My ‘bathroom advisor’ and I went to Tile Max to return the tiles we had borrowed. I was thinking that we could place an order for the sage green tiles we liked. BUT: we discovered a dozen or so model bathrooms at the back of the showroom and loved this one. The art deco style ties in with the age of my house (built in 1930 – just one year younger than Mum!). Instead of the usual black and white chequerboard look you associate with art deco, this tile is softer and interesting. We like the large subway tiles (less grout) on the walls too. The chandelier would be a step too far in my bathroom.

The sage green tile is now replaced by this one, also a Replica tile: Replica Provincial Gris. The distressed look goes with the rather battered look of my bathroom skirting board. (It’s battered because it shows decades of wear and tear and layers of paint which proved too difficult to remove when I stripped it back in 1993). It was a relief to see that we could keep the wooden panelling unpainted.

We spent ages looking at all the bathrooms. I could have moved in, they were so beautiful. We started comparing showers and tapware, enjoyed the tactile (haha) tiles and other features such as a large photo on the glass wall of one shower.

On Friday we meet with a bathroom designer to see what she has come up with. It’s turning out to be a drawn-out process, so let’s hope we get some progress after that.