My brother Jaime is ridiculous. I mean, he’s a great guy, but does he really need to upgrade his bathroom on an annual basis? He’s been doing just that for the past three years, and it’s gotten to the point that I have to wonder what the subtext is. Do his tastes really change every year? Does he somehow manage to break everything? Or does he just love the process or renovating?
Some people do love renovating, I’m told. Personally, I can’t stand it – the money, the stress, the people in your house. But I can kind of see how you could get obsessed with it. There’s something very satisfying about seeing the process through, and the only way to get that hit again is to start another project. My concern is that this might become an addiction, or a distraction from other, less fanciful concerns.
That said, I also suspect that Jaimie just has too many bathroom renovation ideas to fit into one overhaul, so he has to keep coming back for more. If that’s the case, then I can’t really fault him on it, except to suggest that he try getting another creative outlet that’s less… well… expensive. But hey, if bathroom makeovers are really his thing, then I’m not about to stop him going hog wild with it.
What I really want to know is this: why not renovate other parts of the property? I mean, Jaimie’s kitchen is pretty happening as it is, but he could really take it to new places with his evident fascination with design. Then there’s all the other spaces that could be remodelled – the master bedroom, the sun room, the study… heck, even the laundry. I’ve heard that laundry renovations are all the rage, and that people are even hiring laundry designers. Melbourne is the sort of place where you could pay someone to make over your dog’s kennel. It’s all fair game.
All that said, I’m keen to see what the next iteration of the bathroom is going to be. It just gets more and more outrageously cool each time.