Checks written, tub ordered

After our big tile breakthrough last weekend we've been on relative fire on the bathroom project. We settled on a price, picked a start date (Tuesday!) and started making choices.

The bathtub has been the number one priority in this renovation. When we moved in, we were saddened by the tubs. They look fine but have no slope in the back and are not very long. This means that the only slightly comfortable position is ramrod straight, legs extended. For me, a voracious bathtub reader, the uncomfortable baths mean that I can get through about one page of a New Yorker article without wanting to get up and go somewhere else. But in the deep, dark, frozen tundra of winter, the only really civil place to read is a nice steamy tub with a glass of white wine and a few pretzel nubs. For the husband, a soaker by nature, this uncomfortable tub means lying fetal position in order to get a good soak in. Not ideal, optimal, or even really acceptable for a relaxing soak.

So, when confronted with this bathroom project, we choose to get the proper tub for our lifestyle. But... well there are a lot of buts, but they boil down to the fact that we live on a 4th Floor walk up and cast iron is very heavy.

We settled on a couple of candidates (Kohler has a really good selection of 5' tubs) and a number of people told us that you need to lay in a bathtub before you buy it. Well the only place I could find the tubs was a very fancy design studio in Manhattan. While my parents raised me right and I can completely fit in at a fancy design studio in Manhattan, this particular day I was wearing my rubber boots, jeans, and my big puffy coat and brown pompom hat with lots of bags. Given the weather, my coat and hat are beginning to get that rumpled homeless person look and the rubber boots are brightly polka dotted. Add my giant purse, gym bag, and drugstore bag of tissue boxes and, well, you can see why they weren't too keen on taking me without an appointment.

They were gracious enough to take me without an appointment and although no one would make eye contact with me, I got to slip off my Wellies and throw myself into these cavernous tubs (coat, hat, bags and all). These suckers are deep and they made me feel like a small child in a normal size bath.

So after selecting the tub, the Archer 5' drop in tub in white, I needed to go about actually purchasing it. Ab and I needed to drop some clothes off at the donation bins at Lowes and wandered inside and pretty quickly found someone to help us. He was very helpful, gave us a quote, and potential delivery date. Done. We needed to stop by at Home Depot too so we headed down the block.

Let's just say that shopping at Home Depot is a little like supervising detention as a first year teacher. Everyone who works there seems to hate you and no one seems to have the job of helping you or answering questions. Needless to say we ended up leaving our quite full cart in the middle of the checkout lane and walking out in frustration.

The final chapter of the tub saga was a quick stop off at a large local plumbing shop, Park Slope Plumbing. If you know anything about my life, you should know that this should have been my one and only stop to find this tub. I walked in, they gave me the best quote of the day with a good delivery date, and told me to say hello to my contractor. So, we got the tub!