If I had sense, I would show off the table (done - for a while now) and cabinet #4 (done for almost a week). That might even disguise the fact that I am super-slow. (Are you losing confidence in my finish-the-kitchen-in-time-for-Christmas-cookies deadline? Because you should know that I switched the plan from subway tile backsplash to beadboard backsplash. Not to save money - it will save money, but subway tile is pretty cheap and I was fine with the cost - but because there are some serious fitting challenges with the backsplash [and the other walls], and it would be my first time working with tile, so I foresaw disaster. I've gotten comfortable with several hand saws, the circular saw, painter's caulk, and the stock molding section at the Big Orange Store, so I'm thinking I will be better equipped to manage challenges if I work with wood and wood-like materials. And I am a lot faster with those materials. Or, at least, have learned to be patient while waiting for paint to dry.)
Of course, as you can see from the title, none of that really has anything to do with this post (although sometimes I do that just to throw you off) (actually, usually when I type the post title, it applies to what I think I'm going to write about, but then I get sidetracked on some huge tangent, and I usually leave the original, misleading title anyway, 'cause I'm a little bit* contrarian like that). OK, well, actually, here's a sneak peek of cabinet #4:
BUT ANYWAY, like I said, I was planning to talk about a bathtub. I just read this amazing before-and-after story on designsponge, which you should immediately go and read here. (Never let it be said that I am unable to appreciate style preferences other than my own.) In my humble opinion, the money shot from the whole collection is this one:
WHAT IS THAT? It looks like a galvanized bathtub. An AWESOME galvanized bathtub. I scanned through the comments at hyperspeed, greedily seeking the answer. Apparently, despite my small-town bona fides (plus we lived down the street from a dairy farm when I was in high school), there are things country people readily recognize that I don't. At some point in life, I will have to remedy this. To several readers, it was obvious that it was a "stock tank" - a big ol' bucket used to hold water for cattle! To google I went, and immediately happened upon a major retailer, with stores all over the country (even near me), selling this:
You can read that, right? It says they're selling a heavy-guage zinc-coated steel stock tank, two feet high and six feet in diameter, for $249. Here's a bit of a close-up:
First of all. Do you know how much more it costs to buy a brand-new bathtub? Even an uninteresting one. Even a fiberglass one! It costs way more than $249. Secondly. Galvanized steel ways a LOT less than porcelain-enameled cast iron (the only acceptable bathtub material - or so I recently thought...). I bet one person could get this thing up to a second-story bathroom! And finally. Did you read that part about SIX FEET in diameter? That's big enough to invite friends. Of course, it's also big enough for a normal-sized adult to drown in while trying to have a relaxing bath, but I'm going to go ahead and speculate that these have much more textured bottom surfaces than the average bathtub, so I think you could sit yourself at the desired position and stay put.
I see one drawback: given that it holds 390 gallons when full, you might have to do some reinforcing of the floor joists before putting it to use. (But I note that the homeowner featured above uses his as the base of a shower, which would not cause a weight problem. It comes with a drain - it's a stock tank, people - and although I haven't measured out a circular shower pan before, I think it would be a generous size for one person.)
Industrial is a style I love, but don't generally have in my house. But I am starting to think I may not need to hire a plumber to put a shower pan in the attic, if we ever do finish it and decide to add a bathroom up there...
* A lot.
