two steps ahead.. one step back

Invisible Fence Installation.. check
Remember our debate about what to do with the yard? In the beginning Ben and I just could not agree. Ben wanted a traditional fenced in yard and I wanted the Invisible Fence. You can read about the details and why I won that one here, but in the end all of that back and forth didn't matter anyway. Once I called the Zoning Board I found out that being on a corner lot meant that our fence could only be 30" high- anything else would block visibility at the intersection. While that would be fine for normal dogs, somehow we ended up with a dog who thinks he's a cat and there is no way he wouldn't jump over a 30" fence. Note to any other couples who are having the same argument- do yourself a favor and make sure there's something to argue over before it turns into a bigger deal than it has to.
So in pouring rain Henry was introduced to new limits and he couldn't be responding any better. As soon as he gets too close to the fence his collar starts to beep and you can literally see him jump up and run in the opposite direction. I don't care who is on the other side of the fence- Ben, an elementary school class or a squirrel, he's scared enough of the beeping sound that instead of charging he's retreating. I'd like to say we have a changed dog, but it's only been a day. Who knows how long it will take him to begin "testing" the system.

Kitchen Cabinets Ordered.. check
Ben and I have been struggling with where to order our kitchen cabinets for weeks now. Originally when we first started doing the research we figured Home Depot would be the least expensive option (they advertised a 10x10 kitchen would cost approximately $3,000). Because that seemed incredibly reasonable we scheduled the measure and I started working with the kitchen designer the day after we closed on the house. I've written about the kitchen in many of my previous posts this has been quite the process, as it should be, but you can read about the most recent kitchen dilemma here. To put it simply when they finally priced out what I considered to be the only design that was functional for our 10x10 space it turned out to be triple the price. I had a little bit of sticker shock (as did Ben) and we decided to think about it.

So what made us change our mind? A few things..
1. Promotions. Home Depot offers a variety of promotions including no payments for 12 months with no interest- something that seemed like a great back up plan if necessary. On top of that the Kraftmaid cabinets I picked (which by the way were some of the least expensive they offered) were an extra 10% off. Plus Home Depot now has a "Buy More Save More" promotion going on for the next few months that ended up giving us an additional $1000 off. And because we waited a couple weeks to place the order they threw in a free sink base cabinet which was an additional savings of almost $500.

2. Convenience and Reliability. There's just something nice about knowing that if there are any problems- with the cabinets themselves or the installation of them that we can call the local store and have it taken care of. Also, while there are always delivery delays, I still feel like the installation will take place in a reasonable amount of time. Of course the number one rule is to practice patience, but we were told approximately 4 weeks for delivery so to say they'll be installed before Christmas makes me feel like we're allowing for plenty of delays!

3. Availability. A kitchen is something you don't want to have to redo often. It's incredibly costly and should last a number of years (depending on the quality of the cabinets of course!) But we wanted to be realistic. If we end up staying in the house long term and eventually having kids here, we'll probably have to make the kitchen bigger. While that could be 8 years away it could also be more like 4 years away- there's just no way of knowing. By picking classic Home Depot cabinets I felt like we'd have the option if or when we enlarged the kitchen to just add onto the cabinets instead of starting over entirely.

So when we finally placed the order I signed a waiver saying I had 72 hours to change my mind. The truth is I didn't think I needed it- I generally make my decision and stick to it. And remember it was the cost, not the design that was holding the order up. But either way when I saw this picture on the House Beautiful website I knew we had made the right decision..

House Beautiful, October 2007

I'm a sucker for House Beautiful emails that suggest I check out "classic and modern kitchen designs"- I'm sure I'll still waste hours perusing other designers' kitchens even once ours is installed. But this one really caught my attention because it's exactly what I had in mind when I first schemed our space. Here Kay Douglass used the same style and color cabinets I ordered with a light marble counter top. While I haven't looked at stones yet I know I'm going white on the counters, just not sure if I'll opt for marble or granite (granite is more durable so I'll probably stick with that). As I'm sure many of you know we also went with stainless steel- though I'll be using polished chrome accents to bring everything up a notch. And I've already picked a very special white tile backsplash that may have to wait until our funds are replenished- but I'll wait for anything as long as it's perfect once I get it! The only thing we haven't finalized yet is how we are going to treat the ceilings- at the moment what we have is hideous and has to be replaced before our brand new kitchen is installed..
But I have to admit I do love the reclaimed Cyprus Douglass used above. I might just have to ask Ben how hard installing it would be...

