Tags
Bathroom, Canal, Concept, decorators, Gluckstein, hell, Ottawa, Park, renovations
Since we moved back to Ottawa from Rome that fateful July 2011, we have been living in a very nice condo complex on the Rideau Canal. The building is somewhat like a private club, all the neighbours know each other and we greet and chat all the time.
Our landlord has made many improvements to the unit and it is a pleasant spot. Last month he announced that he wanted to completely redo the two bathrooms updating them from their 1976 look when the building was originally built on the site of what had been a neighbourhood school in the centre of the city.
All went well until we met the decorator, a women in her 60’s smitten with the Gluckstein concept of hotel living and ideas she picked up on a tourist junket to China. Unfortunately for us she fails to listen to anything we say and her ideas are off the wall. Good for an hotel but not so good for a home. She firmly believes that no one lives at home but at Starbucks. She is against space to store things, closets etc, who needs storage space. The owner listens to every word she says as if she is a prophetess of ole. She is also very disorganized and fails to see problems until we are stuck with them. We are into week 3 of a simple bathroom renovation, we are hopeful this week will be the last and we can move to the other bathroom.
We also need to repaint the unit, we had to dismantle quite a lot of things to make room for the renovations and with the dust etc. this became apparent. However the owner is non committal now on what will happen when our lease expires. As much has we would hate to move after 5 years it may happen in 2016. I find the whole exercise tiring and tedious.
Here are some in process photos.
What use to be a standard bathtub and vanity is replaced by a walk in shower and mirrors, new lights and better ventilation.
ready for tiling on Monday morning. He should go fairly fast now since all the tiles are in and the workers have been most efficient and nice.
Larry Muffin At Home 