Backsplash bidness.

Can't get that one out of my head.
FORTY-THREE DOLLARS PER SHEET THOUGH.

But, uh . . .
Can't get that one out of my head.
Cleeek eeeet.

I was gonna mention painting and drywall, but it's time to go to recess.

PS all the kids are finally completely convinced that this house I'm renovating is underwater. Some were holding out with the disbelief, but google image search cures that.

Too much too much too many measurements too much.

Doors, doorknobs, wallpaper, beadboard, backsplash, toilet, storage, desk, shelving, switchplate and outlet covers, grates, french doors, molding, tile.


I don't even know.

Cooped up in the rain = buying things.

It's raining in Georgia.
Like, a lot.

Downtown connector flooded, elementary schools underwater, a lot.

So after the power came back on (it went out for a couple lonnng hours), I got on eBay and Overstock and bought the rest of our bathroom hardware.

Our sink:



The faucet that goes with the sink:





Our mirror (the picture shows nickel or chrome hardware, but ours will come with oil rubbed bronze):


We needed a tilt so that it wouldn't knock against the chair rail that'll top our beadboard in there.

AND!

My beautiful Roman tub faucet. Waterfall spout (not the coolest look but that waterfall filling the tub is way worth it) and a shower handle so I can rinse my hair out with clean, non-soapy/bath-bomb-y water:


Love.

And thus our satin nickel/oil rubbed bronze dilemma is resolved.
Now we just need a couple storage towers for one wall and some towel/toilet paper holders . . . and wallpaper . . . and beadboard/chair rail/molding . . . and THEN everything for the bathroom will have been purchased.

Thinking about painting that beadboard on the tub surround a deep brown instead of black.

We'll see?

Things we did this weekend:

1. Attended a bachelor party at Lake Lanier (Nathan, Friday).

2. Started (and finished) a portrait of Nate's dad and his fiance for a wedding gift (Andrea, Friday).

3. Went to A-1 Furniture Depot - aka hole-in-the-wall joint off Windy Hill - and haggled with a dude over an antique desk we're going to use as my makeup vanity (both of us, Friday - pics and details below).

4. Went to IKEA on Saturday and finalized our kitchen cabinets order; got two panels for either side of the fridge and bumped out the depth of the cabinets above it so it'll look recessed/built-in. Pics of that in a separate entry, I believe.

5. Went to My Favorite Place and found the PERFECT vanity for the bathroom (Sunday, also both of us, also pics and details below).

6. Went to Home Depot and the Home Depot Clearance Outlet and bought the tile for our bathroom floor! White ceramic 12x12s with a grey vein and shiny black granite for the two black borders.

7. Shopped around on Overstock and eBay for vessel sinks and faucets and beveled mirrors for the bathroom.


We talked about the order of installation for a lot of these things and decided we're gonna start back in the bedrooms and work our way out. That means we're going to paint them next weekend, and hopefully this week I can peel all the wallpaper off the hallway.
Crown molding soon (our contractor is quoting us THREE DOLLARS A FOOT for materials AND installation, holy mother of awesome), baseboard, then floor sanding and staining.

Drywall.
Flooring stuff for the kitchen, cabinet assembly, tiling, cabinet installation, backsplash, lighting.

Appliances show up October 10th.

Furniture.

Hardware and doors.

Rambling.



PICTURES!

So this was an inspiration pic I had been loving:



And when we went to My Favorite Place today, this was a table we found:



I mean are you KIDDING ME? How PERFECT is that???

The only main difference is that we're going to mount a square vessel sink instead of doing an undermount.
Something like this:


And then that leaves us with a decision about finishes for the faucets. Rubbed bronze or brushed nickel? Bronze might look better with the accents on the table . . .

Anyway. It was priced at $200, I got it for $160.
We were practically giddy when we walked out with it.
Then we tried to fit it into my Beetle.

This is Nathan, hunched against the wheel on the way home - hilarious, BUT the trunk closed! Love that high roof.







Definitely cozy.


