Time Remaining: -1 days
Time to eat curry. Still no peep, even though two of SKGR's friends gave birth in the past 24 hours (one early, one late). Which is all good, good, good, since the kitchen was delivered a few hours ago and installation starts tomorrow. If all goes well, we'll be coming out of the hospital to a finished kitchen. Which makes us want to talk about HARDWARE.
First of all, hardware is F-ing expensive! I was shocked at the prices we had to pay for things like faucets and was inclined to resist.
We have changed our tune and are currently more in love with our bathroom faucet than any other piece of the renovation. Since we were only buying two faucets, I decided to splurge in the bathroom and get the Dornbracht Meta in polished chrome. I didn't tell SKGR how much it cost, but I did get it at a very good designer discount through Simon's Hardware.
It is like butter. The heavy guage of the metal and the smooth action of the lever send chills down my spine every time I use it (which is often). Not having to struggle to turn on or off the water has opened a whole new world.
Due to this, I decided not to get the less expensive Blanco Kitchen faucet and upgrade one notch from the Blanco Advance to the Blanco Merkur Plus for an additional $100.
We also got a great price on this by shopping around online and ending up at HomeAnnex.com (we used Nextag.com to compare and find this).
Last night the BEAST arrived. In a huge box and weighing in at over 10 pounds, our new kitchen faucet is like a Porsche and sure to induce more lust while dish and diaper washing.
The moral of this story is that I am now a firm believer in investing in good faucets. Despite the prices, if you can skimp somewhere else, I think you will thank yourself every time you find yourself handling this high use item and will also avoid the pain of broken or poorly performing water spouts. Because these things are so central to the function of your home, it just seems like a good investment.
But this is exactly the sort of trouble lust will get you into.
We are curious to hear other's experiences.
Sources:
Nextag.com
Simon's Hardware
HomeAnnex.com
Blanco America
Dornbracht
It has been fun reading about your project. I am not doing a DIY, but will be moving into a new construction condo in hopefully 2 months (in Chicago...not NY). Picking out all of the bathroom finishes has been fun.
Dornbracht fixtures are great. We opted for the Grohe Tenso in our second bath as an alternative, after reconfiguring our mstr bath layout. I tried to get my fiance to let me pick a Dornbracht out...but she held firm.
In our mstr we included two duravit vero wall mounted sinks on top of a duravit fogo console. There we went w/ 2 starck axor puro lav. faucets.
Love the dark floors btw. I'll have to post pics when our place is finally done.
I have this bizarre vision of SKGR asking, "Hon, are you in the kitchen playing with the faucets again?"
But since few sights are as sexy to a married woman as her husband doing the dishes, this is not a bad thing.
"more lust while dish and diaper washing"--it's a GOOD THING.
Wende,
I couldn't agree more. Seeing my husband scrub a pot is like foreplay!
Seeing a man change a diaper is orgasmic!
So, what is the deal with diapers? You wash them in the sink? I never thought about this.
Yummy.
Are you really going to be washing your own diapers? You are so good.
Maxwell, where in the renovation did you end up skimping to afford the more luxurious faucets? (Or if you didn't have to skimp in places, where would you recommend skimping?) I always hear people say, "Save elsewhere and then buy really good/top quality faucets/bedding/insert-item-here," but no one ever says "Don't spend money on this."
i'm an architect and my clients have never complained about getting the better faucet. if anything, they've complained about not taking my advice and getting the lesser faucet. the same is true of windows and doors.
but i was surprised to read about fixtures in a post about how expensive hardware is. in my 21 years of practice, i've not heard plumbing fixtures referred to as "hardware". usually "hardware" refers to door knobs, pulls, hinges and the like. are things different in new york?
Beautiful plumbing hardware is a VERY good thing. I love my Moen faucet in my kitchen sink, because it does what yours looks like it does -- it can water a Chia pet like it shows in the commercials. Except that I don't have a Chia pet.
Also try:
Hansgroheinstock.com (best prices on Hans Grohe)
faucetdirect.com
faucet.com
I would find the faucet I want and then take the number of the item or the name of the item and google it to see who carried and compare prices - including shipping costs and handling and tax to get a real number. Prices can vary a lot. Also make sure what the return policies are.
D
i've also had a really good experience with faucets.com. i was helping a friend out with two bathrooms and a kitchen and we ordered everything from them. we both swore that the people on the other end of the line must be trained in home improvement psychotherapy! they were so great.
p.s.
when i see that bathroom faucet i just think about satisfying it would be to sorta "tap" it into the off position with my distal forearm when i finish washing my hands. it's beautiful.
sorry, meant to say "how satisfying" it would be...in the p.s.
I recently purchased a full shower body for my soon to be new bathroom. I decided on Grohe because we concluded that apartment living with a child in a prewar building called for a thermostatic control model, and Grohe is considered the best maker of this type of shower control. I shopped around and priced it out at HomeAnnex, faucets.com and Expo Design, I ended up buying the parts at Expo because their sales people were very knowledgable about each part that I needed ( I knew I needed a lot of stuff, wasn't 100% sure what those pieces would be and the on-line stores which had better prices had less help, unfortunately). I also really like the store AF New York on 21 Street, but the prices are high plus tax.
