Valentine's Day at Home Depot

I hope all you people out there who celebrated Chocolate-Day yesterday had a lovely time. But it's just not for me.

We saw some flustered men-folk out there hauling enormous stuffed-animals-clutching- satin-hearts to the cash-register area yesterday evening while out doing our grocery shopping.

"Oh dear", said Jeff, shaking his head, "Those look like desperation presents to me".

Valentines Day is a holiday I quite frankly like to avoid. I'd rather get flowers out of the blue.

Me, I spent the evening roaming the plumbing department of Home Depot hand-in-hand with my sweetie. We were shopping for new whatz-its to hook up our bathroom taps. We're just hopeless romantics I guess.

I thought I'd post pictures of our new sink and counter-top because finished home renovations are a happy thing, and I wanted my friend Tai to see what our new counter-top looks like. She was rather unsure when I showed her the sample boards.

But I'm rather pleased with the result.

Before, our bathroom was a rather displeasing shade of blue with too-bright Hollywood dressing-room lighting, a chipped sink, dismal taps and towel-racks, and a worn counter-top. You can see Jeff reflected in the mirror in the bathroom's Before picture. His look seems to say why oh why do we start these projects?

But it's always rather heartening when we see the end result.

I paint, he plumbs and installs. I'm glad I have my job and not his. :)

I want my bathroom to remind me of those occasional times when I go to the spa and lie all relaxed, wrapped in a warm towel in a serene room with soothing colours and classical music and candle-light, while some kind person massages my brow. Along with new lighting and fixtures and a gorgeous mirror, my friend Sherry has gifted me with lemon soap from Provence to help me be at one with my candle-lit bath-time.

Ah, get her the gift she really wants for Valentines: yummy soap and a shopping spree at Home Depot!

To the left is a picture of our new sink area; the photo below is an in-between shot before we changed the counter-top.

I just love the transformative power of home renovations. As long as your house has good bones , as it were, then you can look beyond atrocious carpeting and chipped paint.

For instance, here is our upstairs hallway when we first bought the place.

And After . It has a much more airy and light feel to it now that we've worked on it a wee bit.