When we got to the house, I finally got to see our tub and sink in person. It was like Christmas.

Our sink! (sorry for the blur . . . I'll try again in better light some time.)






Our tub!





That slotted overflow raises the water level a couple inches.


And my vanity!
When we walked into that shop I was ITCHING to haggle. It's kind of embarrassing how much I love doing this now.
So we spotted this desk and we both loved the woodwork and the detail. I want to stain it a darker color, though - or else paint it, but I'd kind of hate to paint over this wood. I do want some way to update it a little . . .

There's a post somewhere on one of my design blogs where they painted a desk and used patterned wallpaper on the front panels of the drawers.
I dunno. I'll marinate on it.






But yeah, stick it with a beveled mirror, bam. It'll hold my ridiculous amounts of cosmetics.

It was priced at $195, down to $175, down to $155 - I told the owner if he'd let me have it for $100 I'd buy it right then and take it that day.

"No no no, I can't do. I buy at $200, I lose too much."
"Okay, well, up to you."
"I can do $125."
"That's great, but like I said - for $100 I'd buy it right now. Anything higher and I need to shop around to see what else I can get. So, think about it if you want to. Just let me know."

Then the dude stared at me for about a minute. I raised my eyebrows and he got all irritated and said "I'M THINKING!" and then finally said, really grudgingly, "okay."

He HAAAATED me. It's so funny when they HAAAATE me.

So then I rode that high for a while. Nate's mama sweetly picked it up for us ('cause there was no way that thing was fitting in the Beetle) and dropped it off at the house.

Slowly amassing my antique collection. That, plus the bathroom vanity, plus the 20s radio console we got last year.

The tile floor was a great deal, too - the ceramic was $1.29 per sq. foot.

We were thinking that this is gonna be a lot like the wedding - we'll end up NEAR our set budget. Not entirely on it, but not outrageously over it, either.

Lord knows we're working our butts off finding these deals.



Updated kitchen cabinet post later. Might toss that one to Nate.

IKEA's kitchen planning service - finally, PICTURES!

I have four minutes before I have to leave school and get myself to the nutritionist. We'll see how that goes . . .

Here are pictures, really fast!

Later, maybe, captions!

PS countertops will be much darker! PPS Only check out configurations, there are way too many other elements that will be changed/need to be explained!

Where we're at.

I've been thinking about the house so much lately that I am actually losing sleep over it, so this is a list of what has been done so far, what is going to be done soon, and what's going to happen in the future over the next month or so. I think Andrea and I have naturally already fallen into our roles at which we're good at - she's basically doing all the research and design work, and I am mostly doing my best at keeping things on track (read: staying in regular contact with our contractor) and making the final call when she can't make up her mind on something. Since we have our funding (thanks Dad!) we can finally start moving forward with everything in earnest.

Completed - Demolition

1. Tear out the kitchen, removed all cabinets, sink, plumbing, appliances and drywall
   
2. Pulled up the carpet through the entire house
3. Complete gutting of guest bathroom: toilet, vanity, tile, bathtub, tile.

Completed - Things bought already

1. Oven range
2. Refrigerator
3. Kitchen undermount sink
4. Microwave
5. Washing machine
6. Dishwasher
7. Bathtub

Things that need to be chosen and/or bought:

1. Kitchen cabinets. This is pretty much ready, we got a finalized design from IKEA so this weekend I think we'll be heading up there to actually put our order in. Not sure of how we're going to get them to the house yet, I guess it will depend on how much delivery costs. Jeff offered to pick them up for us so we may do that. This is probably the most crucial thing on our list, for obvious reasons. I think Jeff is going to add the necessary outlets once we get everything ordered.
   
2. Backsplash. Glass mosaic or the fake tin pieces? Can't decide yet. I prefer the former but the look may be a little too modern for what we're going for. Andrea likes the latter. I think the cost per square foot is essentially the same (although those fake tin pieces cost a lot more than one might expect.)
   
