Last week I wrote about how we were renovating our first floor bathroom, so I thought that I should write about the results and a couple of choices we made.

Saturday night we had everything painted and had gone out and picked our new fixtures. I had the new toilet in by the end of the night.

The next day I installed the new vanity and top along with the mirror, faucet and a new grate for the heat vent and trim kits for the light fixtures.

So while renovating a bathroom is generally a fairly straight-ahead process as far as selecting fixtures, there are some interesting options out there. One thing we did was go with a dual-flush toilet.

This is a toilet with two flush options using different amounts of water depending on what’s being flushed, and shown to save up to 60% of water in a year. The surprising thing about this toilet is that it was one of the more inexpensive models where we shopped for our fixtures, and it was the only one with this feature.I always see these when I travel in Europe, but never anywhere in the US. I do not understand why these are not more common here in the US.

The other choice we made was to install LED bulbs in the light fixtures.

I’ve been looking at LED bulbs for some time now, but the price has always prevented me from buying. With this project I figured that I was already spending a couple of hundred dollars, so I may as well do it right and jump in the with the bulbs. Two of these cost me nearly $80, but I have to say I am really satisfied with them. For years I’ve been using the compact flourescent bulbs and have been less than satisfied with them. They often power on too dim, taking as long a s minute to get to full brightness, the colors are wildly different and often not as advertised, and their lifespan in everyday use is dramatically less than what is claimed. All of these factors are vastly different by manufacturer as well.

After a week with the LED lights I have found the experience to be quite the opposite. The lights come on nearly instantly to full brightness. I have noticed a slight lag from flipping the switch to seeing light, but by the time you’re aware of the lag, about a half second, the light is on. I find it to be a non-issue. Since I put these two in my bathroom, I’ve purchased another, smaller, LED lamp by a different company for our kitchen. It too comes on to full brightness instantly. It also appears that these LEDs run a little brighter than advertised, which is a good thing. Their color temperature is very close to the incandecent lights we’re all used to, so it’s a very comfortable light. The only thing I can’t predict yet is their lifespan, but if it’s even half of what they claim, then I will be very happy with these.

The good news is I see these getting cheaper and more prevalent as they become more popular. I’m hoping to see models that are small enough for some of our ceiling fans but with greater brightness. They have some out now in the right size, but they’re still too dim for my taste, which is the main problem with my current lights.

So, I’m a fan of the LED lights, and I’m happy with our new dual-flush toilet. Time will tell if the cost savings will offset the initial costs, but at least we’re doing our part to help the environment, even if it is just one flush at a time.

Update:. I forgot to mention that there is one thing that I don’t like about the new LED bulbs – their excessive packaging. I hope that this, too, changes as these bulbs become more popular.