"Major" "Redecoration"

In reading this post, you will see that my sense of the phrase "major redecoration" is probably on a slightly...lesser scale than that of most others.  Kevin and I are not big home DIY-ers in any sense of the word (except for, I guess, cooking and grooming the pugs ourselves because of that all too well-known pleasure of expressing their anal glands--we save all the fun stuff for ourselves), particularly when it comes to home improvement stuff.  So when I tell you that we have made changes around the apartment, you can be assured that it is a BIG DEAL, regardless of how far I have stretched the word "redecoration".

We're not talking about retiling a fireplace (MintedLife puts me to shame) or staining a deck--hell no, we would pay people to do that (which we don't, because we don't have a fireplace or a deck, among other reasons).  We're talking about...

A shower caddy pole!  Recently, the shower caddy basket we had hanging off the showerhead fell.  On it descent into darkness, it decided to pull along the actual showerhead, and the threads that screwed the showerhead into the water pipe. It took a plumber a good hour to fix things, which involved lots of banging, dirt, concerned looks and mentions of "new fixtures and having to retile the entire shower" which did not make me happy AT ALL, and a big fat check.  Scarred by this experience, we have decided never ever to hang something on the showerhead again.

First, of course, we had to buy a new showerhead so that we wouldn't be trying to clean ourselves under what would amount to be a garden hose shooting out water from somewhere behind the shower wall.

Kohler single-purpose showerhead, $37.98 (motherf*!ker I'm pretty sure we bought it for $15 more from those BBB bastards)

What I am going to say next will demonstrate to you how lame I am.  I was so pleased to be purchasing something "Kohler" for our bathroom.  Because, you know, it has that brand-name and quality recognition and stuff. I know, it's a showerhead. But if you knew the state of our apartment, you would realize that by purchasing this showerhead, we're really stepping up in the world.

As I said, no more hanging shower caddy for us.  So we splurged on this tension pole from Simple Human.

Simple Human stainless steel tension shower caddy, $130

I'm kind worried that the surfaces aren't level enough and I'm going to one day come home to find my pugs trapped under the fallen pole and various bottles of shampoo, but so far so good.

But perhaps The Most Significant home improvement we have made is our welcome mat.  Feast your eyes:

I know, it's stunning, and has "Crazy Couple Lives Here" all over it.  There was a store going out of business and had this for sale, and I just couldn't pass it up. You know how it goes.

The other project involved installing a few decorative shelves in the bathroom in a awkward empty space on the wall. Here it is!

Yes, still sitting around.  This is what happens to projects that require a drill, hangy thingys, screws, etc.  Considering how long it takes to change lightbulbs, this should get done in December.