Guest Half Bath

We finally replaced the wobbly, unsecured pedestal sink and the old toilet in the guest half bath. It was supposed to be done before we had our dinner party with actual guests in the house, but it wasn't finished until the week after. 

The old plumbing worked okay, but it was worn looking, the sink drain was chipped and the toilet bowl stained blue (copper in the city water?) I tried so many remedies to remove the hard scaly blue stains but nothing touched it. 

The half bath looked and felt old. And a pedestal sink just did not go with the rustic style of this house.

Now, with a new square mahogany toned vanity and new toilet, and with our Mexican tin mirror and artwork on the walls, it looks so much better.

The dark wood vanity with its square white engineered marble sink top gives the small room some heft, and it goes well with the little dark chest of drawers that I added painted Talavera knobs to.

I added a few other decor enhancements: finger towels with yuccas embroidered on them and a new rug printed with arrows.

I don't want to go overboard with the southwestern theme, but the room is painted a yellow orange color called Squash Blossom and the tiles have Talavera touches and the mirror is Mexican tin -- at some point you have to accept that a tasteful decor line has already been crossed.

The new toilet is a game changer -- ha -- I sound like a TV ad pitch. But this Kohler Santa Rosa one-piece style toilet is great. Way more efficient than the old one. Way more.

We replaced the broken toilet in the master bath with this same Kohler model too. The old toilet there was not working -- Jim fixed the broken flush handle but it still had to be jimmied and was very loose. One day the valve didn't set back down and it ran full throttle all afternoon, using literally hundreds of gallons of water before I discovered it gurgling and gushing away. While the mechanism could easily be replaced, the fixture had the same wear and stain issues as the guest bath.

The city of Santa Fe gives a $57 rebate for replacing old toilets with new 1.38 gallon models -- so that's $114 we'll get back for the two toilets, not to mention lower water bills in the future and the simple pleasure of a quieter, quicker time in the bathroom.

Now we have to invite people over for dinner again so they can use our new guest half bath.


   🐑     🐑     🐑     🐑   Maybe you remember that I previously had a beautiful natural sheepskin rug in the guest half bath. I got it from a local sheep farmer at the farmer's market over a year ago. I loved the look on the tile floor, but I simply could not keep it clean. 

It's washable. I used the special detergent it needed and I combed it out and fluffed it up and dried it the way the instructions said. It looked fine after washing, but after a few days and a very little bit of foot traffic it always looked dirty again, even with vacuuming. It was sparkling clean but didn't look it. So I gave up and it's in my walk-in closet now, wonderfully soft and warm under bare toes, and not so prominently soiled looking in there.