Day 53: Updating your Bathroom

My Project: 365 Creative Writing Prompts

Day 53: Updating your Bathroom

Bathroom Tile Designs

Nothing gives a tired looking bathroom a face lift faster than new tiles, whether they are ceramic tiles on the walls or the back splash behind the sink. Before choosing a color and style, there are a few things to consider.

Tile Size

The size of the tile you choose can be a personal preference or a matter of aesthetic appeal. Big bathrooms will look better with large square or rectangular tiles, while smaller tiles might be better suited for smaller sized bathrooms. Keep in mind that the smaller the tile, the more precise the installation.  Smaller tiles might also work out to be more expensive.

Tile Weight

When choosing ceramic tiles, you might be wondering if wall tiles can be used as floor tiles. In general, this is not a good idea. Ceramic tiles designed to decorate walls don’t have the same components as floor tiles and over time might crack under walking weight. By the same token, even though heavy floor tiles can be used for a backsplash, this is not recommended as the wall paneling might not be strong enough to hold a heavy tile. Pay attention to tile thickness and weight before choosing where you want to place them.

Tile Color

With a wide variety of designs and colors to choose from, personal preference takes over. However, there are design tips to keep in mind. Dark colors make a small bathroom look even smaller, while white or pastels give the impression of open space and create a fresh and clean look. Keep the resale value of your house or condo in mind when redecorating a bathroom. White and beige tiles are neutral, while pink, blue or green are not for everyone and could turn away potential buyers.

Tile Style

A mosaic design gives a classic feel, while a subway design is more retro. For extra accent, pay attention to the grout. Grout comes in a variety of colors and can dramatically change the look of a floor or backsplash. When using light colored tiles, black or dark grey grout creates a sharp contrast with the tile, while white or sand color grout will create more of a harmonious look. The opposite will be true for dark colored tiles.

Glazed or Non-Glazed

The glaze on ceramic tiles prevents moisture absorption and acts as a protector for the tiles. The most important aspect to remember about glazed floor tiles is that they are very slippery when wet. While they are suitable for a backsplash, they should be avoided as floor tiles in a bathroom to prevent slip and fall accidents.

Tile Sealing

After the floor has been put into place and the grouting is spread and dried, it’s important to seal all areas in the bathroom that are in contact with the floor. Areas around the bathtub, around the toilet and around the vanity cabinet or basin pedestal will need to be sealed to prevent moisture from seeping under the tiles.

Before choosing floor tiles, have a look at a few interior decorating magazines or websites. In addition to bathroom styles and color designs, you might pick up on some do-it-yourself tips for installation.

www.connymanero.weebly.com

Looking for a new home

Let me give it to you in a nutshell. After living 17 years in a condominium in a suburb of Toronto, we’ve decided to move. The reason ... I’m no longer willing to put up with our corrupt Board of Directors. One member of the board had herself fraudulently elected and twice re-elected, and deceitfully had candidates of her choice elected to 'serve' with her on the board.

I ran for a board position too, with the specific intent of exposing the fraudulent actions of this board member but she railroaded me with a string of false rumors and downright lies. The result, two candidates she supported got elected and she can continue cheating the condominium corporation out of thousands of dollars.

Even though the corporation is $500,000 in debt, she got it into her head – and got the rest of the board to agree with her – that the building’s parking garage needs a complete overhaul. Cost of this project … $2,5 million.

In addition, she’s planning on cladding the building. Cost of that project … $400,000.

To cover the total cost of $2,9 million the corporation can either apply for a loan, and stretch the down payments over 10 or 15 years, or the residents of this building will see a massive increase in their maintenance fees, along with a special assessment that could amount to several thousand dollars.

So, to avoid all this, we’ve decided to sell our condo and move. I went online, started looking for properties for sale, and got in touch with two realtors. One of them sent me a link to a house.

So far, I hadn’t considered a house, because houses are much more expensive than condos, but this house was extraordinarily reasonable priced, just $159,000. See for yourself. The outside may not look like much, but inside it’s exquisite.

 

We jumped at the opportunity and asked the realtor to arrange a viewing. We couldn't believe our luck, such a beautiful house for such a low price! 

Today the realtor emailed me some bad news. Whoever had typed up the specifications for the house had made a mistake. The price was not $159,000 but $1,590,000. He asked if we wanted to proceed with the viewing, or if this new price was a bit out of our budget. A bit out of our budget? It was WAY out of our budget.