3. Bathroom vanity. This one is almost equally as important and we're having a little trouble deciding on which direction to go, whether it be a custom cabinet (in which we buy our own sink to put on top of something) or something more generic that can be had from Overstock. Andrea, I am going to corner you about this soon :)
   
4. Tile. We have some pretty good ideas about this. I'm pretty sure that we can at least go ahead and buy the cement and hardie board to lay in preparation for it. Mom keeps saying that the drywall needs to be up before we can do this so I am going to find out a firm answer on this part. Also we need to figure out what we're going to do with the transition between the kitchen and living room, since the kitchen area will be higher. Bathroom tile needs to be chosen as well.
   
5. Drywall. This one is pretty obvious.
   
6. Paint.
7. Crown molding for the kitchen/dining area. I don't see why we can't go ahead and do this since the drywall is going up soon.
   

Things we're not doing yet:

1. Master bathroom. I don't want to touch it until the guest bathroom is done. Not looking forward to the demolition; it's a smaller space which is both good and bad. Since our dumpster is gone, I think when we pull out the tile we'll set a big tarp out in the yard and just throw it out the window so we're not dragging concrete bits through the whole house.
   
2. Countertops. Base cabinets have to be in before we can really get a firm quote; typically the installers come in and make exact measurements so they just drop in. We're estimating it's going to be about 50 square ft of countertop. If we can get it for ~$40 or so installed, I will be very happy. Cause man I've always wanted granite countertops, at least as long as I have been thinking about having my own house. Big money, but I think it's worth it.
   
3. Hardwoods. Got a quote yesterday. Tentative cost for refinishing and staining all the hardwoods comes in at a little over two grand. The guy advised that I take up the tack board myself, a prospect that is neither fun nor appealing. He did suggest a flat shovel to take up the tacks, so maybe that will help. Since the sanding process is so messy, it needs to be done before we paint. He did say that the wood was in good condition. Not sure if the quote includes the quarter round or not, but if not we'd probably save some money since it is cheap.
   
4. Crown molding/painting the other rooms. We may go ahead and buy the molding, set it aside and paint it and put it up once we're ready.

That's all I can think of at the moment. I've hated being in limbo up until now, but we can finally start moving forward. Hopefully we can get the kitchen and bathroom finished in the next few weeks so we can apply for a mortgage and close before November 30 to get that Georgia First Time Buyers Tax Credit. I am reasonably confident of this. I'm not sure if the timelines I have in my head are realistic are not since I have never done this before.

Interesting times, for sure.

Rub a dub dub, fools!

Ordering our tub tomorrow.



BAM!

6 feet, 19 inches deep. I'm never gonna want to climb out.

PS if you haven't heard of the Metropolitan Home Showtime House, click the picture below and go check it out. Each year a team of designers create rooms based around Showtime programs.
The Tudors room is my favorite - Catherine of Aragon is almost literally made into a doormat, that's inspired - but all of them are just so fun to inspect.

Oh how inspiring.

Some pictures I found while spending hours obsessing on DecorPad. Just a few - there are a million more, but I figured I'd go in rounds.





Fairly retropolitan, has that open, wide doorway between rooms.






That capiz chandelier kills me, those floors kill me, that molding kills me, the rugs and window treatments kill me, that color scheme . . . kills me.




Big, wide, open doorway between two rooms. Dark floors to boot.





Ahhhh so gorgeous. Love the color of the drapes, love the lampshade and the graphic pillows, the tufting on that couch, that Crate & Barrel-y bowl on the coffee table, the branches in the vase. So many wonderful things in one place.

Soft neutrals with some strong black and graphic elements. Greek key pillow caught my eye for true.

So many more pictures stored in copious emails to myself. All tucked away in my "Renovation" folder in gmail. I'm not sure if there are a lot of cohesive ideas that pop out from these just yet, but there are lots and lots more to look through that should help me find the common themes.

Soon to appear . . . here.

Oh the gratitude.

Last one was me being ridiculous late at night (for me, anyway) because Lexa helped me narrow a list of seriously 15 bathtubs down to (2) two.
I mean, you don't know how happy that one made me.


