For the last week I’ve been preparing to side the house the way a general prepares for battle. I took two days off work –one for framing the windows, and one to get the siding going– and the seven days leading up to them have been a study in cramming every bit of knowledge about siding installation I can find into my head when I’m not a.) doing my Acutal Real Job or 2.) trying to track down the most obscure and expensive nails on the planet and get them to my house on time.

So I woke up this morning bright and early, ready to cut some wood, inhale that sweet smell of sawdust, and break in my brand new hammer. (That’s right, hammer. Not nailer, nail gun, screw gun, or other reasonably fast and easy to use fastening device. These boards must be hammered. By hand.) And hey, it’s pouring down rain today!

While I’m waiting for it to dry up a bit, here are my tips on waging war and installing siding. I think they work equally well for either application.

1.) Gather your ammunition ahead of time. The proper nail to use when installing beveled cedar siding is a 10d stainless steel ring-shank split-less siding nail. It took me at least 3 hours on the internet to figure that out, and then another hour to figure out what in the hell they looked like. (Here. So you never have to go through that bit of agony.)

Do you know how many places I had to call to try and find out where I could get these? I finally gave up and ordered them online, paying another $30 to get them shipped to my house on time, which, by the way, they are definitely not here. After calling countless lumber yards, the guys at Renter Lumber (it’s local for to Toledoans) finally put me out of my misery told me to ask for Maze nails, which is the brand name, because no one calls them ring-shank nails. And also to try Menards.

None of the closer big-boxes were even close to having these things, but I’ll be dammed if I’m not standing in Menards late last night and the hallelujah chorus starts playing when I walk down the nail aisle. They have siding nails! 10d! Stainless! (They are not splittless, which means I have to flatten out the point of every nail before I use it, but what the hell, I’m hand nailing them anyway.) And oh, half the cost of the ones I bought online!

Lesson: Could probably have planned better for that one.

2.) Devise a plan of attack. Maybe you can think of something better than sketching out diagrams of proper flashing installation on envelopes after midnight, but I can’t.

I am spending a lot of time on these two websites, reading tutorials and watching videos of Bob Vila siding stuff.

• Ask The Builder
• This Old House

Lesson: I have no idea what I’m doing, but as usual, this probably won’t stop me.

3.) Organize your troops. Thank god for MysteryMan’s parents for pitching in to help us get the trim painted before it goes up on the windows. And by “help us”, I mean “do it for us while we’re working after we call them at the last minute”.

The days I could pry my clients loose from clinging around my neck reasonably take off of work do not coincide with the days MysteryMan can take off work, and as much as I like to be a one-woman-show around here, these are 20 ft long pieces of siding. Oh, and winter is coming so we need to get them up and painted before all of Michigan goes into a deep freeze. Waiting for the stars to align so we’re free at the same time is not an option. So one of the donkeys may have to hold up the end of the siding for me.

Lesson: Make do.

Also: Be grateful for parents.

I think I hear sunshine outside now, time for me to get to it.

It may have taken over a year, and several material swatches spread out on the floor of the paint store that resulted in conversations that went something like, “Excuse me ma’am, is that a piece of your roof on the floor?” Why yes. Yes it is.

But I finally narrowed the house color down to one of these three options.

I painted some large swatches over the weekend and had them nailed to the house. And I’ve been snapping pictures of them periodically throughout the day to see how I feel about them in different lights.

And I know I’ve been saying for a while that I really think I want to paint the house blue.

I like the the contrast of the dark, and blue is a bold color. But actually…

Now that I look at it, I have to say that with the wood, and the roof, and the trim color…

I think I really like the green the best. Or “sage” actually. It’s not too green, not to gray, and has just enough color to satisfy the rebellious voice inside of me (probably the same one that led to tattoos and facial piercings when I was younger) that no way was I going to live in a house that is beige.

All the while the Engineer has been saying he liked green, and I gave him the squinch-face every time. But maybe I should let him pick out the colors of stuff more often. I’m totally sold on it.

You know I never shy away from a tiling challenge, so I jumped in hammer first when it came to building the walk-in shower for our new master bathroom. MysteryMan only balked for a minute or two, because hey– his man-cave bathroom turned out fairly awesome– and you can’t argue with results.

I’ve been picking the collective brain of our plumbers, the internet, and anyone who seems mildly interested in how to build a shower bench, and I’d call the rough framing portion of this project a success. Here’s how it went down.

This is possibly the most uninteresting image I’ve posted to this website in the last four years, but it shows what our plan was.