So, we’re back to square one with looking for properties. I image that in the days, weeks or even months to come, you’ll get regular updates of our experiences.

The Princess Margaret Foundation Scam

It’s that time of the year again … the Princess Margaret Foundation is pulling the wool over your eyes.

The usual slogan is “Help Conquer Cancer” and they want you to contribute to their scam by buying a ticket.  To make the deal a little sweeter, they promise a series of prizes.  Million dollar homes, sports cars, vacations, etc.

Of course, the prizes are reserved for the already rich.  Think about it … who can afford to drive a $229,825 Ferrari or a Porsche 911 valued at 130,940?  Do you have any idea of the taxes and insurance on those cars?  

As for the homes, lets see:

A condo valued at $379,000

Oakville home: $4,300,000

Muskoka cottage: $1,200,000

In addition one can win seven vacations, ranging from $2,000  to $7,000

And there are the electronics:

3 – Apple MacBook Air Laptops
Valued at $1,132.09^††

10 – Sony Tablets
Valued at $451.99^††

95 – Apple TV Devices
Valued at $124.29^††

1,500 – Nikon Digital Cameras
Valued at $112.99^††

2,920 – Sony Noise-cancelling Headphones
Valued at $90.39^††

Above prizes supplied by Henry’s

3 – Samsung 55" LED 3D TVs
Valued at $3,135.74^††

25 – LG 32" LCD TVs
Valued at $593.24^††

25 – Toshiba 19" LED TVs
Valued at $261.02^††

120 – Hamilton Beach Juice Extractors
Valued at $112.99^††

699 – Sony iPod Docks
Valued at $103.33^††

4,000 – Sony DVD Players
Valued at $80.73^††

Above prizes supplied by The Brick

1 – Apple iMac Computer
Valued at $1,368.42^††

15 – Apple iPad 3 Devices
Valued at $588.38^††

15 – Samsung Galaxy Tablets
Valued at $396.28^††

25 – Bose SoundDock Series II Digital Music Systems
Valued at $284.13^††

40 – Monster Beats Solo Headphones by Dr. Dre
Valued at $226.10^††

25 – Microsoft XBOX 360 Gaming Systems
Valued at $225.99^††

25 – Sony eReader
Valued at $169.60^††

100 – Apple iPod nanos
Valued at $146.99^††

5,200 – Apple iPod shuffles
Valued at $56.60^††

Above prizes supplied by Future Shop

1,800 – Cash Prizes of $100 each

With a rough estimate, I get to about $10,000,000.

How exactly does that benefit the cancer patients?  How can the Princess Margaret Foundation afford to throw 10 million dollars out the window?  Just how many tickets do they have to sell to make a profit?

Wouldn’t it be better to invest that 10 million in healthcare?

I personally know a woman who approached the foundation for a headscarf.  Not a fancy wig, just a scarf.  They foundation sent her packing and none to friendly either.

Or is this whole sweepstakes a fraud?  Do people buy tickets without getting anything in return? Is this just another scam?

Can you afford to win?

The Princess Margaret Foundation is currently running a TV commercial to urge the public to make donations toward cancer research.  To motivate potential donators, the Princess Margaret Foundation gives away a few luxury prizes.  The commercial shows a $300,000 Ferrari, but this is just one of many they say.

Curious as to what else can be won, I went on The Princess Margaret website and had a look.  I found a $3,000,000 mansion, a $1,000,000 house and a few luxury condos.  Other than the $300,000 Ferrari there were a number of other cars. 

All in all the various prizes amounted to about $10,000,000!

Naturally, this got me thinking … how many tickets does the Princess Margaret Foundation have to sell to recover the ten million they spent on these prizes?  If they have ten million to spend on these items, why not put that money toward cancer research?   

Do we need mansions and sports cars to motivate us to donate?  What’s is wrong with offering a modest house, furniture, appliances and jewelry?

Think for a moment if you were to win the $3,000,000 mansion … would you be able to afford living in it?  Think of the taxes on such a property, the amount of money it would take to heat and cool such a living space, not to mention the furniture it would take to keep so many rooms liveable and the work it would take to keep them all clean.  You would need considerable staff to look after the house and the garden.

Not interested in a mansion but you fancy the Ferrari?  You might have a problem there too.  Not only will you pay a small fortune on taxes every year, but that baby guzzles up gas like a sponge.  Gas prizes being what they are, you better open your wallet, wide!  As for car insurance, open your wallet even wider.