Maybe some inspiration pics for the living room later today.

Love makes you do such stupid things.

Can't help myself though.

I wish our house was in, around, near, LA. Just so I could see Lexa on a more-than-biennial basis.

Thanks for helping me simplify, on the biggest and smallest of scales and most scales in between.



*If anyone else is lucky enough to have someone like her, then, y'know. Luck is the perfectly apt word. It's like spotting a bald eagle or winning a free soft drink during McDonald's Monopoly or buying one Snuggie and getting a second for free plus the cost of shipping. Saving 79 cents on grapes with your Kroger Plus card. Buy one get one free at Payless. A sunny day with zero percent chance of frowning. Student discount at the movies. Saving more with Geico. This is Lexa's friendship to me.


Squirm away - I get that, and I do it myself, but damnit I love you and it makes me happy. The love, not the squirming.

'Cause I can't leave well enough alone.

With the wallpaper, with black molding.

Just, y'know. Messin' with it.

PS hiiiii Daaaad.

And thanks to my pops, who reminded us that eBay was the place to look for great prices on fixtures and appliances and everything else to do with renovation.

Farmhouse, ho!

Got our sink! 16 gauge satin stainless undermount farmhouse apron double bowl.




It's gonna look AMAZING.
I'd found one on Overstock for 430 bucks and Nate said "nope!"
He got on eBay and found this one for $329. Free shipping, no tax; these things can retail for 1,200 - 2,000 dollars. My husband's awesome.

I'd really wanted a farmhouse sink, I'd really wanted it to be an undermount, and the stainless thing is pretty cool since it keeps it cottage-y and modern all at once. Plus, no danger of cracking like there is in a porcelain sink.

Saw a word the other day that I loved: "retropolitan."

Exactly what we're going for.

In other kitchen news, Ikea's blueprints for our kitchen are pretty much perfect and I love what they came up with for our island. It's tough as hell to find time to write lately, but I'll see if I can convince Nate to update with some of the blueprint pics.


Demo's done! Kinda. We're leaving the small bathroom off the master intact for now - we'll finish that in the last 3 or 4 weeks of renovation. As far as my big beautiful bathroom goes: the cement floor is gone and Jeff is going to frame up that wall soon. We're about to buy a soaking tub and a vanity to go in there, and we've looked at tile and come up with a color scheme for the whole thing. White tile floor with large squares and small grout lines, two black tile borders - one that's wide near the edges of the room and a thin one another foot in. I had it on the brain during a planning period at school and made a really rudimentary drawing in MS Paint just to help me visualize:



I'm thinking wallpaper could go above that beadboard - I want really masculine elements, like the floor pattern and the color scheme, that are softened with some curvier patterns and some feminine accents. Maybe a chandelier above the tub, some blush pink accessories. Like a woman took over a 20's british gentlemen's club.

There's one pattern I really love, and two color schemes I'm deciding between:



and:




Which would look better?



Oh, and after I told our contractor the ideas I had for the bathroom, he said, "so where does the TV go?"
And I laughed at that, and then he said, "seriously. If you want to spend lots of time relaxing in there, check around for sales on a small LCD. I'll run the wiring in there, it's no big deal and no big cost. Stick it in the wall, you'll love it."

So, y'know. Trying not to feel ridiculous about it, but I'm definitely entertaining visions now of watching TCM from my deep, deep tub.

The last thing I had to mention is an amazing website that's both a blessing and a curse if you're into interior design:
DecorPad.

If you select "photos" from that drop menu for the search function at the top of the page and type in ANYTHING IN THE WORLD, this site will come back with a million photos of gorgeous rooms that provide nearly exhausting amounts of inspiration and ideas.



Love that chandelier.



Great mirror and sconces.

Two beautiful console vanities:




Not exactly a ton of storage provided there, but we could do some tower cabinets on the opposite wall to take care of that.

Think that site's addicting much?

Wait'll you see my inspiration pics for living rooms and bedrooms.

Time for a man update.