Flooding of the Basement.. yuck
Henry and I were welcomed to the Saratoga area with heavy rainfall and a down right messy day Wednesday. The perfect day to unpack and do the months of laundry we've been saving for our very own washer and dryer- don't you think? The answer would probably be yes if our washer and dryer weren't located in our very wet basement. I started the day with a load or two but by noon there was one very large puddle in the middle of the floor that was spreading to all four walls.. very quickly.
Should I be embarrassed that I have THAT much laundry to do? The back of the basement (where the bikes and air conditioners are) is higher ground, but I guess if there's enough water coming the "higher" ground doesn't seem to matter much.
We weren't really sure why the previous homeowners had left a pump in the basement and Wednesday's wet discovery cleared that question up. Ben set up the pump to empty into the sump pump..
By the end of the night most of the puddle was gone but the concrete was obviously still soaking wet and muddy. We're hoping that the next couple of dry days will help us out a bit.

And believe it or not that was all just day 1. Imagine what the next day will bring..

bad news ben

Because Ben and I are currently living separately- he's in Saratoga starting our lives up there while I'm in New York City trying to clean up and pack up the lives we're leaving behind- our communication has turned to regular phone calls. Often times he starts the call with an update on his job, sometimes he talks about the weather and how unbelievably cold it got very quickly, then I start complaining about packing and suddenly he hits me with bombshell. Something has gone wrong on the house.. again! But there are times when he doesn't sugar coat the situation- he skips the weather and lays it on me.

The process goes something like this..
1. Ben updates me on the "crisis"
2. I make sure he's not kidding and then I have a minor panic attack because whatever the solution it's going to cost MORE money that we don't have
3. Ben says he has a solution
4. I veto the solution and give him a **better solution
5. We argue
6. I'm right

** I must point out that I added the asterisk because if he were writing this post his opinion would differ drastically. The reality is (and I'm not going to sugarcoat it for the readers) Ben and I are two very strong personalities- though, I think I give in a lot (whether my family believes it or not)! But when it comes down to it, Ben makes decisions to get things done where as I think them through, thoroughly. And while one is not necessarily better than the other, in our situation (due to our tight budget and wreck of a house), thinking these things through is so necessary.. hence me being right all the time.

A little peak inside our "renovating relationship" It's important to mention that our communication during this process is VERY different than how we normally behave- but that's to be expected due to the added stress.
On Monday night I announced to Ben that from now on every time one of us is right about something we get a notch on our belts. Ben made it a point to say the notches are not retroactive (which is unfortunate for me and very lucky for him). But even with that little clause in the agreement, I currently have four notches.. Ben has zero.

Back to the bad news..
Remember the original wallpaper issues I posted about here? Well they just don't seem to end.
On one particular afternoon a couple weeks ago Ben started plastering and sanding the walls in one of the bedrooms and I got a call. The plaster was pulling what appeared to be a wallpaper liner off the wall, revealing another layer of wallpaper underneath.
We had seen a hint of the paper pictured above when we were stripping the walls, but neither of us ever thought that this was something that had to be removed as well.

But not to worry, Ben decided there was no getting around the issue, so he acted quickly and bought a steamer at Home Depot. He called to let me know he was going to strip the liner and the layer of wallpaper and then all of our problems would be solved (in that room, of course). After a couple hours of him trying to steam and strip, he said the moisture from the steamer was collecting on the ceiling and drops of dirt were falling from overhead. Everything was wet and the wallpaper and the liner just weren't coming off as quickly as they were supposed to. When he got lucky he'd get a hold of a strip and pull, though often times he'd not only pull the liner and the wallpaper, but he'd get a chunk of plaster too.
Leaving us with far from perfect walls (remember we are no professional painters so our patching skills can't be trusted) and a steamer. Just perfect.

Once Ben started seeing the plaster pieces come loose my phone rang again. This time he said his solution wasn't working. So what's Plan B you may ask? Plan B in our renovation diaries seems to always be the same.. laminating the walls in 1/4" sheetrock... Remember when Ben called me lazy for throwing in the towel during my living room wallpaper removal adventures? You can read about that lovely argument here. And by the way, he still denys he ever said that.

1/4" sheetrock seems like a good solution- Ben swears he knows how to install it, it's going to cost more but once again the fact that our house is small is looking more and more beneficial everyday. While we're adding two new rooms to the "re-sheetrocking" list, (both the bedroom and office have the awful liner) the extra expense is almost worth it to know in the end we'll have clean walls and will hopefully have spared the headache or two that could have been caused by the patching and sanding.