This is what we started out with:

We taped the wall off first to help us visualize. Then it was time to get out a couple of saws and the framing nailer. To start, because the half wall would only be attached at the floor and on one side, I cut a hole through the subfloor to attach a “post” to the floor joists below. This gave the wall some added stability.

These are two 2×4′s sunk about 8″ into the floor and nailed to the joist. I built the frame of the wall to fit around these.

The spacing of the one stud is 12″ off the back of the wall. Traditionally you’d make this 16″, however we decided to put a bench 12″ off of the back of the shower so it made sense to put the stud in this position for nailing. See?

Framing in the shower bench consisted of building one itty-bitty wall and then nailing a 2×4 into the back of the shower wall to support the plywood top.

The bench is 12″ deep. Standard seat height is around 17-1/2″, so I subtracted 1/2″ for the tile board and 3/4″ for the plywood, and built the frame to 16-1/4″ in the back, and 16″ in the front so that it slopes forward for drainage.

In order to get everything attached correctly, there was a lot of blocking added to the existing walls. For the bench, blocking was added here…

And here…

For the half-wall, blocking was added here…

It’s not pretty, but it works. (I’m pretty sure that’s a metaphor for how I look most days.)

To finish everything off, we added 6″ pieces of blocking around the bottom of the shower, and around the bench. Rubber will be attached to this to waterproof everything.

The bench also got 3/4″ plywood attached to the top…

And to the front.

I have plans to finish this with tile on the front, and a slab of granite or marble on the top.

To finish everything off, we put a 4.5″ sill in, and nailed it into the post for the half wall as well, adding additional support.

So, not bad for a little weekend work…

Up next is the rough plumbing, then waterproofing and getting the backerboard on for tile.

Never enough time

On a crisp country morning

To just enjoy life

I’m too busy writing meaningless haiku’s.

And sympathizing with spiders.

We all wake up with things to build these days.

(Today I’m working on framing in a shower, what about you?)

Needless to say, I do a lot of “working on houses” but this is the first time it’s been sponsored by my Actual Real Job, which has nothing to do with houses– building them or otherwise. They do have a couple of volunteer days with our local chapter of Habitat for Humanity though, which is as close as my two jobs ever come to intersecting.

I showed up at the jobsite promptly at 8AM and reminisced about the times I used to do this as an actual real job. (It’s easy to be sentimental when it’s 75 and sunny with a pleasant breeze, but when its 98 and humid, I prefer sitting at my desk in the air conditioning thankyouverymuch.)

By 8:15 I’d already learned something new:

1. A lot of people don’t know how to read a tape measure. I was shocked. Shocked. What are they teaching kids in school these days anyway? You don’t need calculus, you need to know how to read a tape measure. My trim sensei Al told me he was working with nun once who called out the measurement for a piece of siding as “Sixteen feet and three noogies.” Which is as good a thing to call them as anything, I suppose. (Hint: If you want to refresh your tape measure skills, try this.)
2. You don’t actually need to know how to read a tape measure to hang trim. You do need a tape measure, but the numbers are irrelevant.
3. No one has ever taught me the right way to do anything construction related before. Ever. I sort of had an epiphany when Sensei Al was giving me guidance on using the miter saw — a tool of which I own two and have used thousands of times in the last six years– and I realized that no one had actually ever taught me how to use the saw. Or the proper nailing pattern for hanging trim. Or the most effective way to use my tape. No person who actually does this stuff for a job has ever approached me with the intention of teaching me something, nor have I ever approached them with the intention of learning. That’s not to say I can’t do some things– tile, drywall, rough framing, trim work, check, check, check, check, I can do all of these things, and well– but there are certainly some things I’d like to learn on the job from the masters as well.

Like this…

Baseboard Coping Lessons from Sensei Al

Al took me under his wing early in the day and soon realized I wouldn’t be relinquishing my death grip on the brad nailer any time soon. He walked me through coping the baseboard including using a coping saw – when I told him I most often cope things by sticking a roto-zip bit in my dremmel and giving it a quick buzz he almost fell off the porch.

I still maintain that my dremmel way is fast and easy, but I may be persuaded to go by a coping saw now.

Step 1: Measuring

(Also, sorry about the grainy iPhone photos I was surreptitiously taking while working. You get what you get.)

Don’t use the numbers. Set your tape up flush with one wall, back of the tape to the other wall (or board) and lock it in place. Keep your tape locked, lay it on the piece of wood, and mark at the back of your tape.

