It Takes a Village ....

... to redo our bathroom, apparently

I guess folks were smaller in 1950 because our bathroom is literally one yard wide, from wall to tub edge. Factor in an average sink at 24-28 inches and you're inhaling just to step in. Actually, it's more of a shuffle (beware the door knob).

I've never agreed with the concept of making streets wider because cars are getting bigger and I guess I feel that way about my living space too. Whenever possible, if you've got lemons then make lemonade - don't install a pop machine.

And so we decided to work with the 8ft x 3ft space we had. We wanted something as no-toxic and environmentally sensitive as possible, befitting the age of the house and done with minimal waste. We started to spread the word - we needed help and lots of advice from friends, and patience from ourselves.

I've always been a vinyl shower curtain kinda guy though I was increasingly concerned about the plastic smell that I was always inhaling. Following a suggestion from neighbour Laura, the old curtain was relegated to the garage as a tarp and we found a liner at the $ store made of polyester (polyester is a synthetic polymer made of organic or inorganic compounds). As Laura said, if every hotel in the world uses it, it must be a design that works.
It not only keeps the shower water in the tub and dries quickly on the rod, it's easily laundered and can be hung outside on the line.

In spite of our best efforts searching websites and showrooms, visiting the Habitat Re-Store and various warehouses and junk yards, we couldn't find a small pedestal sink. We wanted one which would originally been in place and would therefore be in scale with the bathroom. Finally, acting on a tip from our friend Robyn, we contacted a place in Toronto's west end called Addison's Inc. and the resulting visit found Laura driving us, and our new sink, back to St. Thomas.

I never liked our medicine chest. We simply didn't have enough products to fill it and the brass and mirrors were too shiny for me. In removing the behemoth I uncovered the original cabinet, recessed into the wall. It was fairly small and the door had been removed but I loved that we were able to use the original shelves; shelves that had once likely held a straight razor or possibly flat blades, tonic, Noxzema, bobby pins.

Our new pal Lisa, who did the majority of our woodworking (baseboards and trim, cutting and fitting the bead board panels, shelf making) and all of the caulking, created a beautiful mirrored door fashioned from a picture frame she stained and sealed. Hinged and equipped with a magnetic closure, the inside of the door is painted grey chalk board for secret messages or reminders.

Our vinyl flooring had done its duty for as long as it could and it was now our obligation to replace it with a healthier choice; healthier being somehow from a renwable source or nontoxic or recycled. After some research and an endorsement from Dan we followed my original instinct and chose Bermuda Blue linoleum. Made from lineseed oil, cork and wood flour, and backed with jute, linoleum (and its young sibling Marmoleum) is still made by following the basic recipe from the 1860's. Up came the plastic floor and in came Nick, the lino guy from Elgin Flooring.

Similar was our approach to the toilet. The old one was from 1978 (every tank has a date stamped in it) and it had become a three-flusher. Not only was it inefficient (I had put bricks in the tank to force it to use less water), it occurred to me I was 15 and watching Charlie's Angels when it was installed so it was definitely due for a sequel. The toilet was removed, along with the old sink and the remaining tiles from the wall (necessitated by the removal of the old vanity) and in came the Carson from Ambrose Plumbing to install our new sink and an efficient, tall toilet (thanks for your help Jackie!).

A few coats of low VOC paint from Mike at Para Paints and our old privy really feels like a beautiful room befitting the house, not just a place with running water to get your business done.

Our bathroom is now efficient and very low in toxins, the holder stocked with 100% recycled toilet paper from Cascades, and our tankless water heater is ready to go; it’s an integral step in the plan to make our home healthy.

So thanks to Laura (especially, but not only, for the RENO cake and use of her bathroom) and Lisa (wow), Robyn, Dan, Nick and Carson, my folks for delivering us dinner and holding their tongues during our speachifying on "recycled this" and "eco that", and to Jackie and Mike.

We now have a beautiful bathroom and will qualify for a $100 rebate for the toilet as part of our Energy Efficiency Evaluation.

