That sink-ing feeling

I made the mistake of wandering into a a tile and bathroom store called Fired Earth a couple of weeks ago. You see, out of all the alterations I've been considering making to my flat in Edinburgh, I'd given scant thought to the bathroom. Fired Earth contained many displays of elegant and beautiful simplicity, and since viewing them my mind has been whirring away trying to decide what to do with my flat. The first thing I did was to look back over the photos I took to see what my bathroom actually looks like - it's been a goodly while since I saw it last. I should probably point out that it's not even a bathroom, but a shower-room - it was small, I knew that much, but I'd forgotten just how small. It turns out to be just the wrong side of compact and bijou - the average closet is probably a larger space. I decided I could live with it when I bought the flat, but even now it came as a slight shock to realise just how little space I have to work with.

Of course, that turned out to have an upside. Impressed with what I'd witnessed in the store, I purchased a catalogue (for the princely fee of £3.50), and returned home to ponder my options. Looking through it, I quickly discovered the catalogue itself was near all I could afford. The range of tiles I'd become somewhat smitten with turned out to cost over £450 per square meter. I had no conception that tiles were so expensive. Even for my tiny little room it would cost a small fortune to tile it with such. Fortunately, though, I found my tastes weren't wholly irreconcilable with my budget and there were other tiles that I still found attractive and with which I could probably re-tile my compact shower-room without bankrupting myself.

But having done some more research since, it does seem that near everything to do with bathrooms is vastly dearer than I anticipated. Like taps. Who on earth would ever have expected a humble tap to be so costly? The taps I liked, from a range called Xena (the sales assistant gave me a blank look when I asked if they were warrior taps) were a mere £130. Similarly sinks and basins are lavishly priced as well. One of the strange consequences of discovering all this, is that for the first time I find myself considering the cost of becoming an adult in purely monetary terms.

Growing up is an expensive business...