Here's the catch..
While all of the professionals say when a situation like this arises to install 1/4" sheetrock as a lining. It's easy to use, not heavy and can be installed right over the imperfect walls. It masks all minor wall damage, just keep in mind it does not hide slopes in the walls unless you level them off beforehand. We have this slope on one of the bedroom walls that Ben would like to correct-
though it doesn't bother me for two reasons.. 1) it's an old house, therefore to be expected and 2) I pick my battles. I'm desperate for clean, painted walls.. clean, painted, sloped walls still sounds pretty good to me.

While the 1/4" sheetrock sounds like a wonderful solution here are some of the issues that we had to take into consideration:

- Delivery. Sheetrock comes in large sheets and cannot just be put into any vehicle. While delivery is always an option we have been trying to cut costs by forgoing any delivery fees and picking up items ourselves.

- Time. We're moving in two weeks, Ben's working full time and I'm not available to help which means there's no chance any of the installation will get done before our furniture arrives.

- Availability. 1/4" sheetrock is that it's considered a "specialty" item. Home Depot doesn't carry it, nor does Lowes. And because it's specialty means it's more expensive.

But with every issue we have come across in the last two months, we have come up with solutions for these as well..

- Delivery. I've never been so happy to have a very big, very real pick up truck (even if I still have a terrible time getting into it.. I pulled a muscle on my first try).

-Time. There was no avoiding the issue of time. The truth is, everything is taking longer than we first expected and nothing will be done before the move in date. Again, in order to practice patience I'm trying to let the time thing go. Ben did say he'd try to get the living room done first so we could live out of there while the other rooms are getting done- not to mention our bedroom is now serving as a closet..
and because I want to organize before we start just putting things away, I asked him to work on that room after I get in there and figure out where we should put everything (clothing storage is a little bit of an issue).

- Availability. We looked into ordering 1/4" at our local hardware store Allerdice, but it was about $2.00 more a sheet than the in stock options. Because we're trying to save our pennies Ben and I went from room to room with a piece that is 3/8" thick and stocked at all major stores (aka Home Depot).
As you can see above since our moldings are so thick, the 3/8" worked, but in considering all of the details of the room we came into another problem- the ugly crown molding that we desperately want to replace is only 1/4" thick.
You may not think that's an issue because we do want to replace it- you may even think we can use the money we saved on the sheetrock to buy new crown molding, but in reality molding is expensive, hard to install and very time consuming. New crown molding goes on the list with new ceilings and overhead lighting- all things we won't be able to begin discussing for a couple of years. So with that said I made an executive decision. In order to spare ourselves from living in a home (for an unspecified amount of time) with unfinished crown, I decided we should spring for the more expensive sheetrock- not to mention the 1/4" will be a little easier for Ben to install himself.

And we took a trip to the lumber yard..
Having a husband who works for a contractor has its benefits (and I'm not just talking about the truck). Yes the truck helped- how else would we have traveled to the lumber yard and actually fit in??.. but having a sales rep he deals with regularly and receiving pricing based on a contractors account is also very helpful. I must point out that a lot of what we have been able to do was made possible through our various vendor relations- we can't overlook that. So on Thursday night we hopped into the truck (again I had some difficulty) and drove down to Curtis Lumber in Ballston Spa. And that is exactly where I whipped out my camera to document our picking up close to 40 sheets of 1/4" sheetrock.

I must also point out that these pictures were not easy to get. Ben was complaining as I clicked away.. he even said he'd never be able to show his face there again. After that comment I felt compelled to inform the guy that helped us that this was for a blog.. not that he cared.

looking back at the sheetrock through the truck

Just fyi for all of you who were concerned.. Ben was able to show his face there again. In fact, the following morning he made another trip there for something work related.. and the same lucky guy helped him.

busy bee

My posts have been lacking recently- here and on Deliciously Determined. I hope we don't lose any readers because of it but I promise I have a good excuse... this house has been taking over my life!! And it's not only that- it's hard to pick up and move to a very different place. Everyday is about learning new things- about ourselves, each other and this place we've decided to call our home. And the last week has been no exception. I have been up in Saratoga trying desperately to pull things together- knowing that the next time I come up here I'm here for good.. and while I started the week thinking I was going to get lots done, I've run out of time and it feels like very little has been accomplished.

