A very expensive day

[carbonel]

Today, I had the blind guy over. No, not someone vision-impaired, but someone to sell me window treatments for my living room. I redid the place three years ago, and have been living with naked windows (glass sliding doors and two big side windows) ever since. I finally got myself in gear by purchasing a Living Social coupon that gave me $250 worth of merchandise for $75. I expected the whole thing to be considerably more than that, but this got me moving to make the appointment before March 3, when the coupon expired.

In three weeks I should have window treatments on my windows. I definitely get the feeling that prices on these things are, like the Pirate Code, more of a guideline. He quoted me a price, then said that there was a 30% coupon floating around that he’d apply to my account, plus a $50 discount for something or other. Then I mentioned the Living Social coupon, and he said that didn’t apply to the line of products I’d selected. Note that I’d selected that particular line of products because that was what was in the books he offered me. He did offer to go back to his van and get the sample books from the other line, but I really didn’t want to start again. I asked if he’d take off the amount I actually paid for the coupon, and he agreed to that right away. Fair enough.

Honestly, I have no idea if it was a good price or not, but in the end I paid around $1,100 for vertical cloth blinds on the sliding doors and honeycomb cloth-like blinds on the two big windows. I’m just so glad to have this taken care of.

And after that, I just spent $4,999 on an Angie’s List coupon (theoretical value $9,000) to have my bathroom remodeled. I’ve been wanting to do something about the bathroom for a long time. There’s nothing actually wrong with it, but it’s rooted in 1950s décor. I mean, there’s a blue toilet and bathtub. And tile on the walls. Etc. What I’d really like is more space, but I don’t think that’s going to happen. But I’ll settle for a place to hang a towel and a nice shower. And less blue, at least of that color blue. It’s the avocado green and harvest gold of blue, if you know what I mean.

I'll have my appointment with the bathroom guy sometime in the next couple of weeks, after which doubtless I will be posting about just how much more it costs and how much longer it takes than I expected.

Comments

[beamjockey.livejournal.com]

There used to be a Venetian-blind-cleaning service in Batavia whose van bore a warning on its rear doors:

CAUTION
BLIND MAN DRIVING THIS TRUCK

[lydy.livejournal.com]

I cheer about the window treatments. I always feel so naked in your living room.

I _like_ your blue fixtures in the bathroom. But, yes, it does feel a bit dark and oppressive, so you're probably right.

[henrytroup.livejournal.com]

For many years, and maybe even now, the first two listings in the Toronto phonebook were venetian blind cleaners, Aaababa Venetian Blind Laundry was one.

Congratulations on the windows treatments.

We also redid a bathroom from colored fixtures, green in the main bathroom and blue in the end suite. The toilet lids wound up at the Habitat Re-Store, as people are often looking to match broken ones.

[catalenamara.livejournal.com]

That retro stuff can go for decent money, if it's in good condition. Do you have any of these smaller fixtures? Maybe worth ebaying them?

http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_odkw=blue+bathroom+fixtures+19502&_osacat=0&_from=R40&_trksid=p2045573.m570.l1313&_nkw=blue+bathroom+fixtures+1950s&_sacat=0

[naomikritzer]

I was eyeing that same Angie's List coupon, though I didn't buy it. I actually quite like my vintage 1950s pink bathroom with the tile everywhere in Mamie Pink (Mamie Eisenhower: if you google for Mamie Pink, you'll see lots of bathrooms in this exact color). However, there's also a master bath that was built in the late 1980s and is also pink, but the pink that we called "dusky rose." The floor tiles in that bathroom were not laid properly and are coming up; we need to take care of that eventually, and replacing the pink with something less 80s would be kind of nice. But expensive. I didn't buy the coupon. Let me know how your remodel goes, though!

[naomikritzer]

(My vintage bathroom also has a maroon bathtub and maroon accents. Sadly, the matching maroon toilet and sink were too dysfunctional and I replaced them when we moved in -- the toilet had a leaking tank and could not be repaired, and the sink had a leaking faucet and could not be repaired.)

I really do like the 1950s tile. And it's weird how a subtle difference in shade makes it look vintage to me, whereas the 80s pink just looks dated.

[naomikritzer]

And I totally know the blue you mean. It's one of these:

http://retrorenovation.com/2009/06/25/scenes-from-22-blue-midcentury-bathrooms/

I bet it's this one, specifically:
http://retrorenovation.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/06/alices-blue-bathroom-vintage.jpg

[carbonel]

I dithered about the coupon when it first came by, then kind of let it go, though it lingered at the back of my mind. But yesterday, Angie's List sent a "this is your last chance" reminder, and today I decided to go for it.

The floor tiles in my bathroom are quite bland, but I would under other circumstances have no reason to replace them. It's the blue fixtures and the blah wallpaper and the general 1950s look of the place that make me vaguely (but not terribly) unhappy with it. Honestly, I feel a little guilty spending this much money for something that works just fine as it is. If I hadn't just spent a week at my parents' place in Skokie (which has great bathrooms), I probably would have let the coupon pass unpurchased.

[carbonel]

I bet it's this one, specifically:

Pretty damned close, actually. The wall tile is white, and the sink has storage space rather than being freestanding, but that's the exact right color of blue.

I wonder if anyone wants the current fixtures before the builders take them away for demolition. In my previous house, I benefited greatly from hand-me-down bathroom fixtures. Unfortunately, it was as part of the refurbishing before I sold the place, so I didn't get to enjoy them for all that long.

[naomikritzer]

People do go looking for vintage bathroom fixtures. I'm not sure whether they're worth e-baying or not. (I didn't sell mine, despite some encouragement to try doing so, because they were broken.)

[laurel]

I generally disapprove of getting rid of colored bathroom fixtures as they're such an endangered species, but tastes vary obviously.

There are many people out there desperately searching for old bathroom fixtures, especially stuff befitting a colored bathroom from the '50s. I'd post pictures on Craig's List or something, could even do that in advance of demo to see if there's interest.

I direct you also to SaveThePinkBathrooms as well as a nifty article from the Strib in Jan 2011 about the trend.

[laurel]

That's a gorgeous color! And tougher to find in my experience than Mamie pink. Likely because more guys are cool with retro blue bathrooms than retro pink ones, I suppose. Possibly more women as well! Blue would tempt me, whereas pink wouldn't.

Definitely post pictures to Craig's List to see if there's interest. Or even just to your own haunts to start with.

I still occasionally kick myself for letting a complete set of turquoise kitchen appliances pass me by when someone tore them out, but with appliances usually one wants things that are more modern in how they function. With bathroom fixtures this is less of a problem as sinks are sinks, more or less.

[moonlightmead.livejournal.com]

Have never come across Angie's list before. Interesting. Best wishes for keeping it all within time and budget!

[naomikritzer]

Old-timey toilets use quite a bit more water. This is less of an issues in MN than in, say, CA, though.

[snippy]

I remodeled my bathroom for about $10,000 about 10 years ago--but a friend and I did most of the labor, that price is for one plumber visit (to check we'd done things correctly) and two electrician visits (one rough in, one final for a new fan that actually vented out the roof instead of just into the attic) and for the supplies, tiles and tub and toilet and wallboard etc.