Room for Improvement: The big reveal
December 23, 2008
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Denise Holtby
SPECIAL TO YOURHOME.CA
It’s been a wild week here at the Holtby household, but thanks to a blizzard or two that gave us extra time at home, the final paint and caulking touch-ups are done, the mirror and wall cabinet are hung and the towels are fluffed.
Sounds like it all went smoothly, right? Ha. That’s not the way we work around here.
Regular readers may remember the cabinet doors that I spent three weeks ordering, measured wrong and then painted with three coats of paint. In the end, we didn’t use them.
Instead, we gave the existing doors a good cleaning and put on new hardware. They look great. Of course, I’m kicking myself now, because I could have saved $100 if I’d tried this solution first.
The installation of the new sink and faucet was not without its drama either. In week seven, I was feeling superior about my ability to choose a sink and faucet in less time than it took my husband Dean to choose a wax toilet ring.
Well, Dean’s the one who’s feeling just a little superior now. It seems – and I didn’t know this, but, of course, Dean did – that bathroom lavatories come in at least two styles. One with holes cut for faucets on 4” centres and the other for faucets with 8” centres.
Long story short, I bought a sink with a 4” centre and a faucet and tap set designed for 8 to 16” centres.
Simple solution, right? Just buy a different sink. But Dean had already cut the opening to match the new sink, so we not only needed to find a sink with an 8” centre, but also one that was at least as large as the one we’d just purchased.
So we started googling, and once again were faced with the fact that Canada’s home decor retailers really need to work on improving their “user interface.” Upon leaving the elegance of Google results, we were mired in a pit of dead ends and incomplete information on the retailers’ websites.
But the story has a happy ending. We finally found the sink we wanted. Staff in blue vests answered my questions by telephone and, when it turned out that the sink I wanted was the last of its kind on the shelf, they set it aside until we could get there.
When we went to the store the next evening, not only was the service prompt and helpful – they have real people waiting to ring through your purchase at the cash register! – but the price was almost $100 less than a Canadian catalogue retailer was charging for the exact same sink.
With the added help of a snowstorm or two that gave Dean and I some extra hours of DIY time, our bathroom project is complete after eight weeks of shopping and decision-making and two weeks of hard work on Dean’s part.
In the end, at $1,285 (see detailed breakdown in sidebar) we were almost 30 per cent over budget.
We certainly made our share of mistakes along the way, too, but we’re happy with the results. In fact, we invited neighbours John and Cathy over for a glass of wine, then made them stand in the bathroom and admire our handiwork.
Cathy very patiently reviewed my choice of towels, soap dispenser, etc. She understands. After two years of having no shower in their main bathroom while she waited for husband John to finish their reno project, she finally hired a pro and had the job done in two weeks.
And so we come to the end of the series just in time. I must confess that we’ve been so busy with this project that by Saturday we still had yet do any Christmas shopping. I’m just hoping that I can convince my 21-year-old who wants an iPhone that we’ve joined the frugality trend in the wake of the economic slowdown.
In the meantime, Dean and I wish you all a peaceful, orderly holiday and a happy, healthy new year!
Editor's note: Stay tuned for more Room for Improvement in the New Year. Denise and Dean will be back with new projects to tackle and new stories to tell!