In this post I'll share a few things that were done, but mostly I'm hoping to throw in a little bit of reality. Both Ben and I have gotten wonderful words of encouragement from friends, family and readers, but as exciting as it all looks- it's even more overwhelming. I have often times said I never get stressed out about work, only about my personal life, so this is a whole new thing for me as my personal life and work have now meshed into one.

This Week
Maybe I wasn't very fair to myself when I said I got very little accomplished. I have been working non stop, trying to make decisions and get things done- then trying to convince Ben to agree with them. I have been to Home Depot and back about 7 times in the last 5 days, I had hours of meetings about the kitchen and the yard, I finalized our bathroom plan.. you can read about it here, and I've even managed to do loads and loads of laundry, organize the house so that it's "livable" for Ben and most nights I've made dinner with just a microwave and a mini fridge.. all while dealing with our devil dog who won't leave my lap unless it's to pull a sock out of the laundry basket and do laps around the house while trying to "kill" it. To put it simply, I'm tired and very much looking forward to sleeping on a REAL mattress for the next couple of weeks. But I must say yesterday afternoon when I was driving back from Albany with all of our bathroom tile in my trunk and the dog in the passenger seat I thought to myself- "how do people with 9-5 jobs get any of this stuff done?" And just as I finished my thought the phone rang, it was the Invisible Fence lady.

Sunday
We've had a little bit of a standstill at the house. We're at a point where we can't do much until the walls have been lined in sheetrock and everything's been sanded- Ben said that's when I start painting..(notice the I?) So we mostly cleaned up a bit, Ben did a few odds and ends around the house while I paid bills, but we did accomplish a good amount by buying our appliances!

A few weeks ago Ben and I started to scope out appliances. We began talking to people with a little more experience than us. I must point out that I am in no way clueless about this kind of stuff- I knew what I wanted and I'm very aware of what the "best" is, but I also was realistic and knew I couldn't have the best. After talking to experienced appliance buyers and referencing our issue of Consumer Reports (it has become our bible), we opted to look at Sears and see if we liked any of the Kenmore options. And surprise, surprise (people upstate are so nice), we were told to wait and purchase everything on October 4th during their Friends and Family night so we could get 30% off everything. I guarantee no New York City salesperson would ever share that kind of information. Our decision was made- we found lots of wonderful options and felt like the extra 30% definitely made the deal-and because we got 30% off we were able to get better appliances and somewhat stick to our original budget (of course we went a little over but that's to be expected). On Sunday we walked into Sears knowing we were going to be spending A LOT of money, which we did. But we also walked out the new owners of:

a stainless steel gas range with 5 burners and a convection oven..

Kenmore Stainless Range model #78883

a convection microwave hood..

Kenmore Elite Microhood Combination model #88513

a stainless side by side, counter depth refrigerator..

Kenmore Elite model #45423

and an LG (Kenmore was too expensive) stainless dishwasher..

LG Built-In Dishwasher model #15533

It's amazing how grown up you feel once you own your own appliances.. now I just have to wait until November to use them!

Monday
Most of my day was spent at Home Depot going over the kitchen design. While I'll get into it later I'll share some of the the reasons why I was there for so long.

First I think I should mention that the Home Depot designers are GREAT if you don't know what you want/need. I knew exactly what we needed and felt a little bad telling him where to put everything, but there's nothing worse than a kitchen that isn't functional, so here goes..

My dream kitchen would have a big prep area like an island, unlimited storage, a baking station and a butlers pantry about as big as the kitchen (I'd also like a fireplace but I think that may be asking too much). Our kitchen is a 10x10 space and I needed to find a way to incorporate all of these things even though I wasn't going to get them. In other words I need to be able to do everything I could do in a much larger space. I need a prep area, an abundance of storage, a place where I can bake (I do that often) and food storage- I always buy too much, on sale and in bulk. And I have to say I take my kitchen VERY seriously. I am no chef, but I do love entertaining "stuff" so while I knew I would never have enough space for all of my platters and china I still wanted the kitchen to be able to hold most of our mini appliances and everyday dishes. I've now met with the designer 3 times and after our first phone "meeting" he prepared a layout based on what I described. And at first glance I was pretty sure there wouldn't even be room for our water glasses. But after a few hours of me really plotting out where everything will go- and even doing things he told me not to (like moving the dishwasher right next to the corner sink) I know that our kitchen will be entirely functional for us.