It’s shocking to me that I have numbers dyslexia and this never occurred to me before.

Step 2: Cutting

I was always under the impression that you put your two flat boards up on opposite ends of the room, then coped both ends of the other two boards. Sensei Al told me to start with my first board flat, the cope just the right corner of the next board moving counter-clockwise around the room (or closet) this way, you’re only doing right-handed copes each time.

Start by identifying the side that should be coped (in this case, always the right one.)

Then turn it upside-down and good side out. Cut it on an “inside corner” 45.

Then, swing the miter table over to the opposite side to about 23-degrees and back-cut only down the straight part of the trim.

(If you didn’t cut the piece upside-down to begin with, you’d have to swing it around to do this cut. Read: Pain in the ass.)

Now you can measure your piece by putting your tape on the flat end (which will now sit flush with your already in-place piece of molding) and marking behind the butt of your tape. The “measurement cut” will be a straight cut as the left side of the wood will always be flush against the wall.

Step 3: Coping

Following the same angle as the back cut, use a coping saw on the decorative edge.

Some tips from Sensei Al on coping:

1. Have a sharp blade
2. Keep your wrist loose (I had the kung-fu grip on my saw, relaxing my hand made it 100 times easier)
3. Use long strokes of the blade
4. Only turn the saw when moving the blade up and down

Step 4: Nailing

Two nails on every stud. Find the studs by tapping a knuckle on either side of an electrical box.

While I can hear the difference, I actually can’t tell in the slightest which is more “hollow” sounding. I liked the “peek into the electrical box and see if you can see the stud” method, myself.

And… there you have it.

I did two rooms today, which is the fastest I’ve ever put that much trim in.

It’s Not All Fun And Trim Though

The rest of the team did some serious work as well, including hanging doors, installing window and door casing, installing underlayment, pulling up carpet padding, oh, and my boss got to remove a toilet.

I was all, “how’s that going, good, ok I’m just going to go back over in here with my trim nailer. See ya.”

You can see the rest of the team found jobs that were not a part of the toilet-removal-committee as well.

As far as I can tell, none of us have been fired yet for deserting the field. Well, there’s always tomorrow…

Seriously Though…

Thanks to all the Habitat regulars for the tips, tricks, and general degree of patience in dealing with us. It was a great experience volunteering with this group, and I wish Danielle and her family the best of luck in their new home!

Well, two good things happened today which means I’m in a much better frame of mind than I was yesterday.

1.) I had a blast learning the tricks of the trade from some old-timers at Habitat today (yeah, yeah, yeah, I’ll share them… but you have to wait until tomorrow.)

2.) I stopped at my favorite paint store (John’s Color Concepts in Toledo) and god love the guys that work there — after I fell on my knees to repent for having my cedar beams factory stained, they mixed up a semi-transparent stain to go over it and make them way less maroon.

The only problem is that MysteryMan is not a huge fan of “dark” wood, and probably the only way to fix this is to darken it up a bit.

As you can see… we’re definitely darker than the doors. Really– despite my freak-out– I can see why I thought the original color would be a good match. While I like the darker, we also have to consider we have a deck and railings that will be this color, and I’m not building a house that MysteryMan hates.

So, at least we have options, but now the question remains… too red, or too dark? Sigh. Will the decisions never end?

I may try an even lighter coat of the dark (spray maybe?) and see if we end up at a happy medium.

So.

So. I’ve been putting off writing this post since last Thursday, because I haven’t been able to think about the money we spent on cedar posts and beam-wrap, and what that wood actually looked like when it was delivered, without having to fight an overwhelming feeling of nausea.

Here’s what happened. Remember this week– the one where I ran interference between the door manufacturer, the paint store, and the lumber yard until I forgot the difference between the ice machine and coffee maker? Yeah. And then realized the ceiling joists under the porch were definitely not going to work with what we had in mind?

That was a good week.

The thing that was eating my soul up from the inside out was picking the stain colors to match the wood of our doors, before the doors were actually installed. MysteryMan had a small panic attack about the fact that the siding and posts hadn’t been ordered yet, and then I had a small panic attack and made some executive decisions to get things moving.

These were informed executive decisions, mind you…

Using what I had on-hand I checked the stain colors against the house:

Against the doors:

On a personal level I liked this first color better, but when I checked it up against the doors, it seemed this second color matched better…

Let’s just say this. Thank God, thank GOD, I had the siding primed only and not stained and painted. Because I know better than to pick out anything from a sample chip sight-unseen and have it sprayed on all of our cedar siding. But apparently I thought it was a good idea to do that with all of the posts that will make up our porch.

