Toilet roll holders, and other tricky moving-house decisions…

In 2013 we downsized from a big old house to a medium-sized (temporary) flat, and I really thought all the ‘Do we need/want to keep this???’ decisions were as bad as it could get.

Wrong.

Shortly after that removal, a whole new decisions game started… building the permanent flat. I was prepared for some of it. I knew I wanted wooden floors in the bedrooms and stone tiles in the living areas and bathrooms. I knew I wanted white walls throughout the flat, and white gloss fronts in the kitchen area. I fondly imagined that was about it.

Wrong.

Door handles. Door locks? Kitchen unit handles. Vertical or horizontal? Working surface height. Cupboards, drawers or shelves?
The kitchen island – 1m from the cupboards? 1.10m?? 1.20m???
And don’t get me started on the lighting…

Floor tiles – horizontal or vertical in relation to the long side of the main living area? (That one nearly floored me (sorry) – I had to go away and think about it and phone an architect friend, then call the tiler to say I’d changed my mind.)

Curtain rails – single or double? Skirting boards – a must in Switzerland – wood, tile, white? 4 cm or 5 cm? That was when I reached the ‘Yeah, whatever’ stage. And remember I was doing it all in German.

But nothing was as bad as the toilet roll holder…

There are two loos here – one in a shower/utility room, and that was no problem. The loo roll holder went in the traditional place on the wall. The problem was the main bathroom, where the loo sits between the end of the bath, and the basin. I’d thought the loo roll holder could go on the short end of the bath, but the plumber person said a very definite no. The tile might break. On the wall behind the loo was his suggestion, but I didn’t want that. After a
L  O  N  G  discussion in my bathroom we reached a compromise – he wouldn’t put the loo roll holder up at all, and I wouldn’t complain about it afterwards.

So off I set to find a free-standing loo roll holder. These come in various shapes and sizes. With or without a loo brush holder? With or without a newspaper rack?? Stainless steel? Wood?? Poly-something or other???
I decided on a stainless steel holder without anything, and was moderately happy until I saw the price… no way was I going to pay nearly three hundred franks. I plonked the loo roll on the end of the bath, we moved in, and that was that.

A day or two later I was buying long drink glasses (you always break something when you move house…) when I saw a little bowl. A nice little turquoise-coloured china bowl. For Fr.5.50.-

It may not be the end solution here – but for the moment, it’s perfect!

Merken