Just a few words for those of you who are or will be doing something like this in the near future. I am someone who doesn't tell anyone how to do their job, but if they're steering me in a direction that I know is not best for us, I always appreciate their words of wisdom but any decision I make is always based on our needs. When designing a kitchen it's wonderful to be able to incorporate the workspace triangle below..
But no two spaces are the same, so you need to do what works for you. Due to our space constraints our refrigerator, sink and dishwasher are really tight. I know it's going to be problematic at times, but if we didn't do it that way I would have lost every one of my base cabinets- leaving me with only three upper cabinets. I knew I'd rather be wedged in a corner doing dishes while Ben was getting something out of the fridge or loading the dishwasher instead of running up to the attic every time I needed an extra platter for the dinner table. And that is exactly why I basically spent my Monday at Home Depot.

Tuesday
When Ben and I bought our little house we made three lists..
1) things that need to be taken care of immediately
2) things that we'd like to do soon
3) things that we dream about doing if we decided to stay in the house forever

Many of the things from list 1 have been moved to list 2 and Ben has said from the beginning that he thinks we can start working on list 2 in the spring (don't tell him but I know it's never going to happen and that he only says that to make me feel better). And the chances of list 3 ever happening are so slim.. right now I'm feeling like we'll forever live in a house with messy walls and a nasty bathroom so life with a garage and a dining room is totally unimaginable. But our list 1 probably differs from your list 1.
Mine always consisted of: doing the kitchen, the bathroom and transforming the garage into a bedroom we can fit dressers in. Ben's consisted of: doing the kitchen, landscaping the yard and getting a fence for the dog! Because we're now married and I've heard the secret to a good marriage is compromise.. our joint list consists of: doing the kitchen, eventually getting to the bathroom, landscaping half of the yard and getting a fence for the dog. Can you believe it? Henry took one of the top priority spots- god forbid he ran on a line for the next few months..

Anyway, if any of you have looked into fencing in a yard before (and not a small one for city living at that), it's VERY costly and as soon as Ben got quotes the list began to look more like we were skipping everything else all together and just installing a fence for the dog! But then I jumped in and decided to schedule an appointment with an Invisible Fence rep without telling him (he was VERY against it) so that is how I spent my Tuesday. Eventually I did tell Ben I scheduled the appointment (yes a few days before they came) and we had a great meeting, figured out what package was best for us (even the most expensive option is a fraction of the cost of a real fence), convinced Ben there was no other way to let the dog run loose, and we even got another fence company to come and price out their product as well. Now we're just hoping Henry won't be tempted to run through the fence at dismissal everyday (we live across the street from a school).

Wednesday
I can't remember what I did on Wednesday.. seriously.

Thursday
On Thursday morning I headed to Albany to pick up our bathroom tile. I finally got to meet the guys at the Daltile showroom- they've been so helpful throughout this whole process and I'm looking forward to working with them in the future with my clients- (I'm hoping we're done at our house for a while). Now our garage is filled with boxes of tile that probably won't be used for a while, but I really want to be ready so that when Ben gives the bathroom the "green light" I'm fully prepared and nothing is held up.


Peeking at the tile this morning made me VERY excited for a clean, white bathroom! We also got the shower valve and now we're just waiting on the faucet (it's expected to arrive next week).

I spent the rest of my day finalizing the details with Invisible Fence and scheduling the installation, scoping out privacy fence options- in an effort to compromise again we have decided we'd put a privacy fence up to block the school and any temptation for Henry, and once again I took a trip to the Home Depot kitchen department.

possible privacy fence option

When I was driving from place to place (I drove almost 100 miles yesterday) I kept thinking about how much of this I could have gotten done in New York City in one day. I figured with public transportation, traffic and walking time I probably could have gotten one thing done.

Then to top it all off Ben and I ended our day with a trip to the lumber yard in his pick up truck (more to come on this). That was definitely the icing on the cake..
Friday
While the day is still young, I've spent most of the morning packing up to go back to New York City.. cleaning along the way. I also made some important calls to the Zoning Board (about fence and driveway questions). While I am looking forward to a real bed, I'm dreading the packing part- as once I get back it's up to me to get everything ready for the big move. I also know that there's so much more I need to get done here (and wish I could get done before our furniture was delivered). But I am practicing patience and hoping that I don't have a panic attack once moving day comes on the 26th.

Anyway, now can you see why I haven't had time to post?!?!

