"Bone" coloured toilet...yeck!
We're saving up for all of that but recently we went ahead, splurged, and put in the new toilets...but it didn't cost us a cent!
Here's the new toilet. It's a bad pic so you can't really tell how much nicer it is. It also has an elongated bowl & seat, which is apparently more comfortable for men...maybe now he'll be nice enough to put the toilet seat seat down ;-)
Here's why it didn't cost us ANY money....
This year we also replaced all the windows in our home. 13 in all. We decided to get an Energy Audit done on the house before that big reno so that we could take advantage of the Provincial and Federal Government grants that are available to residential homeowners in Ontario. Our toilets were evaluated at the same time and we learned that we qualified for a grant for those as well. Knowing that, we decided that it was in our best interest to replace the toilets now and apply for the window and toilet grant money all at the same time. This would save us from paying the Energy Audit people later in the year when we finally got around to updating the bathroom.
Cost - we paid $266.36 for two new low flush WHITE toilets. They were 30% off at the Home Depot the weekend we bought them. Score. I was actually out of town when I heard about this sale during a very important hockey game that I was listening to on the radio. I rushed home and missed the overtime period because we had to get to Home Depot before it closed. It was comical though because there were about 20 people huddled around the customer service desk at the store waiting to find out who won. Only in Canada!
City of Ottawa Rebate - We applied for and are getting a $120 ($60/toilet) rebate on our next water & sewer bill from the City of Ottawa. This should last Dan and I for a long time. Our W&S bill is never very high.
NRCan EcoEnergy Grant - We received a grant of $260 ($130 each from the Provincial and Federal Governments) total for both toilets. The Energy Audit people took care of the paperwork for that one.
Overall Breakdown:
Toilets: $266.36
City of Ottawa Rebate: - $120
NRCan Grant: - $260
Final cost to me is +$113.64. That's right! I made money replacing my toilets :-)
The EcoAudit itself cost $300 for both pre and post reno inspections. Well, actually it costs $450 but you get $150 back from the Government as well. So if you were only planning to replace toilets then the Audit is not for you. BUT if you're planning other renovation activities then I seriously recommend checking into it. You can check out the Government's grant table for residential properties to get an idea of what your refund will be. The number in the grant table gets matched by the Provincial Gov't in Ontario...or at least it did when we did our audit. I imagine these things change as budget priorities change or the money simply runs out of the program.
Just in case you're curious, we replaced 13 windows in our home so our grant for that was $80 * 13 = $1040.
Total grant amount = $1300.
How much can you save?
Did you install the toilets yourself? Pictures!
ReplyDeleteI didn't but Dan did. He's a toilet replacing pro now. He had to re-do the seals on two of the toilets when we first moved in. Hilarious story was when he went to close the door in the downstairs toilet and realized that the toilet was in the way. lol.
ReplyDelete