Tuesday, October 9, 2012

Build-A-Bathroom Week 5

While we took some time to enjoy family (and a ton of amazing food) this weekend, we continued plugging away on the bathroom. There's much progress to report- progress that has created a boost in energy for us to continue. Here's where we're at:


Grout. Grout. And more grout. We spent two romantic evenings in the bathroom- Jeff troweling on grout, and me carrying and emptying buckets of water to wash it off. It was actually a good project to do together and I promise I am not biased when I say that Jeff did an absolutely fantastic job. 


My dad asked for a closeup of the shower accent tile- in the centre of the main shower wall is a vertical row of textured "Rainfall" tiles with two rows of clear glass 1"x 1" squares on each side. We wanted an accent with minimal colour contrast and after hunting around three tile showrooms, this is what we came up with.


Grouting the shower niche was a painstaking job but Jeff persevered and it looks great. It doesn't show up well, but we also used the "Rainfall" accent tile for the back of the niches.


And voila! Almost finished shower tile. The plan next week is to seal it, add silicone between the tile and the tub, install the fixtures and hang the curtain rod.


This weekend, Jeff also put up the new vanity light, and primed the recessed cabinet. The highlight, however, came yesterday with the installation of the new vanity. It's made of alder wood; the stain colour is a medium brown with a tinge of red. It's the first piece of furniture both Jeff and I have ever had custom made and we couldn't be happier about how it turned out.  




It not only looks great, it works great, too. 



After 5 weeks and a few surprises, here's the view from our main entrance into the bathroom. There is  still lots to do but it was absolutely wonderful to step back yesterday afternoon and see it all starting to come together.

Monday, October 8, 2012

Flower art

While I considered sharing a number of turkey crafts in today's post, I decided that I enjoyed this beautiful Thanksgiving centerpiece of orange pincushion proteas, Sphinx Gold and Naranja roses, hypericum berries, berzellia, and silver leucadendron much more. So pretty.

              

Sunday, October 7, 2012

Thanksgiving

Its Thanksgiving... for us, that calls for some traditional Thanksgiving music. I picked "We Gather Together" and Jeff chose John Rutter's arrangement of "Now Thank We All Our God." Wherever you are and whatever you are doing today, we hope you have much to be thankful for.




Friday, October 5, 2012

Special Lullaby

One of my best friends lives far, far away. Today is her birthday. And I would like nothing more than to have coffee with her and chat... in person. We have plans to do that over video Skype next week, but it's not the same as being in person. A few years ago, she recorded a wonderful Strauss piece with the Wellington Winds. She's a fantastic soprano- those of you who were at my wedding will remember her singing. In honor of her birthday, I thought I'd share.

Happy Birthday SandyPants! I miss you tons and tons and tons.



Beim Schlafengehn (While going to sleep)

Now that the day has made me so tired, 
my dearest longings shall be accepted kindly by the starry night like a weary child. 

Hands, cease your activity; head, forget all of your thoughts; 
all my senses now will sink into slumber. 
And my soul, unobserved, will float about on untrammeled wings 
in the enchanted circle of the night, living a thousandfold more deeply.

Thursday, October 4, 2012

Yesterday

Carrots, ready to roast for dinner with fresh rosemary, pepper and sea salt. Yum.


Wednesday, October 3, 2012

More Choice

We painted the first two coats on the bathroom last night- new paint always makes a room feel so fresh and new. Jeff reminded me that once the shower is grouted and sealed, the shower rod can go up and we'll need a curtain.

I forgot about the curtain. 

In the midst of choosing all the "big" stuff (and revising our plan several times along the way so that it was compatible with reality), some of the little stuff is not on my radar. I spent a few minutes tonight online looking at options and I'm not sure what to do. As shown in yesterday's post, the room is very white. White walls, tile, counter and fixtures. The only colour comes from the wood vanity, a matching thin wood frame around the mirror, a grey floor (all shown below) and a new set of medium slate blue bath towels.


Do I stick with the modern, serene white vibe and go with a white curtain?

Embellished pom pom trim from Chez Larsson blog
Do I add a tiny bit of colour?
Premier Prints Towers Village Blue fabric from Fabric.com
A little more colour?

P Kaufman Chloe Sapphire fabric from Fabric.com
  
Duralee Dalesford Blue fabric from Fabric.com
Or do I add a LOT of colour?
I could really use some help. What do you think?

Tuesday, October 2, 2012

Build-A-Bathroom Week 4

Yes, we (well, mostly Jeff) are still plugging away on the bathroom. Here's our progress over the past week:

Jeff moved the sink plumbing and overhead light box.  Both tasks had some hiccups that slowed things down and required a bit of MacGuyver-ing on Jeff's part. Thankfully, he's a great MacGuyver.

We also took out the old parquet floor and scraped (and scraped, and scraped, and scraped) what appears to be very old black linoleum glue that was stuck to the subfloor. Jeff patched the drywall and it looks like we'll be able to paint the walls and cabinet before the new vanity is installed on Thursday. 


Jeff also replaced the two damaged shower tiles. That means that the shower tiling is DONE! 


Jeff reminded me that I've not included a photo of the niches at the front of the shower- the back of them is in the same Rainfall textured tile as the stripe on the main wall. It looks beautiful and Jeff did an amazing job. Of course, it will all look different with white grout.


Jeff assures me that the mess is over- with paint going on the walls and grout going into the shower next, it feels like we are finally past the demolition stage and into the finishing stage. That, after four weeks, is a very, very, very, very happy place to be. 

Monday, October 1, 2012

Art

The last of the major mess making in our bathroom occurred over the weekend (photos will be up tomorrow) and Jeff assures me that from now on, the renovation is all about "prettying up". We finally decided on the material and colour for the counters, and chose the light fixtures and what shade of white to paint the walls (!). It is going to be a very serene and very white space... and I'm strongly feeling the need to add some colour to liven it up.

Laura Amiss is a Dutch artist whose very whimsical style makes me smile. It's not my typical style (and I  don't feel any particular affinity for Amsterdam, especially as I have never been there) but I just love it. 

Photos from Laura Amiss' Etsty shop. Take a peek there at some of her other creations.