monday, Contractor #2, who we saw on Friday, called with their preliminary bid. Yikes! can you say steep? It was 2-1/2 times more than the first contractor’s bid. And they weren’t including as much of the materials as the first guy either. We have pretty much decided to go with Contractor #1, but if we do we need to do more shopping. We need to pick out a vanity and top for the bigger bathroom.

Tonight we visited both big box home improvement stores here in Aiken. These are actually almost a mile apart and much smaller than there Georgia counterparts. We really didn’t get much accomplished except for more confusion. And actually, we found some stuff we like online, but it is hard to spend that much money without seeing it in person. We are leaning towards this: Pegasus Exhibit 48 In. Vanity and think it will look nice in the room, but we will need to get a top that, not necessarily matches, but at least coordinates with our floor tile…looks like another trip to The Tile Center is on our agenda.

You think watching Lost will make your head hurt?