Piyawat and I spent the afternoon at Home Pro at Seri Center in Bang Na today, picking out fixtures for our two bathrooms. Luckily he is on school break now, so he has plenty of time to be my translator and negotiator. I definitely couldn't have done today's task without him.
The plan is to totally renovate the two bathrooms in my condo. I want to rip everything out: tile, shower box, toilet, tubs, sinks, counters and all the fixtures, and replace everything. It sounds drastic, but if you saw the way they look now, I think you'd understand.
We are using the Home Pro's "Design Service". The way it works is that you pay 2500 baht (about US$60) to have a contractor come out to your house to take measurements and pictures, then you pick out what you want at the store, and the design service will draw up floorplans and 3D views of what the renovation will look like. Then, if you buy the products at Home Pro and use their contractor, then you get the 2500 baht back in credit.
Unfortunately, 2500 is a small drop in the bucket compared to what I will be spending. All of the above for two bathrooms, except for the tile, will come out to about 60,000 baht (US$1500). I have never priced toilets, tubs and sinks in the US, but US$1500 for two new bathrooms doesn't seem too bad.
After all, I tried to keep prices low. My favorite toilet/sink set cost 30,000 baht alone. I did, however, splurge on the tub. I got the "American" model, which was the biggest one they had. (Interesting that they call it the "American" isn't it? No comment.) The tub I have now is small, so perhaps I went overboard on the new one. But, you know what? I don't care. I'm still excited to be getting the "American" tub!
So, now everything is picked out, and we just have to wait for the designs. Hopefully they can start work sometime next week.