Candy Tongue, Tattoos

When we moved to St. Thomas last year, we were moving towards something, not away from something. Yet we did leave behind some pretty special bits of our lives.

Such as my pal Lisa.

Now here's a gal who likes things the way she like things and if you dare to ask "why?", you'd be wise to take a seat.
She's got a knack for making me split-a-gut.
I've never laughed so hard, and for such a long time as we did that one particular time together, and all it took was a highlighter and a ceiling fan. That's how it is with Lisa - even getting your change back at a store can end in tears. It's hard to explain; it's a kind of magic.

I remember another time together when we encountered an old-style screen door on a store in Toronto's Queen West. Admittedly it was an odd sight, a porch door in such an urban setting, but Lisa was completely stumped (and a squirrel could have got it opened) - I don't know what was funnier, Lisa's mystified look as she gingerly opened the creaking door, or her look moments later, leaving the store, when she got flummoxed all over again.

But I'll pull this back from sounding like a eulogy and take aim at the target - I big thanks for all the belly laughs we've had and the many still to burst out.


a tattoo haiku
candy tongue tattoos by neil hubert

The candy tongue tattoos
were kind of a hit -
Whilst sitting Miguel who is 9, I suggested
We should each get a tongue tattoo
courtesy of my friend Lisa
(who you've not yet met)

He was so excited,
he wanted to wait
to show his mom,
who was away in Spain,
for another week hence
(likely drinking Mateus and thinking about him)
so I said
We'll do them closer to her date of return
and I forgot.

now I can't find them
for I think he put them in his pocket
likely sticky now
from running and splashing
laundering and wringing
but still fun, though not on the tongue
our candy tongue tattoos

not for candy tongues

Investing in Tomorrow

One of the things that prompted me to quit smoking years ago was my realization that the day would come when I would have to quit.

I stepped out of my denial and stopped doing something I knew wasn’t good for me.

That's pretty much how I feel about the state of our environment; I figure why should I wait for the nasty to happen when I could be proactive and make some changes today that will ease my adjustment to the inevitable?

We've had a few generations now of opting, out of ignorance or laziness, for waste rather than conservation, speed over good stewardship.

Our era of convenience carried a steep price and the planet has begun collecting on our debt. We burned a lot of fuel, quickly cultivated and consumed a lot of inexpensive food, and destroyed countless acres of ecosystems; the very systems we need to help cleanse our toxins.

I think we need to realign our perspective on cost and value.

Today’s organic tomato costs what a tomato would have cost my great-grandmother, long before we could mass/fast grow everything. Organic food is the real cost of responsible agriculture, and it's why we should be willing, whenever possible, to spend a bit more, short term, because the long-term benefit is well worth it.

And so I’ve realized another wish on my Energy Retrofit Master Plan – our tankless water heater.

Viewing our gas bill last month, I noticed an announcement from Reliance for a new lease product, the Rinnai On-Demand Water Heater. Robin made a call and a week later our old tank was taken away as the new system was installed. Hot Water on Demand (we sometimes call it instantaneous hot water) is a tankless system which heats water as you require it buy coiling cold water, through tubes, around a heat source. Our hot water consumption is already pretty low due to the fact that we generally wash our clothes in cold water and have an ultra-conserving front-loading washer, so the amount of gas we'll now be burning will be minimal (with this new generation of systems, there isn’t even a pilot light on when it’s not heating water).

Like our organic tomato, I expect we'll be paying more for our monthly rental fee (up to $31) and, though we can't tell the difference in our day-to-day life, I know it's the kind of change that makes a big difference for the future. To lesson the impact of the installation charge and new monthly fee, we will qualify for $200 in provincial and $200 in federal grant money as part of the Energy Efficiency Evaluation inspection we had last October.


I’m no longer afraid of the future since becoming an active participant in the change that will form it. We should all make our own positive choices today, because we know if we don’t, the choices will be made for us.

I know my grandparents would be proud.