Gah.

This is what they look like:

Does not match the doors AT ALL. Well, let me qualify that. If you’re standing 100 feet away and its shady and you squint a little, they kind of match the doors.

But not really. The color is not horrible… the best thing I can say about it is I don’t love it, but I don’t hate it.

It’s too red and too solid.

I know they don’t call it a “solid stain” for nothing, but why don’t they just call it paint for christ sake? I had my gorgeous cedar posts painted maroon. Awesome.

Excuse me while I go vomit.

The problem here is that I don’t love it. I specifically tortured my Own Personal Engineer into figuring out how to incorporate these timberframe-esq beams into the design of our house. And right now the reaction I have to these things is to sqinch my eyes up and say “Meh.”

I think the part that makes me feel like I’m shoving splinters under the fingernails of my soul is that I know better. I know that I don’t like solid stains, but the lumber yard said they can’t do semi-trans and since they’d already quoted it, I might as well have them pre-stained because MysteryMan is already telling me there is no way we’re going to get this done this year, let alone before it snows in like two months. And I guess I panicked.

Here are two much better ways to handle a situation like this:

1.) Take a deep breath and calm the hell down. The doors went in a week later, and I could have gotten sample quarts of stain from the store, stained pieces of cedar, and held them up to make sure they looked right. One additional week and I could have avoided not spending the rest of my life feeling meh about my cedar beams.

2.) Not let Dude at the lumber yard talk me into pre-staining just because it was already included in the quote. I actually don’t have anything bad to say about the lumber yard we ordered this from – they did a great job at a great price. I just should have kept my DIY attitude in place – if it’s something I can do myself, I should. Because I’d have never stained 15 cedar beams this color, unless I was blindfolded. And drunk. And possibly had my eyeballs poked out with a sharp stick.

But I didn’t do those things. I made a snap decision based of a one-inch square stain chip and a partially uncovered door jamb. Be ye not so stupid.

I’ve spent the last few days trying to figure out what my options are:

1.) Install as is. Live with it. Be grateful I have a house and that said house contains beams. Stop whining.

2.) Try a semi-trans or other stain over the top of it.

3.) Buy a hand plainer. Take off the top 1/16″ off all the wood, and restain.

4.) Case our 6″ beams in with 1x stock to make them 8″ posts*. Stain the casing a color other than maroon. Buy new 1x to wrap the LVL beams with.

*The second part of the “beam situation” is that I sort of knew the beams should be bigger than 6″. I wanted something heavy on the porches, but I was talked out of it, and to get 8″ beams we couldn’t order it from the same lumber yard as everything else. After the deed was done I definitely banged my head against the wall a few times knowing I shouldn’t have let myself be talked out of the 8″ beams. I was already considering that if I really don’t like the look of them, next year they’re getting cased in.

Hey, good news? The 2400 square feet of siding looks great.

Even better news? I’ll be volunteering at my local chapter of Habitat for Humanity this week, which I suspect will give me some much-needed perspective on how stupid it is to worry about the color of my cedar posts, when some people are worrying about where they’ll sleep tomorrow.

Maybe you thought that sometime I would have something to talk about other than “rooms that contain a toilet”. Like drills, right? I used to talk about drills, and hammering things, and digging bigass holes.

But seriously, right now I spend at least three hours every evening having an internal debate about shallow vs. deep sinks, or one-person vs. two-person bathtubs, or dear god what color is the cabinetry going to be.

So I finally decided that I need to have a comprehensive mental image of these spaces to be able to pick out fixtures without breaking out in hives. The only problem is that there are so many styles that I like.

Modern using natural materials…

A little darker and more rustic…

The straight-up beach look is totally appealing as well…

So basically, I’d just like to have four or five bathrooms that can have a different look and feel. What? Not cost effective? That sound you hear is MysteryMan banging his head against his computer.

What I know for sure is that the house is going to have rustic elements throughout: stone and old barn beams and wood ceilings. And I tend to lean toward bold colors instead of neutrals. But sometime after 2AM I decided the second bath (the “visitors bath” so to speak) should be lighter.  Could be that I was inspired. Could be sleep deprivation.

Either way, this is what I’m using to help inform my fixture decisions.

