Taking the Plunge (or not)

My apartment is pre-war and one of the reasons I fell in love with it is because it still has all of its original architectural details. Except in the bathroom. There is a mish mash of "subway tiles" (some original and some not) and some pretty hideous linoleum on the floor.

I am fairly certain that I am going to do with most the bathroom -- subway tiles on the walls almost up to the ceiling, and marble hex tiles with a dark gray marble border for the floor. A console sink (because the space is too narrow for anything else, and I am not a fan of the pedestal sink), sticking with but reglazing my existing tub (I would love to get rid of it and put in one of those fancy showers, but I have to be practical and think about resale), and a light shade of blue (almost aqua) for the ceiling to break up all that white. The picture on the left gives you the general idea. I think ET#1 will be happy to know that I am scheduled to have all of this work done in April. I should have a spiffy new bathroom by May!

I am still trying to figure out what shelves and shower containers I'm going to use. I have a propensity to collect an insane amount of toiletries -- shampoo, conditioner, leave in conditioner, face scrub, body scrubs and all variations of moisturizers and bath gels. It's a disease and I have to stop. In my head, my new bathroom will be a sparkling oasis. However, realizing this dream will involve me hiring a cleaning lady and squeezing as much storage space into said bathroom as possible.

As ET#1 likes to point out, my toilet is not so cooperative. And I am pretty sure that I am wasting hundreds of gallons of water a week because of the constant drip of my faucet and my tempermental toilet where the water runs constantly. On to the most imporant part of my bathroom redo. I am torn between two toilets:

(i) a Toto toilet (because I fell in love with this brand of toilets while traveling in Japan and they are supposed to be the best -- yes, it is possible to fall in love with a toilet) with "Double Cyclone flushing technology"

or

(ii) an American Standard Champion toilet (because of their slogan "declaring a plunger free world" and the video on their website where they flush 15 golfballs without any problems).

If "capacity" wasn't an issue, then I would probably get the Kohler Archer toilet because I think it is pretty. But, for once, I will go for function over form and go with either the Toto or the Champion, both of which claim to have the "largest trapways available on the market". In the battle of the toilets, which do you prefer -- Japan or USA?

Kitchen Conundrum

I was lucky enough to buy my apartment in "el barrio" about 15 months ago. The only reason I was able to buy it is because it is located in "el barrio" and because it needed some major renovations. I've been "redesigning" my kitchen and bathroom since I first saw the place and have decided that it is time for me to actually start renovating, instead of just accumulating design magazines and making frequent visits to home depot and other home improvement stores.

The kitchen is something that I daydream about all the time. That's my "dream kitchen" on the right (although I'm planning on using marble for the counters). Case in point, I am at work and daydreaming about it. Maybe some day I will have a Viking or Wolf range. For now, I am going to hold on to the 1950s enamel stove that came with my apartment. It's got a warming oven and is just too cool for school. The only downside is that whenever I have to bake anything I have to ask the BF if he will light the oven for me. It's scary, but I'm going to keep my retro-stove and maybe one day I'll be able to light it myself. I've decided to "go green" and replace the same nasty linoleum patterned floor that is in the kitchen with cork. Cork is cushy so if I drop things, they won't break. And it's easier on both the environment (it's a renewable resource!) and on your joints (it's cushy!).

My kitchen, like most New York City kitchens, is not so big. It's a very narrow galley kitchen and to make things even more complicated, one side of the kitchen is too shallow to have standard depth base cabinets. This has made "redesigning" my kitchen more complicated than I expected. This limits the placement of my base cabinets to one side of the kitchen and shifting the refrigerator to the opposite wall if I want to have a dishwasher (YES!!) and even a single drawer. As Evil had pointed out to me a while back, there aren't that many counter depth refrigerators out there. I have 3 viable somewhat affordable options: (i) a 10 cubic foot LG refrigerator that is 24"x24"x68" (shown on the left), (ii) a 13 cubic foot European refrigerator that is 24" x 24" x 78" (shown on the right), (iii) a 17.3 cubic foot Fisher and Paykel refrigerator that is 27" x 31" x 67" (shown at the very bottom of this post). The LG seems a little too small; the Fagor is a little too tall, and the Fisher and Paykel is a little too wide and would stick out by 3 inches. I am leaning towards the Fagor, but then I'd have to use a step stool to get to items on the top shelf. Should I just go for one of the other models? I can't decide...

Am not dead....yet

Have not posted in a while because I am freaking out about the slew of life decisions that need to get made. Will resume posting when I calm down.

Quiz

I got a 15 out of 20 on this quiz. Good thing I don't work for the FBI or CIA.