Monday I'll post about all of the bad news Ben has been delivering via phone calls during our time apart.

bathroom updates

For those of you who are interested in design over renovation this post might be a little more enjoyable. I know the last few weeks have been about chainsaws- not always fun for all of us, but necessary in order to get things moving. Well throughout the last few weeks of hard labor and stress I have also taken some time to pick out a few design related elements for our home. While we really haven't budgeted for new furniture, we have set aside money to get what we want in terms of permanent fixtures.

Because the bathroom and kitchen need to be heavily updated, I've really been focusing on them. We'll be able to do wonders on the rest of the house with some new sheet rock, paint and moldings, but more thought, time and money need to be spent on the bathroom and kitchen. I'll get to the kitchen another time- it's more involved and hasn't been totally flushed out yet, but as of now this is the bathroom design.. step by step.

Tile
I'm not even kidding when I say before we closed on the house we had picked out the tile. And maybe even more impressive than that- it literally took us about 15 minutes in the showroom to finalize what we wanted on the walls and on the floor.

A little information about my tile "style": I love anything clean with white tile.. bathroom, kitchen, laundry room.. you name it. I prefer it all white. Maybe it's harder to clean, but I can't help it. I don't mind colorful accents- and in someone else's bathroom I would absolutely go that route, but for us, white was the way to go.

All things considered: Remember we are moving to a house but the upgrade in terms of size is not THAT great. It's still more of a cottage than a house which means we have one bathroom central to the house. Yes right now it's a powder room/guest bath/master bath, but I have dreams of it becoming just a powder room. The truth is I love the house for it's potential- we can build up and/or over which means hopefully one day we'll be able to afford at least one more bathroom. So at the moment I picked white thinking it would be good for all bathroom options including the possible future of a powder room and maybe even a laundry room.. a girl can dream.

Existing finishes: At the moment our lovely bathroom walls are covered in plastic tiles. Bet you didn't even know they existed!
They're a very classy faux marble that can literally be pulled off the wall with your hands. I'm also not kidding when I say that after we closed we realized the previous owner had generously left us a bottle of tile "adhesive" in the vanity for any necessary repairs. In my first demolition post I mentioned that I covered the floor with contact paper because I deemed it unsanitary and basically un-cleanable. But before I covered it in polka dots..
it was covered with vinyl tiles (shown on the top right) that were pealing up one by one, exposing the plywood floor underneath. Also keep in mind as I mentioned in my post about wallpaper removal- the walls and floor will have to be outfitted with new sheet rock before we install any tile so we basically have to gut the space (minus the tub) before we can get to work. Should be an interesting few days without a toilet. I've already asked Ben if we can rent a porta potty and his response was somewhere along the line of.. "are you serious? NO!".. so I'm guessing I'll be making the trip to Connecticut and staying with my mother during that part of the renovation. Can you blame me?

What 15 minutes at the tile showroom will buy you: Because what I wanted was so basic we opted to go with Daltile. It is less expensive than going to a place like Ann Sacks or Waterworks, but it's still high quality tile. And on top of that there's a wonderful showroom available to the trade in Chelsea so one night when Ben and I were in the neighborhood we stopped in and made our final decision.
On the walls surrounding the bath tub we opted to go with a basic white subway tile- to be installed to the ceiling but not on the ceiling.
Again, because we are also treating this space as a "powder room" we chose not to tile the walls and only protect the area around the tub.

And remember those lovely vinyl floors? I originally wanted to go very traditional with a hexagonal tiled floor (also white, of course), but when we walked into the showroom this caught my eye..
This petite tile feels a little more modern and unique. I apologize for the terrible picture- for those of you who are having a hard time "seeing" it, it's more of a tiny square tile with rounded corners.

I haven't decided on a grout color yet- originally I was thinking white, white, white.. all white. But just last week I was at my aunt and uncles- they are doing a much larger project that includes a new kitchen, a large three-story addition and they gutted two bathrooms. Coincidentally they used the same white subway tile that Ben and I will be installing, but their installer picked a grey-ish grout- a look I hadn't even considered, but really loved.

