With the vintage pink sink from Port Hope safely installed in the vanity – complete with Formica’s reissued ‘Boomerang’ pattern – finishing touches, such as a custom wraparound shelf with pegboard sliders, were added. (DAVE LEBLANC FOR THE GLOBE AND MAIL)
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Voicemail from wife
9:11 a.m. — "Hey, hon, I just got a phone call from Aresh. Apparently we've got bats in the attic. … I'm going to see if we can do something about this, but, yeah, fun stuff, talk to you later, bye."
Voicemail from wife
9:36 a.m. — "I spoke to Aresh and I spoke to a guy named Chris, and Chris is coming to remove the bats for $250. … Oh, I also spoke to Wildlife Services."
Voicemail from wife
11:59 a.m. — "A quick bats-in-the-attic update: The guy showed up; Aresh had gone to the hardware store to get stuff, so when he came back, the bat was gone. So Chris is charging us for the service call. Apparently, it's normal for them to be in the attic this time of year. … I just hope it's not flying around in our kitchen!"
That was how Day 2 of our bathroom renovation began. On Day 1 (Monday), we came home after work to find every trace of our old bathroom gone, leaving nothing but dark wood studs, exposed copper pipes, old sagging insulation, a bare-board floor and a shiny tube hanging limply from the ceiling (connected to a vent we'd had installed when our new roof went down in June).
But back to the bats: There was only one, we figure, and our best guess is that the little guy had come in via one of the vents for a long winter nap and, frightened awake by our big tough contractor, had picked a different joist to hang out on while said contractor was out buying drywall.
So, despite a friend giving my wife Shauntelle the nickname "Batgirl," she never did meet our uninvited houseguest and probably never will, since we're told he'll make his way out the same way he came in when it warms up outside.
Other than that, things went smoothly. The renovation took nine days total, and for seven of those we camped out in my parent's basement, since we only have the one bathroom. Each night, we'd visit to check the progress, take photos and decide if there was anything to address via telephone with our contractor the next day.
Frankly, there wasn't much, since Aresh Katirai is one of those rare renovators who "gets it." In our case, "it" was cramming a mix of retro and 21st-century style into 50 square feet while still making it possible for two people to move about somewhat comfortably.
He successfully installed close to 100 square feet of vintage Italian mosaic tile (colour-blocked because of limited amounts of each colour) that didn't have the usual mesh on the back but rather a difficult-to-remove paper glued to the front. Many hours were spent peeling this off with a warm water mist, fingernails and swear words, which we assume were usually followed by our names.
In January, I wrote about our quest for a vintage pink sink. Well, despite many naughty readers sending me pictures of their very own pink sinks that I couldn't have, there were a few offers contained within the 40 e-mails I received (and thank you all so much for writing, even you naughty ones).
On a crisp, sunny Saturday afternoon, Shauntelle and I drove to Port Hope to meet new friends Kiloran German and Elizabeth Fowler at their home, where we raised martinis to the "Pink Lady" before heading back down the 401.
Our pink plunder secured, we watched as Shauntelle's sketch came to life little by little each day.
Of course, as an interior designer, she could "see" the room during construction long before I could.
It took until that blasted paper was off the tile for me to recognize anything, and when the Pink Lady was moored in the new vanity — complete with Formica's reissued "Boomerang" pattern — I got really excited. When finishing touches such as our custom wraparound shelf with the pegboard sliders went up, I was doing cartwheels.
Except for one thing. While I loved RENOCanada's customizing options and its customer service, the Thermofoil finish on the new vanity concerns me: I bumped into it once when it was in our foyer awaiting installation and a corner of it peeled back. When I accidentally hit it with the vacuum cleaner during post-construction cleanup, it left a scar. How is it going to look in five years?
On a more positive note, our window was a happy accident. When we discovered a new vinyl one would cost four hundred bucks and take four to six weeks (it's rare to find a pre-existing size that fits) for delivery, we didn't know what to do.
I've always liked glass block for its industrial, modern aesthetic, so I called a local shop, Advantage Glass Block, on a whim. Two days later, I had the window in my hands for $250.
For added sparkle, we repeated the chrome of the shower fixtures with some vintage, chevron-shaped pulls for the vanity "borrowed" from my parent's 1952 bungalow, and then crowned the room with a small "Sputnik" light fixture.
All in all, it was a fantastic experience and we're loving our new, non-mouldy, retro-modern bathroom. In six months to a year, we'll do it all again in the kitchen … with the bat's permission, of course.
Contractor — Aresh Katirai of Brilliant By Design Inc., 416-791-0259
Vanity — RENOCanada Inc. 1534 Midland Ave., www.renocanada.com
Tub, two-button Toto toilet and shower controls — Roman Bath Centre, 883 Caledonia Rd., www.romanbathcentre.com
Faucet for the "Pink Lady" — Pegasus, available at Home Depot
Flooring — Armstrong classic VCT in pewter and black. Available everywhere.
Clock — Vitra Design Museum's reissue of George Nelson's 1954 "Watermelon clock," available through www.gabrielross.com
"Ball" towel rack — 1953 "Hang-it-all" by Charles Eames, available through www.gabrielross.com
Mirrors — Ikea, ikea.ca
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