1. Benjamin Moore colors: Mascarpone & Natural Elements

2. Sasha Seagrass storage from World Market

3. Beadboard – which may end up not being beadboard at all, but painted barn siding.

4. Reclaimed barn wood flooring – I’m not entirely sure how I feel about wood flooring in the bathroom. I kind of love it in theory, and this won’t be a highly used bath until our hypothetical children turn into hypothetical teenage boys, at which point I’ll have painted everything black in self-defense anyway. If I find some tile or stone that’s ultra-appealing, this could change.

5. Roman Stripe shower curtain from Pottery Barn– And don’t get me wrong, I’m not paying $45 dollars for a shower curtain, and not just because I’ll be thrown bodily out of the house if I do. I like the colors though, and I’m all about the stripes.

6. Driftwood & Glass mirror – Sometime around 2:30 AM I got the idea for a sculptural mirror that looks like it grows out of a piece of driftwood. Not that I’ll be able to start on that anytime in the foreseeable future, but you better believe it’s on my list.

7. Recycled glass tile – I’m planning on tiling the shower surround, and I love recycled glass tiles. This will definitely be the counter top (see how to build and tile your own here) and I may use it for an accent strip in the shower with some white subway tile.

8. Dryden faucet in stainless from Delta Faucets

I have to say, along with everyone else who visited the Delta Faucet headquarters last week, I fairly well fell in love with the Virage faucet from the Brizo line.

This is definitely still a contender for the bathroom sink. Which I haven’t picked out yet. Along with the shower and toilet, but hey, the plumbers are coming Monday. (You can guess what I’ll be doing this weekend.)

]]> http://diydiva.net/2010/08/full-bath-style-beachy-neutral-wood-glass/feed/ 7 http://diydiva.net/2010/08/man-cave-bathroom-wall-art/ http://diydiva.net/2010/08/man-cave-bathroom-wall-art/#comments Tue, 17 Aug 2010 11:30:53 +0000 kitliz http://diydiva.net/?p=1417

Just what goes on the wall in a man-cave bathroom?

Ah, the number of sleepless nights I’ve spent pondering that question. As you might have seen in the man-cave bathroom reveal, I had several ideas about finishing this space, but Julie really brought it home for me with her comment on pictures of vintage cars… we do live in a gas station, after all.

I decided on a series of vintage car and gas station pictures. (The middle one having particular significance for us because we currently live in that building.)

The 5×7 frames, were $2 each at our local Meijers.

And here’s my secret about the pictures. Do you know the best place to find vintage or historical pictures on the internet that are free?

The Library of Congress

I know, right? Who would ever think of that?

Well, actually, the same person who– at 11 PM– decided to do the splits between the bathroom vanity and window sill to get a good shot of her new wall art AND THEN GOT STUCK THERE.

Kind of like this…

Yeah, not as young as I used to be, apparently. Listen, I can’t be all genius all the time.

Anyway. Either I finally managed to get down, or I’m posting this entire thing from my iPhone, waiting for someone to bring a crane in and hoist me down… you decide.

As I was saying, the Library of Congress was a great resource for high-res images– I pulled 5 of the ones I used from there for free–and the rest I got from iStock for about $3 apiece.

I tried the layout in Photoshop first…

Once they were printed and framed,  I admit it took some fairly complex mathematical equations to get them properly centered on the wall, but I don’t have a couple of college degrees for nothing, you know.

Okay, obviously the only reason our house hasn’t fallen down right now is because I wisely chose to live with an engineer for the rest of my life.

But it’s hard to argue with the end result, for under $30.

What do you think? Should I have gone vintage pin-up instead?

I’ve mentioned before that I’m well in the throes of picking the fixtures, flooring, and other materials for both of the bathrooms in the house we’re rebuilding. Which basically means I’ve got a semi-permanent twitch in my right eye.

So. Many. Decisions.

Could I just get, like, one of each?

Somewhat unrelated side note: I mentioned earlier that making an ass out of myself during my recent visit to Delta Faucets headquarters was somewhat inevitable. And then at 8:30 in the morning I thought I’d take this “really artistic” shot of the Brizo line of faucets by climbing around some AV equipment and when I stood up I nearly knocked myself out as my head collided violently with a really expensive television hanging above me. In the front of the room. With a least a dozen other bloggers and media people looking right at me. Mission accomplished.

My severe lack of grace and coordination aside… my trip to Indianapolis might have provided me with an overwhelming number of aesthetic options to choose from (and I will definitely be discussing that later this week), but I also came away with one decision clearly made: When it comes to faucets, I’m going high-tech.

