The Gutting of the Bathroom or Will Our Marriage Survive the Remodel?

Today it officially begins.  My first day of vacation and the start of the Gutting of the Bathroom.  We have the most hideous master bath in the world, (my opinion).  So we (me) decided that we would take a week’s vacation and totally remodel the bathroom.  I mean how long can it take?  We’re taking out the ugly tub and even uglier vanity with the wood grain laminate countertop.  Who puts a wood grain laminate countertop in a bathroom anyway?  The sink had started to chip and crack.  There are two 70’s refugee globe lights hanging from swag chain over the vanity and one huge honkin mirror on the wall, complete with chips and backing scratched off.  I’m not sure how mirror backing can come off when it stays on the wall, but oh well.  When the lights were hung, evidently the person didn’t have a hole saw and cut a square hole so that the square edges of the holes peek out around the circular caps of the lights.  Very attractive and stylish too.  There is also a can light hung on the wall next to the toilet, to help you see for the ever important reading that men do in a bathroom.  The lovely can light was also installed using the square hole for a round cover.  But there is no light by the bath tub, guess you don’t really want to see that well in the shower.  The linoleum on the floor has cracked.  There are three closets just inside the doorway as you walk in giving you a cramped feeling that the walls really are closing in on you.

But all that goes away starting today.  We are going to move the tub/shower to where the vanity was.  Two of the three closets are going away forever.  In place of a vanity, there will be two pedestal sinks and a cabinet between them that is actually two pieces, the base cabinet will have a granite countertop on it and the upper cabinet will be hung on the wall and have sides that meet the base.  There will be two much smaller mirrors and there will be NO swag lights in there anywhere.

So far, we’ve argued over every piece for the bathroom.  Mitch has traditional tastes and I am more modern, contemporary.  It has almost gone to blows in the home improvement stores.  I had almost come to the conclusion that this marriage will never work, because our tastes are so vastly different. 

First is was the tub.  Mitch declared that we could only have a one piece tub and shower combo.  “Because no matter how careful you are or how good of a job you do caulking, the damn thing always leaks.”  Try finding a really nice looking one piece tub/shower combo, there aren’t that many out there to choose from.  Then is was the sinks.  I found a really nice looking square pedestal sink that he hated, saying it looked like it was institutional.  The really big argument came with the cabinets.  Nothing readymade really grabbed either of us.  I was willing to buy unfinished and make it work, but Mitch hated them all.  He found a custom cabinet shop and went to talk to them without me to get some design ideas and costs.  I just knew that custom cabinets would cost a fortune, granted they would be worth it, but I am working on a budget and figured the cabinets would bust the budget.  Surprisingly, the price was very reasonable, so now Mitch and I could focus the next argument on the design of the cabinet.  I said he is traditional, well if you have a fireplace mantel with a candlestick on one side, there needs to be a candlestick on the other side.  That’s Mitch.  Make me crazy.  This is when I started to doubt our marriage.

We finally found the tub by accident, we had gone to buy tile for the floor and there high up on the rack on display, was a one piece tub/shower combo that I actually liked.  I had Mitch drag one of those ladders only for use by store personnel over for me to climb up on and check it out.  We bought it on the spot and called one of our friends to come and load it in their truck and take it home.  We found two very nice oval pedestal sinks at a plumbing supply store and ordered them.  After long heated debates, Mitch took me to the custom cabinet shop so that I could look at and touch actual cabinets instead of sketches on paper.  We made a decision and now it’s on order.  Things are starting to gel.  I still have to go get towel bars, mirrors, faucets and lights (without Mitch), but I think we might make it.  I’ll keep you posted and let you know how our progress goes.