The New Loo - Simran Sethi
When she bought her 80-year-old house in Kansas, Simran Sethi knew the bathroom needed an environmentally minded makeover.
By Simran Sethi
Expert Content | March 09, 2010 
Photo: Jessica Sain-Baird
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There are a number of reasons a bathroom might be important to you. For me, it's a mash-up of caring about the environment, being vain and having spent much of my adult life in New York. I can live without a functional kitchen and rely on takeout, but a downtrodden bathroom is not acceptable. My goal was to increase beauty and comfort, maximize space and reduce energy and water consumption. So it will come as no surprise that the second thing I did after closing on the house—right after trying to get rid of brown recluse spiders—was to find a contractor who could help me actualize my vision. Finding a terrific contractor who was aligned with my vision, understood the kinds of materials I wanted to use and was able to work within a budget and the time frame I needed was not easy. I called everyone whose homes I liked for references and then met with folks and explained what I hoped to achieve. Eventually, we transformed my thoughts into the grubby sketch you see here. I tried to sound confident even when I was not, spending night after night researching every new term a contractor mentioned, and tried to stay optimistic when the contractors I liked said they were not available in my time frame. Just as I was about to give up on the ideal of moving into a house with a nice, new loo, I connected with Ian Hurst. |