Demolition has been longer and a lot tougher than I initially imagined. The kitchen was no sweat, Jerry and I had it totally taken apart in barely over an hour from start to finish. Pulling up the carpet wasn't too bad either, all we had to do is cut it up in big strips and drag it to the dumpster. There's a crapload of tacks left in the floor everywhere, each of which has to be pulled up with a catclaw or pliars. It's not hard but it's incredibly tedious. I've been doing a little bit every time I go over there in order to retain my sanity.

The bathroom is a whole different story. Back in the 60s they did tiling differently - back then it was backed with steel netting and concrete, which was then stapled to the stud. Needless to say, it's pretty strong. The stuff takes two or three good wacks with a sledgehammer before it starts to crack. Andrea had a ball hammering at it, here's a good picture that shows the netting with the concrete attached to it.



But I did realize that it's easier to pull it from the studs than hammering away with brute force. With that in mind, I bought the biggest pick axe I could find from Home Depot. If you can get it between the netting and the wall behind it, you can use the leverage to pull it out. Of course it comes out in a huge shower of concrete pebbles and a twisted mess of steel harness and tile. The netting is a danger in and of itself, because it's really sharp and can cut you if you're not careful. Needless to say, it's hard work and it is taking a lot longer than I expected.



Jeff also helped me get the toilet and bathtub out. Let me tell you, bathtubs are heavy. Like really, really over 300 pounds heavy. Just in case you were wondering. The tub is now propped up against the dumpster, and I'm probably going to have to get a couple friends to help me lift it up over the edge. Maybe I'll call a couple friends from CrossFit, or maybe I should accept that my lifting weights my entire life has prepared me for this one task. Who am I kidding, I can't do it on my own.

So during all this I didn't give much thought to the floor because it was carpeted. But when we pulled it up, guess what was there? More tile. A lovely 1960s vintage green, and a whole lot more concrete. This stuff came out a little easier. Jeff showed me that the best way was to get the narrow end of the pick axe under the edge and then wack the surface with the sledgehammer to break it up. Everything has to come out so we can build a new subfloor with 2 x 4s and plywood. Then on top of that will come hardie board and the tile (which we're close to making a decision on, we did narrow our options considerably over the weekend at Floor & Decor.)



We're almost at that point, but not quite yet obviously. Here it is with all the wall tile pulled out, this is what I worked on today. I took this before pulling up the concrete from the floor. Now all that's really left is a few chunks and a lot of debris that needs to be taken up with a shopvac. Thankfully my mom and her Slic will help. I think the hardest part is over, which is a good thing since the dumpster has to be returned soon and the joys of demolition have long since faded.

It's funny how a new day can help with your outlook.
There's still a ton to do, but I don't have to be anywhere after work today and that alone is helping tremendously.

And I do like my job, stressful though it can be. I like being here.


Also, I have probably the best mother-in-law ever who sends me sweet, supportive emails.


Anyway. (I use that word way too much.)
Today is a day in which I will do nothing except wash my hair, play with Walt and Nate, and watch TV. And try not to worry.

Hatin' on life at the moment.

I'm stressed.

Planning general layouts wasn't excruciating - that was fun, for the most part. But now we're making small decisions that all need to fit together like pieces in a puzzle - but at least with a puzzle, you can SEE the pieces and know what fits and what doesn't.

With kitchen materials, I'm groping around in the dark, trying to visualize a room with dark porcelain tile floors (don't get me started on the details in that), one or two or both of those Ikea cabinet faces mentioned in the previous entry, paint on the walls based on a small chip from Home Depot, beadboard goes where exactly?, dimensions of the banquette seating area, can we fit a built-in bar area in the other corner of the dining room?, hardware, faucets, an island that coordinates but isn't matched exactly to the cabinet/countertop color scheme, a glass tile mosaic backsplash that matches the countertops and the walls and the overall style we're going for, and all of it has to look cozy and airy instead of antiseptic and stark.

