Home Reno Day (Part 2)

As we stepped into the second home reno store the smell of lumber hit me again. Sensing that I was getting impatient, Paul took the control and lead us to the back of the store to look at bathroom vanities.

This vanity is going to go into the upstairs bathroom -- a room that I already love. The tiles are a light terra cotta and the walls are khaki green. The shower curtain and a great print I found at IKEA pull all of the colors together perfectly. I would be happy to leave the whole thing alone but the sink is a small pedestal and the only storage is a horrid four-drawer Rubbermaid system I bought to hold tooth brushes, a few rolls of toilet paper and the vast collection of bath toys that are necessary when one has toddlers.

Today it is even uglier. Stained with day-glo blue bubble bath, toothpaste and hair dye, it is stuffed to the brim with hair brushes, razors, replacement cartridges, shaving cream, a dozen tooth brushes (only 4 people live in the house), five tubes of toothpaste and an army of bath toys. The drawers only close if you push them hard and from a precise angle. I have a five year old -- how often do you think those drawers are left half open?! You will notice that there is no longer room to store a spare roll of toilet paper which annoys me to no end.

It is my hatred of this white plastic nightmare that Paul has used to coax me to the home reno store in the first place. He catches me at a weak moment when I walk in and find three of the four drawers wide open and I am wiping green tooth paste off of it once again. "We can keep the tile and I will re-paint the walls the exact same color. Think of how much nicer the bathroom would look if we had a vanity instead of this ugly thing." He knows how to push my buttons.

So here we are at the hated big-box store looking at vanities... too white, too boxy, too dark, not enough storage. There is one I like but it is too big. They do make one in the size we need but they don't have it on display. Paul shows me a small grainy picture on the side of a box. Exhausted and frustrated I say let's take it.

He leads me to the next aisle and tells me to pick a counter. I want to cry. I should have known from the toilet debacle that a counter would not be included with a vanity! That would be far too easy.

"White or beige?"
"Beige."
"Sink built in or with a drop-in sink?"
"Built-in -- you are not going to sucker me into a trip down another aisle"
"Sink centered or off-set"
"Off-set."
"Do you want to look at a new tap or use the one we already have?"
"You're kidding me right?"

With all of the questions answered Paul says great and begins to walk away. When I open my mouth to ask he says, "we'll have to come another day to pick it up, we can't fit all of this in the car right now." At this point I am wondering if divorce lawyers work on Sunday afternoons. I am pretty sure that if one set up a table at a home reno store each weekend they could make a killing.

We move over to the tile aisle and shift our focus to the downstairs bathroom where we will be tiling a counter instead of picking a pre-made one as the size we need is irregular and would require a special-order. I like several different options but find it difficult to settle on one as I don't know what color the walls will be. With kids in tow we track to the opposite end of the store to look at paint chips.

"Pick this color," Kaye says holding out a hot pink paint chip. Paul grumbles and shakes his head.
"What about this?" Gracie asks holding a purple chip.
"Look girls, this is not going to be a princess bathroom. Just let dad and I look OK..."
Turning to Paul I say, "I'm thinking of a pumpkin color." He simply nods and starts rummaging through the prepared color combinations.
At combo number 3 he stops. Pulls it out and says: "what about this?"
"Fine," I say and we leave the store holding only four paint chips.

3 hours, 2 stores and 1 fight later we have emerged with nothing but 4 paint chips!

As we get in the car I start to giggle and look over Paul. "You know that we are the same people who bought a car in an hour and a half, right?" He simply shakes his head as the incongruity of this sets in.