Roughing it

Ok, I’m not roughing it; as long as I am with my parents I live in the lap of luxury. My plumber has finished roughing IN. I have a new bathtub in the living room and there are pipes running through to where all my plumbing fixtures are going to go. Other than that, I’ve done a little bit more demo, a little bit more cleanup, and plenty of thinking ahead about what goes in next. The good news is, aside from a few feet of pipe connecting to the storm drain in my back yard, there’s not an inch of old plumbing (except for the radiators) anywhere in the house! Here’s a nice shot of the pipes coming up between my living room and kitchen. Off in the corner they’ll be easy to hide inside a column that looks like it’s supposed to be there. I’m planning on covering it with reclaimed wood. But anyways, that’s probably about all there is to see of the construction progress, but trust me, stuff is happening.

In other news, my favorite neighbor gave me a very fancy Hansgrohe shower faucet. The mixture/diverter fixture is both damaged and incompatible with a bathtub (which is probably why he had it for free) but I might be able to use the super high end rain shower head and hand-held shower. So the big question now is (assuming I use them) do I buy an aesthetically compatible Delta faucet, or spring for all Hansgrohe? I’ve usually had pragmatic ideas about bathrooms. Get sturdy, well made fixtures but skip the bells and whistles. But with these I’m about halfway to something super fancy already. Thoughts, anyone?

And here’s the shower head and hand-held shower, including the other fixtures I definitely can’t use:

Then there’s the tile question. I’ve seen enough mildewed grout to know that I want it colored on the dark side. Yes, that’s the solution. Let it grow and design the room so you can’t see it. As for the tile itself, I don’t think I want any somber earth tones, so that leaves me with white or a color, ceramic or glass. What I like best seems to be the really expensive stuff, surprise surprise, so I’ll probably take the easy way out and go with a pretty basic ceramic. And I know white is the safest, but I also know that this is my house and that means I can do whatever I want. All I know is I want it to look pretty modern, even when I’m bending over backwards to restore my doors, woodwork, and door hardware to their original appearance. That’s about all I have for now. Here are the options I’m thinking. If I go with white tile, I will still go all out with color on the walls; after all it’s only a bathroom, and I’m planning to tile only around the bathtub. I’m all ears if you have advice! I really like this glass tile, but it’s much, much, much more expensive.