I'm tired of trying to multiply costs for materials and comparing differences between 50 types of tile or paint, I'm tired of having a million tabs open in this browser while I hunt through millons of pictures to try and find something that can help me picture all of this. I hate thinking about sofas and end tables. Colors for the bedroom. Pocket doors. Where our bed will fit. Furniture for the office. Molding. Flooring colors. All we could do at Floor and Decor today was take pictures of things we were interested in, because we don't have the blueprints and dimensions that'll tell us the amounts we'll need to buy.



It's just too much uncertainty, too many choices, too much time spent thinking on this and making decisions and worrying about timelines.
We're ready for things to be finished, ready to get going on the next phase of our lives, and it's still months away.

I'm also trying to file away a lot of the stresses we went through this summer and get back into some disciplined habits - all while I'm hitting the ground running at 6 each morning, spending my days trying to learn how to be a teacher without a teacher's degree.

Too many thoughts to think, and I have a feeling that's where these stomach aches are coming from. Nate's a little worried I've given myself an ulcer.

So anyway. If I'm out of commission or glazed over or tense lately, these are the reasons why.

This is an ugly post, I know. I don't exactly like whining to the internet . . . but the point of this blog is to document what's really going on in our lives during this whole process - and with an entry like this, I want to read it in a week or a month or two months and feel proud of how far we've come and how we DID make these decisions that seem so overwhelming right now. Recording the downsides so we can remember just how accomplished we can feel when this is all over.

Doors, doors, doors.

Week from hell is over. Still have really bad nervous stomach aches that keep popping up. Show's done, saving the pieces for the Halloween show. Nate and Jeff took out the tub and toilet on Saturday and I just swept a bit 'cause I felt like crap.

The arbitrary doorway between the living room and the hallway has been knocked down, and it's opened that area up so, so much.

I might be relenting on the idea of a powder room because I want to keep a handle on costs more than I want people out of my bathroom. Long as it's gorgeous and we have a cleaning lady, come on in.
I guess.

The big bathroom's gonna be 9'6" by 7'3".

Ikea's measuring/planning service came in and measured and talked with us about what we wanted. Glass fronts for several cabinets, dark stone countertops, recessed rope lighting above the cabinets, below the wall cabinets, and below the base cabinets.
We're struggling with which cabinet face to use - Adel or Lidingo.

Adel:


Craftsman-y recessed panels, but the glass cabinets in this style aren't what I'm looking for at all.



Lidingo:


Cabinet faces are on those doors on the left-hand side of the island and then the glass cabinet faces hanging in the background. Those glass fronts are the style I want exactly.

I guess we need to figure out if we can mix and match some things to get precisely what we're going for . . .


Today we're off to Floor and Decor to look at tiles for the kitchen floor, bathroom floors/walls, and hopefully we'll see something lovely for a backsplash.


And. We're pricing bathtubs and we want 5 panel shaker-style doors. Like the one here in the picture on the right.






Slap some glossy white on that sucker, bam.

Gorgeous.

One more AMAZING photo to string you along . . .

Hope you can will us some patience, pets, 'cause school is all the live-long-day this week (including PTA night on Thursday, right after I have to meet with my nutritionist :P), and I've been/I am getting three or four pieces ready for a gallery show this Saturday. I still need to get them framed and drop them by the gallery itself, too.

So yeah, not too much blogging while this week's been kicking off.

This is a pin-up version of Frankenstein's Bride:




She's in the show.

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAND, Nathan has single-handedly installed insulation all around the kitchen and dining room and finished knocking out another wall of tile in the main bathroom. He rules.

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAND Jeff, our contractor, PUT UP THE HEADER!!!!! No more two rooms divided by a row of studs! Now, ONE OPEN AIRY ROOM WITH SOON-TO-BE-FUN ARCHITECTURAL DETAILING!

Don't believe me?
Feast your eyes on THIS:



Yeah. That made my day. It's unreal how much it's helping us to visualize everything and work it all out in our brains.

And it's past my schoolnight bedtime, so let that enticing image above tide you over until I have some time to post lots of pics during last weekend's demolition day.

Sleep tight you little blog readers, you.