This is approximately what our downstairs half-bath looked like until last week. I say "approximately" because I took this particular photo in 2007 — 12 years ago. It's a long narrow room resembling a hallway, with a toilet, a small sink, and a radiator in it. We painted it blue all those years ago and hung pictures on the walls.
It's funny, this morning when I went to take a photo of what the little "loo" looks like right now, I pushed the light switch and nothing happened. Almost in protest, the light bulb in the ceiling fixture has burned out. I guess. Or there's some other problem. I hope it's just a coincidence that it has burned out during the plumbing work. I thought we had put a new LED bulb in there, but maybe it's an old incandescent.
I got this photo using my camera's flash. Since significant plumbing work needed to be done to hook the new upstairs fixture into the drainage system, we decided to have a new toilet installed in here too. It'll be a wall-mounted commode (une toilette suspendue or un WC suspendu) — I think "commode" might be a Southern U.S. term for toilet. We figure it will be easier to clean the floor in the WC if the toilet is wall-hung. The old toilet is 16 years old, and right now it's sittingoutside in our front driveway, below the terrace.
In this photo you can see the frame or bracket on which the porcelain toilet will be mounted. The frame will be boxed in using wall board, and there will be a shelf on top of that. Our first plan would have involved running the drain pipe from upstairs down the back wall in one of the corners of this room and having the whole back wall boxed in to hide the pipes, but then the window would have been in a kind of tunnel.
Finally, at the last minute, we decided it would be better to run the big drain pipe down the wall in the main bathroom, which is just on the other side of a partition from the half-bath. (There is no toilet in the main bathroom. That's a French way of arranging the facilities.)
You can see the drain pipe and the way it comes into the room and hooks into the same drain pipe that connects, or will connect, to the new downstairs fixture and to the sewer mains down below.
Ah, now I understand why you're redoing your downstairs WC. There's rhyme to your reason! You will keep a shelf under your window also.
ReplyDeleteSince the old fixture had to be pulled out anyway, we figured it wouldn't cost much to put in a new wall-mounted toilet in its place. It will be quieter and will make it easier to clean the floor and the room. Besides, it's more modern looking.
DeleteThat little w.c. room of yours is very nice looking (as is every part of your house). It seems like most people just treat the w.c. room as a kind of bare-walls-get-in-get-out spot, but you two gave it a really nice feel. I remember liking the space when I walked in :)
ReplyDeleteThe WC in this house is pretty big compared to most, so it's a good place to hang framed pictures and maps on the walls. It's more pleasant as a room that way.
DeleteHi Ken, I can confirm that "commode" is a southern word. in the northeast that word means chest of drawers. Hope you're staying cool.
ReplyDeleteA commode is also a chest of drawers in French.
DeleteThe commode of the northeast US was often, in the 19th century, a low chest of drawers with a cabinet -- pull open the door and voila, the chamber pot. You still come across such furniture from time to time in sales. So I'm guessing that there's some overlap in regional meanings of the term.
ReplyDeleteLove your comment from yesterday about drinking a toast to the new plumbing. Looking forward to seeing how you decorate it.
We have to wait for the room itself to be finished — baseboards, for instance — before we can decorate. Now we'll be getting a different, larger sink and cabinet.
DeleteAside from its function, I always liked that room--the colors, the map...
ReplyDeleteIt was time for an upgrade, but fundamentally the room won't change.
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