In the end, the entire shower/tub set up came in at just under $1400, this included shipping and reflects a special discout I recieved. I purchased the following:
All in Grohe's fabulous Atrio (lever handle) line finished in Polished Chrome
1-Rough in valve for new theromstatic control
1-finish set up for thermostatic rough-in
1-Rough in valve for 5 way diverter
1-finish set up for diverter
1-rough valve for pressure control
1-finish set for pressure control
1- Rainshower shower head (about a 12 inch diameter and about 8 lbs)
1-12" long shower arm
1-Grohe hand shower
1-grohe 5 foot hand shower hose
1-hand shower rough valve
1-atrio tub spot, which is very cool looking and weighs about 5 lbs.
I think that's it.
I did end up buying bathroom sink faucets through the Insidestore.com, the price was good but they have still not arrived and I'm annoyed. Also Atrio, I got the wide spread set with the regular spout for about $300 total.
I meant to add that this is Atrio by Grohe:
http://www.groheamerica.com/t/25_3835.html
For David L: Having sold salvage for the better part of 15 years I have come to understand that there are a lot of folks who call fixtures 'hardware' and call hardware 'fixtures' . . .After years of sending cutomers to the wrong area of the store, We moved fixtures to hardware and can always point the way with accuracy now.
I have been meaning to send in a house tour because I just finished major renovations in July, but I have been too cusy enjoying my new place to buy a new screen for my Canon (it cracked and you can no longer see the pics you take (like an old school camera!!)).
But about my eye candy - I mean hardware...
I bought the bodyshower by Grohe - I think it was called the freehander - it has an arm with two showerheads on it so you can have a rainshower, or swing the arm down and you have two body sprays!!
I put it with the atrio wall spout for both the tub and sink - I did a green glass vessel sink to complement the green glass tile in the shower.
It is starting to get cold here in boston at night - which is the excuse i had for taking a long bath last night - fell asleep 5 min after i got out, in a towel.
my excuse for using the bath this summer was _____.
I love the hardware I chose: it defines the bathroom!! I agree it is used soo much it is worth the expense.
But, atrio from Grohe actually mimicked (sp?) exactly the dornbracht one i wanted - i bought a dornbracht towel rod that looks like a paperclip of sorts to make up for it....
Well, it is very reassuring to read this post. Right now, we are stuck on the taps for our bathroom reno. As I posted this weekend, my hubby has accused me of mortgaging our =childrens' future in my selection of thermostatic control & showerhead. Hardly! But that is the level to which the passion has risen in our household. (o.k., so it's a lefroy brooks xo ZU controller with 8-pronged showerhead. but hey, I found a discount source for it...). Today he ordered me to search the net and find a cheaper showerhead and thermo control.
We still have to select a sink, and so can't order those taps yet. I would dearly love to get a william garvey teak sink -- I have been reading up on them, and apparently, they are naturally antibacterial, easier to clean if you have very hard water (which we do) and can be cleaned with regular cleaners (just not bleached). But o.k., I realize that the Garvey sink is probably a pipe dream (especially if I rule the day on the shower...).
We "saved" on faucets, and we sulked and discussed whose fault the cheaper faucets were until we replaced the stupid things. Sigh....
the chrome stuff looks great! as part of your research do you look into how these dazzling creatures can be used in a sustainable way? now i know this probably isn't in the decision making of many people, but here in australia where most of the country is experiencing drought... we do have to consider such things as water usage and wastage. infact for the last couple of years many of us have been on water restrictions (no watering the garden between certain hours, no washing of cars with a garden hose etc etc)
does anyone have any tips on designers and brands who put this consideration into their products?
dish and diaper washing at the same kitchen faucet and sink?
would hate to have Maxwell, SKGR or new baby getting sick (e-coli scare and all)
recommend diaper washing at your beautiful bathroom sink instead.
I just bought a new faucet set at Gracious Home. There is a 40% off sale on Jado and 20% off on practically everything else. So I spent about $215 for the set. Now I need a cheap plumber.
Gekko: I hadn;t noticed that he said he'd be washing diapers! I think, perhaps, like many soon to be fathers, he is aware that there is a lot of care involved in the early days of babyhood but is unaware of exactly what that care consists of. If they are indeed using cloth diapers, they will surely be using a diaper service, and you rinse cloth diapers in the toilet, not a sink then store them in a container till the diaper man comes. I am sure that, even if he thought he might be washing them himself rather than use a service, the 20 diapers a day for a new born will quickly change this notion and they will quickly hire a diaper service. Either that or he misspoke. In any event, he is clearly excited about this child and even if he decides to hand wash diapers in the sink, that child will have a very dedicated and thoughtful father do it for him and he will have a lovely sink in which to do so.
www.diapernet.org/whycloth.htm
Yes, you rinse cloth diapers in the toilet, not the kitchen sink.
I want to add the following site for wet fixtures:
lowcostplumbing.com
out of midwest, very nice and courteous, ships fast and free with an included UPS return ticket -- returns are NOT subject to re-stocking fees (this is vey important), also if they don't have it in stock, call and ask, they'll most likel have it but not online
I bought a Grohe kitchen faucet from them after researching like mad for the cheapest price and finding this site from a post in the kitchens forum on gardenweb.com
my .02
I have found that http://www.onestopmodern.com carries lots of shower/tub combinations for about 800 dollars and that includes shipping. They also have a wide selection of European sink and kitchen faucets too. I love this place:)
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