Once again our contractor made some suggestions of where to purchase the plumbing supplies. The two places he recommended were Vic's Plumbing Supply Co and Ferguson’s, both in Ventura.

Time was running short on getting these supplies ordered so they would be here when the plumbers started work, so we didn’t do as much price comparison as we normally would have. We did look at Home Depot and Lowe’s for prices and fixtures, but didn’t really see anything that caught our eyes. We also needed valves and trims and other stuff that I had no clue about and wouldn’t attempt to buy myself.

I stopped in at Ferguson’s shortly before they closed on my day off with my 2-year-old son Gabe in tow.

Now I don’t know how many people have ever taken a 2-year-old to a plumbing showroom, but I wouldn’t recommend it. Gabe’s a good kid, but hundreds of bright, shiny, polished faucets with knobs hanging on the wall within reach are just too big a temptation.

This was also a day that I had spent taking Gabe in and out of the car as we ran errands. We had started the day at 9 a.m. and it was now 4 p.m. Gabe hadn’t had a nap all day. He’d only eaten a little bit at lunch, and we already had exhausted the small stash of snacks I keep in his bag. The sippy cup was running dry, too. So mix this with those attractive faucets and this was a recipe for disaster.

I was trying to look at faucets, keep Gabe from screaming too loudly and attempting to keep him from putting his little fingerprints on every display model in the building.

It makes it a little tough to look, especially when you are overwhelmed with all the choices. An attentive salesperson must have seen my dilemma because we were ushered into the capable hands of one Sandy Mackenzie, who even though she was about ready to go home, found the time to help us out.

First, she deftly handled Gabe by showing him a few faucets he could actually touch. This gave me a chance to catch my breath and explain what I was doing there. With a series of quick questions Sandy was able to get me to describe exactly what I needed and the styles I preferred, narrowing the choices considerably.

We tackled the bathrooms first since those changes were minor. Our home was built in 1949, and the bathrooms look like they’re from that period, so I didn’t want to go too far with the fixtures. We chose chrome-plated faucets with porcelain handles for both showers and one sink (the other sink, the one in the garage, we’d already purchased fixtures for).

In the meantime, we’d sat down at Sandy’s desk and Gabe started traipsing around touching things he shouldn’t again. That meant I was jumping up and bringing him back to the desk every couple of minutes. So, Sandy pulls out some paper and colored pens to keep Gabe entertained, and even put up with the interruptions of him telling here what his scribbles were supposed to be. It was cute, to be sure, but remember that Sandy was nearly on her way home when I came in.

We then shifted gears to the kitchen and had some fun. I picked out a Franke stainless steel sink and a Rohl Faucet with a soap dispenser, sprayer and garbage disposal to boot.

Sandy also showed me this coop switch for the garbage disposal. Not a light switch. This is a button that sits up by the faucet that you just press. It’s really cool.

The total: about $2,000. Most of which was put into the sink and faucet.

Here’s a look at what we picked out:

Franke kitchen sink
Rohl kitchen faucet
Savannah series bathroom fixtures (All the fixtures for the bathroom came out of this series and had the chrome finish with porcelain handles.)

All the plumbing, except for the kitchen faucet, arrived Tuesday, Dec. 7. The faucet will be in Dec. 15. It was delayed for some reason.