bath time

Some friends of ours (who live just down the road - you know who you are) tend to catch up on their day whilst sharing a bath once the kids are in bed. We are only having one bath in Tigh Cruinn but two showers, and we wanted a freestanding thing with a wee table to hold the odd glass of wine or G&T next to it and space for two. We found just the right thing whilst hunting for bathroom stuff at the end of January during our Celtic Connections break in Glasgow.

However it was the most expensive bath we saw. Now Jayne likes sloshing around in water quite a lot and a hot soak does my knees good, as well as the arthritis. Should we go for this lovely feature even though it was over our budget ? Well we did - firstly, we had a very good discount and managed to source all the other bathroom items very reasonably so we are only £200 over our total bathroom budget anyway. We also came in over £500 under budget on our underfloor insulation and have pretty much been under budget on most other things so we did go over just this once. I'll have to set the drainage outlet and waste pipe into and under the cement floor which means locating the bath position exactly even before the house is built.

Jayne is very pleased with "her" bath and shows the brochure to everyone who calls. The freestanding tap mount was over £300 so I'm making one up from a lump of wood - probably burr oak - net saving £275.

Any thought over going over budget brings me out in a cold sweat - that and the logistics of getting the substructure built and the kit installed, so it was a major achievement for me to agree to the bath. Anyway here it is. Our floor will probably be multicolour Brazilian slate which we have already sourced too. Yes- we have put the cart before the horse but got some good deals by buying in the retail slump in the recession and during the January sales. We did have a hiatus whilst waiting for the digger to be repaired so have advanced other tasks.

By the way we'd recommend both the bathroom suppliers we used in Glasgow. Both are on Hillington Industrial estate - Try Crest bathrooms and Scope bathroom interiors - both have given us excellent service and no hard sell. Funnily enough the sales lady in Crest used to stay at Pininver on her holidays near Campbeltown with the now retired former Gigha nurse - another strange connection. Frances is a field archaeologist and has done some great survey work on Gigha where every stone big enough to trip over has some significant history attached to it. Scotland is big enough to be independent (if it wishes) and small enough for people to know each other or have friends over long distances such is the network of small communities. Scots are rightly proud of being outward looking and welcoming. Every visitor survey that is done for the tourist industry highlights the Scottish welcome and friendliness- along with the stunning scenery and history.