So why buy a ticket if you cannot afford the prize?  To sell it and pocket the money?  How many buyers do you think you will find for a $3,000,000 mansion or a $300,000 car?  Most people have downsizing and living more frugally on their mind.

'Help conquer cancer' the Princess Margaret foundation says ... how, by wasting millions of dollars?  Visit their website and see for yourself and then decide ... is this a foundation you want to donate to?  I don't.
http://www.helpconquercancer.ca/welcomehome/earlybird.php

The 'visitor'

It was late, it was raining and I had at least a thirty-five minute drive ahead of me to get home. When my friend Diane offered that I could spend the night in her house, I eagerly accepted.

Diane lived with her mother in a spacious country house. The obviously old furniture in the guestroom was not quite what I had expected in the otherwise modern home.

"It's my grandmother's furniture," Diane explained. "When grandma passed away, my mom decided to keep her stuff for the spare room. The mattress is new though and the sheets are fresh, so you should be quite comfortable."

A few minutes after I had turned out the light I heard the door opening and softly closing. I was about to ask Diane if she had forgotten something when I heard her moving through the room, every so carefully as to not to disturb me.


I heard her by the vanity table, opening and closing drawers.
Not wanting to make Diane feel bad for waking me up, I pretended to be asleep.
But I smiled as I heard her rummaging, apparently she could not find what she was looking for.

Suddenly I felt her sitting down on the bed.  I stiffened as my body tilted towards the extra weight.  Enough was enough. Diane and I were good friends, but we were not THAT close.  So I reached up and switched on the light. There was nobody there.

Had I dreamed this?  Had I fallen asleep while Diane was in my room and had she left unnoticed?

"Did you find what you were looking for last night?" I asked her over breakfast.

"Hu?" Diane said, not understanding.

"Last night," I explained, "you were in my room, going through the drawers of the vanity table. I heard you but I did not want to say anything.  I didn't want you to think you woke me up."

"Girl I was not in your room," she said with a shake of her head. "I fell asleep the moment my head touched the pillow."

When I told her what had happened, Diane and her mother exchanged meaningful glances.  According to their story, last night was not the first time that room had a 'visitor'.

"And you put ME in THAT room!" I cried.

"What other room was I going to put you in?" Diane asked.  "I'm fairly certain you wouldn't want to sleep with me. I snore."

"What about the blue room?" I said. "You could have put me in there."

"Oh oh no," she shook her head, "you definitely do not want to sleep in the blue room.  That room is really creepy.  There is a presence there and the room is always ice cold, winter and summer."

After breakfast we went to the blue room together and I did not even have to go inside to feel that there was something very strange there.

As Diane told me, she and her friends had performed a spell in that room when they were kids, and after that the house was never the same again.

Needless to say that I never spent the night at Diane's again.

Can real estate agents read?

We had some excitement this morning.

While having breakfast I suddenly heard the sound of dripping water on the balcony. Was it raining? No, it was our upstairs neighbor’s balcony leaking water for some reason.

This has happened before, but not as severe as this morning. On previous occasions there was just a bit of dripping of water. At the time I thought our neighbor was watering his plants and our balcony was the recipient of a little excess.

This morning it was quite different. The dripping changed into pouring and what pooled on the balcony floor wasn’t clear, but soapy water. To the best of my knowledge nobody tends to their flowers with soap and water. Within no time my balcony flowers were ‘knee deep’ in the soapy stuff and it was time to do something.

I considered going upstairs and asking my neighbor what was going on, when I remembered going up there to ask him to stop banging on the walls at all hours of the day.
His reply at the time was ‘Shut up’, followed by slamming the door in my face.

So, this time I played it smart ... I called the superintendent of our building and he could take care of the soapy problem.

The super took one look at the flooded balcony and went straight upstairs. Minutes later the downpour stopped.
Problem solved. No idea what caused it though.


As for an update on the real estate problem ... I'm wondering about estate agents' intelligence.

Now that we are in the market for a new place to live, I went on the Remax and Centure 21 websites and completed their little questionnaire regarding what kind of new property we are looking for.

I selected condos, townhouses, lofts and houses as possibilities, with the must have of: A/C, close to public transportation and pets allowed. Within 24 hours a representative of Century 21 sent me a message with two possible condos he found.
Both of them had no A/C, were miles away from public transportation and had a no pets allowed policy.

Makes you kind of wonder, doesn’t it.