Shiny things! (Sinks, Faucets, Toilets)

We don't need to choose plumbing fixtures until later in the process. Most of the time, they come near the end of interior design. But when Yuval sent us a sample list from one of the other houses, we spent an afternoon and evening picking out sinks, faucets, toilets, and accessories (drains, mainly), because we're exciting like that.

Kohler is our preferred supplier. To simplify our choices and provide visual consistency, we decided to reuse the same items and lines as much as possible. Our faucets of choice come from the Purist line. For the lavatory, we were drawn to the version with separate linear handles, and we matched it in the shower and bath/shower. We considered the single-handle stem version, but found it fairly ugly.

The Purist line also has kitchen faucets with several variations: bridge or single stem, larger or smaller, and pull-out spray or no spray. We're not fond enough of the bridge look to pay several hundred dollars more, so we chose the single stem version. We chose the larger faucet with spray as the main kitchen faucet, and the smaller without spray as the prep faucet in the kitchen. In the laundry room, we went with the larger version without spray.

Looking through all the sinks was a bit more work. Upstairs, we settled on rectangular under-mount sinks with a curve to the basin. They are simple, and look nice. We considered choosing something more stereotypically modern such as a vessel sink or wading pool sink, but neither seems as usable.

The powder room needed something a bit different. Yuval suggested that we could save money by skipping cabinets and using a wall-mount sink. We will separately install a bit of storage for the few things that we want to keep in that room. We found a reasonable wall-mount sink that should work well.

We quickly narrowed down the kitchen sink to two options. A large single-basin sink, or a model where some of the basin is taken up for a shelf on the side. Even though it has a smaller basin, we really like the shelf on the Stages sink. It is well-placed for using as a prep area, since the prep faucet will be mounted right above that section. The main problem is that it costs twice as much, at least in part because it comes with a whole bunch of accessories. They may not be completely useless, but we'd be happy to have just the sink. Despite that, we'll probably use the Stages sink.

The laundry room just needs a large, sturdy sink. The garage gets a large, sturdy sink that can mount to the wall. It also gets a service faucet which can accept a hose. This means we don't need a hose bib anywhere else in the garage to use it as a car washing area.

For toilets, we only had a few requirements. We want dual flush, and for the master bath and powder room we want comfort height. Out of the many options, we chose a style that looks a bit more modern. We decided not to spend the money on Kohler's fancy new Numi toilet, because we don't need a toilet that is also a geek gadget. Also, it costs $6000.

It will be a while before we need to order these, but it is another set of decisions made.