One of the new inventions that the right-wing coalition implemented after they first got into power in 2006, was to introduce a tax reduction on something called “household-related services”. I won’t get into detail about it, but basically it’s now way cheaper to redo your kitchen or hire a cleaner than it used to be. Now, everyone (I mean, anyone who can afford to) is redoing everything in their homes! But, the political situation in Sweden is not stable at present. Chances are that the left-wing coalition will win the elections in September (FINGERS CROSSED!), which means that taxes might be increased. Thus, the tax reduction on all this home improvement stuff might not be around for much longer. Gosh! thought mother. Best to take advantage of the situation. Let’s redo the bathroom!
In my mom’s defense, a renovation is kind of needed. Nothing has been done about the bathroom since its construction in 1984, and there’s something weird about the design that causes the water to flow away from the drain, not towards it, from the bath tub. The drain is also a very cheap, badly functioning construction where dirty water gets stuck and sometimes it starts smelling. So, a renovation isn’t completely unnecessary. However, going to the home improvement store was not really what I expected to spend my vacation days doing.
There was so much stuff! So many different taps, toilet seats, sinks, bathtubs, showers. So many different colored tiles! They even have these cupboard-sized saunas now, that can be installed in a corner of a large bathroom. Imagine that!
Really, it was quite an interesting experience. And it’s decided now. It will happen. I will not have a functioning bathroom for three weeks about when I’ve planned to start working on my thesis. I guess I’ll spend all my days at university then, anyway. There are plenty of toilets there, after all.
Katja Malmborg 