Butterflies in my Stomach

Tomorrow the contractor begins work on the bathroom, and I've got a feeling like the first day before school. You know, that gitty expectant feeling full of hope and without a thought about the challenges ahead. That kind of feeling. We'll see how I feel about this whole experience at the end of the job, but it will be good to have a finished bathroom in a couple of weeks.

I'll be working with the contractor tomorrow to jack up the roof where one of the main joists was cut through, sistering this joist, getting all of the building materials, and maybe we'll even get to the framing and laying subfloor. Speaking of the subfloor, I was hoping to just lay another layer of subfloor over the existing 5/8" floor, but there is a lot of movement in this floor. I'm thinking about removing the current subfloor and sistering the joists before laying new subfloor. I don't want to put slate down only to have the tile crack as this would be entirely uncool.

And now time for a dirty little secret... We made a big deal about which tile we were going to use in the upstairs bathroom shower floor, and the Queen even emailed Apartment Therapy and we got a shoutout on their site. After all of the waffling we decided to go with a tub. Yeah, we're that anti-climactic. There is only one full bathroom in the house, and while we like a standing shower, we thought about resale and the extra costs associated with the fully tiled shower. It sucks being practical and maybe one day we'll regret it, but the Kohler Archer tub is on order so there's no looking back now. I do think it's looks like a pretty snazzy tub though, and with a 20% off Home Depot coupon it was a good deal.



I bought the tub without a apron to it it, as I plan to use the gray subway tile on the front edge of the tub. I think the tub will still look good, and not doing the shower allowed us to add a linen closet, separate the bathroom into two rooms, and add a couple of niches in the tub area all for the original installation price.

And It All Came Crashing Down

Remember that pretty mirror hanging over the newly painted fireplace?



Getting woken up at 1 am to a crashing sound is a bit startling. Next time I'll use a heavy duty fastener. :-)

Most productive weekend evar!

How did we go from this?





To this, in a weekend?











A lot of hard work by the Queen and her bro is what got it done.

The Queen and I had a three day weekend so we worked hard to get the drywall issues fixed. The drywall is laid over plaster. It was not attached to the plaster or the joists well and the mudding job was extremely poor. This took a lot of fixing to make things look ok. Sunday the Queen's bro came over to help us paint the place. It was a long day that ended at 10 pm, with the closets fully installed and the painting done.

Next up in the bedroom is some drywall fixing, laying subfloor and the teak. Things like doors and trim are luxuries we may not have time for in the near future, seeing as the contractor starts work on the bathroom this week. For part of the bathroom work I'll be working with the contractor, so we haven't completely let go of our DIY roots, but with a single full bathroom we need to work quickly to get a shower back online quickly.

Hello AT

Howdy folks from Apartment Therapy. If you are looking for some of the better blog entries I recommend checking out the kitchen and the hungarian bookshelves.

For the regular blog readers head over to AT and take the survey posted over at AT about the tile choices.

Wally the Handyman

Wally has been hard at work renovating the house.



He's grown a wee bit since we got him in August. He was a cute and cuddly 32 pounds and is now topping 50. We figure he's got at least another 50 to go. He's a goofy dog that is super smart, loves all dogs, people, kids and most of all loves us.

He's done a great job at taking a hodgepodge of doors and irregular surfaces on the bedroom wall, covering in the door to the closet from the hallway, and adding a doorway from the bedroom to the closet. He may not have an opposable thumb, but he's pretty good at drywalling.





Since this was taken he mounted a closet system and clothes are hanging in the space. The Queen is pleased, but now wants her closet complete ASAP.

Bathroom Floor Tile Decision

After meeting with umpteen contractors for the bathroom we think we're about ready to select one. We have most of the materials so we asked them to bid the job as labor only. Once we give the ok, the contractor would start in two weeks. So two weeks until start, and while we told him we have all the materials, we weren't exactly correct...

The original plan was to just refinish the tub. After looking at the condition of the tub and thinking about what we wanted weare going with a 60"x30" tiled shower instead. I had purchased the vermont slate for the bathroom floor, but since we were going to re-use the tub I didn't purchase enough for the shower floor. Oops. We'd heard that slate isn't great in showers anyway, so now we are on the hunt for tile that will look good on the shower floor that will go with our other tile.

12" x 12" Vermont Slate purchased the floors


3" x 6" Daltile Ice Grey tiles purchased for the shower walls and vanity backsplash


We are at a loss of which of the below will look best on the shower floor, so we'd love to hear your opinions on what you think would look best.

1. Marble Hex - After drooling at Anna's bathroom on Door Sixteen marble hex tile caught my eye. While I like it on it's own, I'm not sure how well it will go with the slate. Also, it is a bit of an odd transition the size of the hex to the slate, and the colors going from so dark to so light.



2. Pebble Stones - I think the pebbles could mix in well with the slate, but I am worried that it could look a little bit cheesy. Also, it will feel a bit odd on your feet. What do you think?



3. Black tile - I am thinking some 2"x2" porcelain or 2"x1" black marble tile to match in well with the slate, and continue the sleek black floor look through the shower. While I really like the black, the Queen isn't sold. So am I crazy in thinking this will match, or is the Queen right? Also, I think a couple of black tiled niches in the shower could look good.

2"x2" Black Marble


1"x2" Black Marble


What do you think will work best? Any ideas on things that would look better?

Top 10 Signs that Renovations Aren't Complete

10. Your lunch sack is a plastic bag from Home Depot
9. You worry about falling through the kitchen ceiling every morning when going into the tub
8. Contractors come to your house more often than your friends
7. You go to the dog park and someone points out that the dog has paint on him
6. Plastic drop cloths are considered a home decor
5. Sundays are spent mudding & taping instead of watching football.
4. The upstairs foyer table is actually a piece of OSB. With a mitre saw on it.
3. Fixing the main roof truss that is 100% cut through is on the same 'to do list' along with purchasing 1/2" screws for the closet.
2. You get certified letters for the weeds & junk in your back yard.
1. Two words - drywall boogers

The Perfect Desk

We have been on the look out for the perfect desk. Of course we've been checking craigslist and ebay for mid century modern desks, but for some reason they aren't wowing us. I was perusing Design*Sponge and came across an article on learning from college students' dorm rooms. After clicking a link for loft bed (don't ask why I clicked this) I came across this.



The desk idea is perfect. Now we are on the hunt to see if we can make something like this work. We're having a tough time finding file cabinets that are both (a) cute and (b) the correct dimensions to be used as a desk. You can find the right height or depth, but finding both is proving to be treacherous.