I’m a skeptic by nature, so believe me when I tell you I asked questions and physically tried to outsmart some of Delta’s new water science, and this is what I found.

Touch2O Technology

I think the most important thing to talk about with Delta’s Touch2O technology is the difference between something that makes our lives easier, and something that’s a gimmick.

However, being one of those people who has, at times, tried to lift my leg up over the counter turn the faucet on with my big toe because I’ve got paint/mud/chicken germs all over my hands, I’ll say that this technology made a lot of sense to me right off the bat. What was surprising to me was how much research they put in to this to make sure the technology stood on its own, instead of just being for show. Do you know how long the water will run when someone is working in the kitchen of an average family?

30 minutes.

I admit to leaving my faucet run as well, because I’ve got the temp finally set to hot-enough-it-should-disinfect-but-not-quite-hot-enough-to-scald-my-fingers-off, and I don’t want to bother with the adjustment just because I have to put something back in the fridge and, oh, I may need to fix myself a little snack while I’m in here. You’ve done it too, admit it.

So anyway, the faucets with Touch2O technology:

• Turn on an off with a tap (its the same kind of technology used in smart-phones with touch-screens)
• Know if you’re just adjusting the faucet position and don’t turn off at the wrong time
• Let you set the water temp and keep it there
• Can also be turned on and off manually (and will automatically turn off after 4 minutes of running)
• Run on C batteries – no complicated wiring involved

You might think all of this newfangled technology is just too complicated to install in the kitchen, but Shelly (from Curbly and ModHomeEc) and I paired up to install one of these babies during a hands-on session and it was super easy. Took us 20 minutes to go from in-the-box to working perfectly! (Things possibly didn’t go as smoothly with the lav faucet I installed and then forgot to tighten the drain P-trap on before testing out.)

Here’s the long and short of Touch2O. There’s no gimmick here, and I’m having one.

Definitely related side note: Eric commented last week and asked why they don’t go with something decidedly more low-tech, like a foot- pedal used in hospitals. It’s a good question Eric, and here are the three main reasons why I think this is the preferred method:

1. Like I said, installation was a snap. Installing a foot pedal seems like it would be decidedly harder. I suspect I’d have to drill under/behind the cabinetry to run the cord for a petal in front of the sink?
2. Usually in front of the sink is a high-traffic area. While I’m in love with the idea of putting in a faucet that turns on when I touch it, I’d rather just do it the old fashioned way than have to manuever around any kind of petal in the sink area.
3. One of the nice things about this technology is that it still works for people who aren’t familiar with it. They grab the handle to turn on the faucet the way they usually do, and the water still comes on. With a petal, you essentially have to re-train people how to use the sink. I think it would end up being a pain for not a whole lot of benefit.

Proximity Sensing

While touch technology is great for the kitchen, what about the bathroom? I got a sneak peek at the new lav sink Delta is coming out with what works with both a touch, and by sensing your hand anywhere within 4″ of the faucet. Unlike infra-red, there is no sensor, it literally has to do with proximity.

So a touch to turn the water on and let it warm up, or a wave over or under the faucet for hand washing or tooth brushing. You know what’s exciting? Not having to clean fingerprints off the faucet anymore.

This technology isn’t on the market yet, but it’s coming soon. And you can bet I’ll need one of these as well.

H2Okinetic Technology

Okay, so here’s where I make a confession. I read about this on Delta Faucets website a while ago. And in my head I sort of went “bigger droplets, more heat, blah, blah, blah”. I mean, it sounds nice, but how much of a difference could it make?

You can bet I was going to find a way under one of these shower heads to see if there really was a difference.

Thankfully Delta was willing to oblige without making me sneak off to one of their shower rooms.

Here’s the thing… I’m giving you my honest opinion about this technology, and I felt 3 gallon/minute coming out of a traditional showerhead and 1.5 gallon/minute coming out of these H2Okinetic showerheads, and they basically had to stop me from climbing in the tank to enjoy the spray full-body. Half the water, but the drops really were bigger and I don’t know how else to describe them without sounding like an idiot. They made a bigger impression… I think people in the know call it a “drenching effect.”

I really think they’re on to something here.

Now all of us with longer hair know the big test is whether or not it takes 35 minutes to rinse all the shampoo out, but I’m convinced enough to put these in both showers in the house, and I’ll follow-up to let you know how it goes.

With the technology piece out of the way, I spent the rest of the weekend getting down to business on settling on a look and feel, and picking out the colors and materials for both bathrooms. Those fun idea boards are coming up later this week.