The Bathroom . . .

Well our bathroom is finished.  We retained the tile floor and the bath with jets but completely redid the shower (it needed it too) and Judie has always wanted granite tops for the two sinks.  We also replaced the toilet with a taller one (we had no idea that there were different heights for toilets until a discussion with a neighbor).

The old toilet had a loose bolt and it kind of wobbled on the floor.  It never leaked except when I had to replace the filler assembly.  Filler assemblies are plastic and tend to break down with time.  The new toilet has 1.2 gallon tank and swift flush function.  It really works and is very fast.  The old toilet had a 1.5 gallon tank the flush chain had a float in the middle of it.  So when you flushed, it you held the handle down you got a full shot of water.  If you had just urinated, a quick handle movement and the water was exchanged and not the whole tank was emptied.   The new toilet is so much faster to empty and refill.  We really did not care about that but we did want a taller unit.

That quick flush did not always work.  But great idea.  The new toilet does not have that but uses some much less water it is not necessary or a benefit.  All the holes for water discharge from the tank are twice the size as the old tank on the old toilet and that leads to fast rapid flow.  Uses less water to flush and less time to flush.

We had to buy the toilet and the contractor's plumber installed the new toilet.  He reinstalled the old fixtures on both sinks and the shower head.  We did not get new ones and we like of the old ones anyway.  That ended up with a couple of leaks but since it was a Delta fixture, Delta are warranted the fixtures for life.  So the contractor ordered up a new one and we got it pretty quick.  So it all is functional now in good working order.

We had the entire room repainted.  It had several places that needed touch up.  It takes a beating from the cleaning lady, not intentional but did a little damage here and there.  So we had it completely repainted including the ceiling.  The molding had some age cracks from drying out and the painters filled those cracks in with spackling and the new paint did a great job.

Judie picked out the granite.  And it is almost three quarters of an inch thick, so it is quite heavy.  Once installed it ain't gonna go no where.  They measure precisely.  The granite was also used in the shower.  It is a lighter color, not dark granite so it does not darken the place at all.

We had the old synthetic plastic surfaces removed.  We had a nice new tile installed, large squares were used.  We had the stool in the corner of the shower expanded to a bench.  And we had four niches added that were at least a foot high (shampoo and other bottles are getting taller now days).  The bottoms of the niches had the same granite and the bench across the back of the shower had the same granite in the seat.  And the door floor jam is also the same granite.  The niches had small oblong tiles in the back of each one.  The floor is small squares of matching tile and new drain that one can remove to clean down below floor level if one wants to do that.  They also reworked the floor so it had a definite slope and drained toward the new drain cover.

Lastly we had the shower light replace with a new low wattage high out put light.  We are no longer taking showers in an dark corner.  It is well lit now.

The tile, granite, and paint job look great.  The new paint makes the place look all new.  It all makes Judie happy and the old shower was an eye sore.