Sticker Shock!

Okay, I finally did it! After weeks - months even! - of thinking about it and researching, I went to town today and ordered a bunch of stuff for remodeling the bathroom.

Ouch. In more ways that one.

I drove down to Huntsville. That wasn’t so bad. It’s driving back after I’m exhausted that’s a killer! Anyway, I stopped at UPS on the way down to drop off a couple of boxes with some return items, then stopped at Foods for Life to pick up a couple of things. By then it was almost time for Jonathan to be off work, so I met him there.

We hopped in his car and he drove over to Park Supply Company. I didn’t know they existed until I was looking for a particular brand of toilet and looked to see who carried them in our area and up popped their name. Wouldn’t you know, when I told Jess about it, he knew exactly where they were, as he used to go over there and pick up some parts when Shelby Construction needed them. However, he never went in the showroom and had no idea they had all the residential kind of stuff.

And they had a huge selection. I was intrigued with the toilets that had lids which popped open when you walked by, and slowly closed a while later. Jonathan wanted to know what a "washlet" was, and when I told him it was sort of like a bidet, he did a great Crocodile Dundee impression, "It's for washing your backside, right!?"

However, I already knew what I wanted, and those were a little more uptown than our budget would allow. Once we’d looked around and ascertained they didn’t have anything else we wanted, I asked one of the sales reps how much that model toilet was.

She started going down the list of height, seat shape, etc. As fast as she asked a question I lobbed back an answer. She told me the price, I said, “I’ll take it.” Her mouth dropped open, and she said, “Well, that was easy!” I just laughed and told her I’d already done my research and knew what I wanted before I got to the store.

Then she surprised me (and herself) by discovering they had one exactly like I wanted in stock. I figured since we were ordering a gray colored one, we’d have to special order it, but she said they’d got several in so they could show customers what the color looked like. Well, we didn’t drive the truck because we didn’t expect to take it home with us, so Jess will have to go back and pick it up sometime.

From there we went to Home Depot and looked at base cabinets for a vanity in the bathroom, and for a valet cabinet to put over the toilet. They didn’t have a counter/sink top like I wanted, so we decided we’d head on up to Lowe’s and see what they had before buying anything at Home Depot.

We ended up ordering oak - a base cabinet for a vanity, a cupboard for over the toilet – in a light colored stain, and a one-piece cultured marble top with recessed sink in a gray and white swirl pattern.

Of course, even though I knew about what it was going to cost, by the time they tacked on taxes, I had severe sticker shock when I checked out. Ouch.

And by that time, my body was in full-blown rebellion. BIG OUCH!!!

On the bright side, Jess stopped on the way home from work – he was headed home before we were! - and picked up some KFC for supper. And he didn’t bat an eye when I told him how much I spent today. He just shrugged and said, “Well, we knew it was going to be expensive.”

Hopefully, it all goes together well. It’s so difficult to tell from those little bitty samples. Whatever it looks like, we’re gonna be stuck with it for a long, long time!