Home projects for winter, more bright ideas in the mid-at

In public places like restaurants and bars, but at someone's home? Not usually, but I'll let "pistillate" members provide more in-depth analysis.

tooooo funny

I did not have the full color tile, thank heavens. Yeah the pink was the worst!

Double sink in a half bath. Oh my. Maybe somebody thought they had to fill the space with SOMETHING. I might have tried to invent a bathroom garden. Have a mop sink at the end to drain all your plants.

Seq, that sounds like a very nice bathroom. Dont think me weird if I ask you to post a picture. Did the house have it when you bought? It sounds new, with the plank floor. Maybe I'll ask for the new ceramic plank in bleached wood look..

They may go there in pairs, but there are individual stalls, so there is a little less "togetherness" once they arrive.

What you can't really appreciate in the photo of the yellow one is how the sink placement prevents the shower door from opening very far.

i'm weird i never expect company to the public restroom

'' What you can't really appreciate in the photo of the yellow one is how the sink placement prevents the shower door from opening very far.''

sooo annoying

Sally, I very much like the ceramic plank in bleached wood look.

When I clean up my bathrooms, i will take some pictures...

Sally--I still have yellow fixtures, tub and toilet in my main bath
with a mix of beige/browns in the same tile pattern on the floor as in the pink one above.
I recently needed a new toilet seat--and I had to get a white one.
At least it matches the white tub-surround around the yellow tub.
Looks weird...

The downstairs bathroom (in the club room area) are also all yellow, even if WE built it ourselves.
The tub surround walls there are a pretty whitish with a gentle pattern of leaves and stems.
The floor is an intense deep yellow linoleum with a tight pattern.

My "master bath" (Haaaa Haaa-the one off my bedroom) ...is so tiny one would get claustrophobic. The shower stall is 30"x30" and has "lovely" blue tile walls.
The vanity and toilet are snack against each other. That is all the room there is.

Of course--sometimes in the long past--we wallpapered it in a pretty bold blue
patterned paper. I loved it then..I chose that! Yech!

Ahhhh---the 70's still ive everywhere in my house! Gita

Don't worry Gita, I have seen your bathrooms they're very cozy with personal touches. And the 70's will be 'vintage style' soon!

I am no designer, I cannot fathom how to take old things, blend with new, and make a stylish fresh looking room, but you see it all the time. I miss the 50 bath I grew up in, with the sink on chrome legs

Sally, I already think YOU'RE weird...LOL! I'll try to post a pic later tonight. We put the bathroom in a few years back. It's a large improvement over what was there to start. The faux wood plank floor is an Armstrong product. It uses tape to hold all the pieces together but it's basically a floating floor (?).


Funny story (and a little gross)....but does anyone remember college, if you went? The college parties always had bathroom lines that were terribly long so girls would always go together. That can be expected because the one girl would serve as security so no one would 'accidentally' walk in. Now what may not be expected, sometimes guys would go in 3 at a time. Reason being was that one would use the toilet, one would use the sink, and one would use the tub. All could do their business at the same time and get back to drinking quicker ;)

Ok so that was a lot gross....ah the days of college.

I did not know that about boys....

Friend at work just got cork flooring in a bathroom. She is in love with it, But its a rough irregular surface and I fear dirt filling up the little pits over time. I think I could only do cork in a 'dry' room like bedroom.

Yeah cork flooring might absorb some of the liquids that typically drop on a bathroom floor. Maybe they sealed it with something?

Sally, Ric and I looked at cork flooring for the kitchen and debated it for years. In the end we decided no. I wasn't too sure how cleaning it would be. They use to use cork floors in old mansions so that you didn't hear all the servants walking around. If time I ever heard of cork flooring was at a historical house tour.

Sequoia, Yea, Boy's do those things.

You know it would be nice not to hear my servants walking around....

;-)

hahahahaa!!!!!!!!!

Yeah, I hate it when I hear the servants walking around.

I like the idea of the bleached look on the floor.

Some of you have seen the lavender toilet in my yard. It's sister tub is still in one of the bathrooms. When we move to that bathroom to renovate, would you refinish it or remove it?

Could you refinish it and still keep the lavender color?
I've never seen a lavender tub; that sounds worth keeping.

I agree. Keep the color for the tub.

lavender could never be outdated!

I also think a lavender tubsounds really cool. Bet you could sell it on craigslist if yo dont keep it.

Sally G turned gangsta...

I also think a lavender tub sounds really cool. Bet you could sell it on craigslist if yo dont keep it.

Heehehe, I am surprised at the YAY votes for the color of the tub. We don't care for it.

I'm surprised too Jan. I didn't want to say anything because everyone else liked it but I don't think a tub should be anything other than white. I'd yank it out and chuck it like like David yanks out Euonymus alatus....with no mercy...

Hehehehehe. NO mercy!!!!

yo I be likin me some lavender tub

So there's and English to ghetto translator online.

