In the last installment I had beat the crap out of a copper sink to customize it for the new bathroom. Now that I had sufficiently distorted the sink to my liking it was time to turn my attention to custom faucets.
I wanted something completely different. Throughout the lodge – being that this is a log home a great deal of the plumbing is exposed as there are few inner wall spaces to hide supply lines. The copper piping adds a bit of rustic and rather raw interest to the overall picture. With that in mind I wanted both the faucets at the bath sink and the shower system to be exposed. I didn’t want it to be too refined like that of manufactured fixtures on the market.
I searched numerous manufacturers to find just the right look — however everything to me seemed too provincial or too finished until I came across the rustic and raw plumbing fixtures of Sonoma Forge.
This is what I had been seeking. They had two different lines that I liked however, one called Waterbridge which capitalized on the look of exposed copper plumbing seemed to really fit in with the feel of the new bath.
The exposed copper shower system hit the spot. That’s what I wanted. I had contacted them directly and of course they only work through dealers. I contacted several dealers within a 150 mile radius only to find that one of them actually had a display of the sink faucet — none had the exposed shower system which had captured my interest.
I downloaded the specs and pricing information from the Sonoma Forge website an nearly fell off my chair in a mind-blowing ‘WTF’ moment.
The deck mounted faucet which I would mount on the log sink top that I had made would set me back $1,440.00 but even more staggering was the exposed shower system.
The exposed shower system with tub filler spout, overhead copper rain head and hand-shower would set me back an incredible $4,850.00. As much as I liked the design there was no way I was going to spend $6,290.00 for the faucets.
I sat down and sketched out my own designs. After a quick trip to my local hardware store and a review of the fittings, pipe and valves needed I realized that with a little time and patience I could build my own exposed systems and save myself $6,040.00. Besides my faucets would be unique.
I gathered up my supplies, fine tuned my sketch, fired up the torch and began to make my own fixtures.
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