$2000 Bathroom Faucet!

Just imagine!  Here's what happened.  Mr. Happiness and I were at Lowe's a couple of years ago, looking for a bathroom faucet to replace the old one in the master bathroom.  (This house has all the cheapest builders-grade crap materials, the kitchen cabinets are exactly the same ones we put in a house we built in 1979!)  Anyways...  As we were looking at faucets, a Lowe's emplyee came by, adding new stuff and shuffling faucets around.  She asked if we were looking for a kitchen faucet, because she had this one that was being clearance priced to something ridiculously low -- I don't recall exactly, but it was less than $20!
Of course, it was such a deal, Mr. Happiness snatched it up, saying we could set it aside since we knew the existing faucet would give up sooner or later.  

And here's the new bathroom faucet that started it all.

Then a couple of years pass....  drip, drip, drip.  Of course, the kitchen faucet became unfixable, the sprayer hose was always a battle to use, so it was time to dig out the kitchen faucet we'd bought.  It was so pretty! Shiny!  Fancy!  Spiffy!  Modern!  And the countertops we had were awful.  Scratched up.  Stained.  Old-fashioned.  Since I had saved up some dinero since I bought my Avante, I asked Mr. Happiness what he thought about getting new countertops.  He agreed, so I hustled over to Lowe's and began shopping!

Now I'm going to show you a "before" picture of the kitchen -- but you have to promise not to look at the people in the picture, just behind us at the kitchen.  Promise?  Cross your heart?  OK.

Just wanted you to see the wallpaper border, and the color of the walls (which really were darker and kinda dirty looking in real life).  I knew you could resist looking at the folks in the picture (no one I know, never saw them before, they just showed up in my kitchen).  You're such well-behaved peoples :-D

The countertops were installed, and I am so loving it!  They're HiMacs, with gorgeous built-in sinks, and the new faucet!  Of course, that gave me good reason to re-paint the kitchen.  I got samples and painted stripes on the walls.  I tried greens, blues, off-whites, taupe, but my kitchen insisted on remaining yellow!  It's a lighter, brighter version of the old, and it looks so... well, sunny!  And naturally, I had to paint the window trim again.  So while it's so good to have everything bright and fresh, my poor ole bod is really, really, mad at me!   

See the little circle on the floor beside the rug?  A little sunflower?  Cute, eh?  I've been using a small dishrag as a floor mopper -- when I drip, I can just move it around with my foot.  Not terribly attractive, but it kept me from having to bend over.  Of course, everyone who came over would pick it up, thinking I'd dropped it.  When I explained this to a friend o'mine, she knitted up a little sunflower to use specifically for that purpose!  Clever girl!!  


The windows in the eating area face north, west, and south.  Always lovely light.  But the windows still needed a little something besides the blinds.  I took two of the old plaid curtains, cut them into thirds, and remade them into valances.  They turned out to be just long enough to keep that intense afternoon sun from blasting too much into the room.  I'll probably do something different later, but it works for now.  


So in the couple of years, I have new countertops, new floors, new dishwasher, new range, new disposal, new kitchen faucet.  I am soooo happy!  The fridge is about 20 years old, but it keeps on chugging along, so it will stay with us awhile -- I hope!  And I can ignore the old cabinets.  They were abused by the former owners, who put their coffee-maker underneath, where they steamed the finish right off.  Anyone know a way to (painlessly, please!) re-finish the cabinets?  


Life is good.