This is what Jan asked about her toilet a few posts up:

Some of you have seen the lavender toilet in my yard. It's sister tub is still in one of the bathrooms. When we move to that bathroom to renovate, would you refinish it or remove it?

This is how she would have asked according to the ghetto translator:

$um O' CHu GOTSS $eEn da LaVenduH ToiLeT YNN MaHH yARd. IT'$ $iStuH TUb Iz $tIlL Ynn wON O' Da BathroOms. WEnnnn We'S Mov Ta Dat BAtHroOMM taa Renov8, WuDDD CHU REfiNIsh It OR RemoVe it?

I had to remove a couple swears but still funny. Could you imagine Jan talking like that!?! What a hoot!

YO, SEq, why U b dissin me like dat?!!!! Hehehehe

Haha Jan, you're the best!

We're finally getting that second driveway. It's actually more of a parking pad than a driveway.

DH has been parking on the grass for a couple of years now, but driving on wet/snowy soil this winter really did a number on the grass. It's now a muddy mess every time it rains.

We looked into various ground covers and stones, but decided on concrete. We got 4 different estimates, and the difference between lowest to highest quotes was $3500!

I'm skeptical of the lowest estimate and want to go with the second lowest, but DH wants the cheapest guy since he did a good job with my neighbor's driveway a couple of years ago.

Seq, I was going to say that is waayyyyy too clean to be street speak. :)

LOL SSG, it was only two 'f' words...

Be careful in picking the lowest guy. That contractor may have done a great job now but a poor job done on concrete could take a decade to show up. There's a general rule in the contracting business that you never go with the lowest guy. Good luck though, I definitely like concrete driveways but they are pretty darn expensive.

When we had our driveway re-done, we chose a very small start-up concrete company because the price was right. We paid a deposit, and waited for months for the owner to get back to us. I think he spent our deposit on Christmas. We had to threaten to sue him several times before he finally got around to doing it, and he didn't do a great job. The driveway is cracked and the surface is eroded in places, exposing the stones. That's my lowest bid story.

When we got estimates on septic work, we got a bit of background info from me working for health dept in the past, one price difference seemed to mean "I don't really want your job but if you're willing to pay this high price, well then I will do it"

Sally, I have actually hear some of Josh's contractor friends say that. They bid a job really high because they really weren't that interested in the job but if they would pay that much they would do it. Generally for us as with most things we don't go high or low, we pick some where in the middle.
SSG, have you looked at the permeable paver as an alternative to concrete. I can't find a pic of them but I always liked those concrete pavers with the diamond shape holes in them for the grass to grow up thru. They made a nice solid spot to park but gave you a softer look.

I'll talk to DH about going with the second-lowest bid. It seems to be the most sensible option.

Holly, we did look into permeable pavers, but they were at least 2-3 times the price of concrete. And since we already have a concrete driveway, it would require tearing out our current concrete driveway and putting in a two-car width of permeable pavers.

Permeable pavers sometimes look like regular pavers, with no grass in between.

Having been in the business, I don't understand why they would need to remove the pre-existing concrete portion of your driveway. That is A LOT of work and generates tons of debris that has to be loaded and trucked to a landfill, thus a huge added expense not to mention that it results in double the installation. We can discuss this directly if you wish.

There are all kind of permeable pavers and I would think some of them are quite pricey. The ones I am talking about are concrete a couple of inches thick with a open waffle design. They are used in areas where you want a softer look as the holes in them are pretty large for the grass to grow. You get a solid base to park without the solid look of a slab.

Thanks, David, I'd love to talk to you more about it.

Holly, from what I've read, to be truly permeable, there is more much more digging required to allow the water to percolate underneath. So some of those waffle design pavers are permeable but the ones that require a solid footing underneath are not much more permeable than just concrete.

My county actually provides a nice little refund for installing permeable pavers, but it would still be much more expensive than just concrete. We even priced out stamped concrete, just to see what the difference would be. It's $5000 more expensive! Just for a little bit of stamped color! D:

hmmm...I guess my grand plans for 'someday' redoing our whole driveway and sidewalks just got put off way into the future......like, never!

These permeable pavers shouldn't require any digging to be as permeable as they're going to be over the long haul. What I mean is that after you drive a car onto them multiple times, the only permeable parts will be the holes anyway. http://www.treehugger.com/sustainable-product-design/porous-paving-open-cell-concrete-block.html

I've lived in houses where driveways consisted of these blocks and we got lots of rain, and they drained just fine!

ssg, I realize you might be concerned about how it would look to have a concrete driveway next to open pavers because they wouldn't match. How do the contractors propose getting the 2 concrete slabs to match? The new one probably will be lily white.

Muddy, our sidewalks and driveway apron were just redone a couple of years ago, and the old driveway doesn't look that bad next to the new concrete. I do think it would look rather silly to have two completely different types of driveway right next to each other.

Thanks Muddy that is just what I was talking about. I just couldn't find them when I searched.
Yes SSG, you don;t really want two different looking driveways I was thinking more like extended parking area.

I gotta take a picture so you all can see how embarrassing it looks right now. :)