Master Bathroom and Bedroom Remodel

Master Bathroom and Bedroom Remodel, a set on Flickr.

Baltimore homeowner wanted updated master bathroom, new hardwood flooring and new windows in water front home. This bathroom was reconfigured to feature a large custom shower, two vanity cabinets and separate toilet room. The shower features body sprays and custom tile work.

Read more about bathroom remodeling here. 

****19 Month Update*****Gerber Ultra Dual Flush Toilet

December 16, 2009

Gerber Ultra Dual Flush 1.1/1.6

I first installed this toilet in May of 2008 in my powder room on my first floor for my family of five.  This it the bathroom that my family uses the most.  The interesting thing that has happened it that my children will go to the powder room and use the Gerber toilet even if they are on the second floor or in the basement (where other toilets are available).  If we are coming home from dinner or being out, my kids will "call" the powder room.

I was initially concerned with the more complicated flushing system and whether it would hold up. The flushing system has held up great. There have only been one or two minor issues where the tank didn't recharge, but jiggling the handle solved that.

The other maybe not so surprising thing we've found is, while the toilet has two flush modes, one for solids-- 1.6 gallons and one for liquid 1.1 gallons, the 1.1 gallon flush is more than adequate for most solids...I wont go into detail, but this toilet has some flushing power.

I give this 4.5 out of 5 stars!

New Kohler Flipside Handshower

Okay, call me nutty for writing about a hand shower, but here it is... We recently picked up a case of these at a kitchen and bath show for our customers.  Of course, being the guy that I am, I needed to test this out before we installed one in a customer's home.

A shower head is kind of a personal thing -- I mean, you use it everyday so it might as well give you a great showering experience, or at least more than a ho-hum showering experience.  Of course, I was skeptical that it was going to make any difference in my showering experience whether I continued to use my junky old four position personal shower head I bought from a big box store, or this new Flipside  showerhead  from Kohler.  My old shower head had four positions, none of which were very invigorating or exciting -- especially the pulse or message jets that lack the umph to make your back feel better.  In this time of low flow fixtures, I figured the new shower would be more of the same...just okay.

I replaced my existing hand shower in all of about five minutes with the new Flipside. I think it took me longer to walk down stairs to get a wrench than it did to unscrew the old hand shower, tape the fitting and screw on  the new shower head.  My wife was the first to use it the next day and she gave it a pretty strong endorsement saying the "Koverage" setting was almost like a steam shower and she didn't have to turn up the hot so much.

Hmm, still skeptical, I found she was right, (don't tell her I said that). This new shower blew away our old shower head. It was a much broader and stronger spray that also created more mist.  I messed with the other settings briefly, but I found a new highlight to my morning in the "Koverage" setting.  Hey, plus Kohler's Flipside webpage is pretty cool.

I give it four out of five stars ****

Flipside™02 handshower

 - K-17492  $107 in polished chrome from Kohler.

How to Drain Pipes for the Winter | Video | Plumbing | This Old House

How to Drain Pipes for the Winter | Video | Plumbing | This Old House