Bath Floorplan
I thought the easiest way to show the awkwardness of the existing bathroom layout would be to do a little floorplan for you.. keep in mind it isn't to scale.
While the tile could be considered an easy upgrade we knew re-tiling wasn't worth it unless we did something about the positioning of the sink and the radiator. I wanted the layout to flow- both for practical and aesthetic reasons. Obviously, as you can see above, the positioning of the radiator makes this a little challenging. Ben gave me a few options in terms of dealing with it:
- Install radiant floor heat under the new tile
- Install base board heating
- Move the radiator
While originally we had discussed installing radiant floor heat ourselves, it became a bigger project and we lost interest along the way. I decided early on I didn't want base board heating because the bathroom is so small as it is, I didn't want any additional floor space taken up- even if it is just around the perimeter of the walls. So I chose the third option and we looked into moving the radiator. So where could we move it?

We had a plumber come over and we came up with this solution..
As I tried to show above, we would move the radiator to the long wall and install a pedestal sink that would just hover over it... kind of like this..
By swapping the radiator and sink locations we are able to push the pedestal into the nook, allowing for more walkable space in the bathroom- no more scooting around the sink to get to the toilet.

But why a pedestal?
The Sink
The original awkward "homemade" vanity was not only positioned to block the doorway, but the chunkiness of the piece also takes up a lot of unnecessary space visually..
While a pedestal sink is not the most practical to have in a heavily used bathroom due to lack of storage (my mother likes to remind me of that frequently), aesthetically it's what will work best in the space, both due to the radiator swap and visually- the bathroom will appear to feel more "open." Some may say that if it isn't practical they won't have it, but I must point out that Ben and I have lived very comfortably with a pedestal sink for four years now..
so there's no reason why we wouldn't be able to handle it now. Because I opted to go with expensive fittings for the shower and faucet, I wanted to go less expensive with the sink.. hence my Home Depot choice..
Kohler's Archer Pedestal Sink
Just a very simple, clean design.

Notice how I italicized the "I" above? I think it's important to point out that I gave Ben a very hard time about the faucet and bath fittings. I decided what I wanted and I had to have it- and of course it was more than he wanted to spend. But I stood my ground and offered to go cheaper on other things so that I could have this..

Kohler's Pinstripe Faucet
You can obviously order the Pinstripe set up on Kohler's website. You can also special order it at some Home Depots, but I was lucky enough to work with Ben's rep at Davis & Warshow in Manhattan- they have a great showroom for those of you who have no idea what you want.

Bathroom Storage
OK just because I've passed up the whole vanity storage thing doesn't mean I don't want any storage. Above the existing sink there is a very old and very broken medicine cabinet-remember when I lined it in contact paper here?

Well the obvious thing would be to install a medicine cabinet over the new pedestal sink in the nook, but that would mean we'd have to push the sink out into the bathroom..
something I don't want to do. Not to mention a medicine cabinet is very useful, but still doesn't provide THAT much storage. So I decided to take a hint from the existing medicine cabinet and carve out a storage area in the existing sink wall- floor to ceiling as shown below..
I asked Ben if he knows how to make an invisible door- something to look like this..
minus the door knobs of course (and on a much smaller scale). I'd love for the space to just go away. I'd fill the small space with shelves from top to bottom- I hope we'd be able to store everything from our toothbrushes to extra soap in there. I definitely want to make it as practical as possible.
I measured the area to be about 12" wide and the existing medicine cabinet is about 4" deep so we can break the wall open at least that much. I obviously would like to go as high and as low as I can, so unless we run into any issues I'm hoping to only lose a few inches both above the floor and below the ceiling.

If our storage space works out we'll have the perfect niche to hang a fabulous decorative mirror over the sink- which will be both practical and beautiful for the master bath/guest bath/powder room.

The Toilet
Our original plan was to replace, replace, replace.. and then we were told we need a 14" toilet instead of the typical 12".. figures. Ben grumbled something along the lines of "nothing is easy" a few days ago and we have quickly figured out that should be our official motto. So just like everything else.. the old toilet cannot be replaced with anything in stock or inexpensive. Toto makes some toilets that fit the 14" guidelines, but I obviously picked out one of their most expensive options..
Don't you just love the Lloyd?
but Ben put the kibosh on spending that kind of money on a toilet.. I can't blame him- and I opted not to argue.. remember I got my faucet!!

So for a while we thought we would keep the existing toilet (from 1934). I scrubbed it and Ben installed a new toilet seat, but because the bottom is a little rusty and I hate to reinstall it on the brand new tile floor that way we might actually purchase the Kohler Archer toilet to match the pedestal sink..
Now it obviously isn't the 14" needed, but when the plumber first came to give us a quote he said we could go for the standard 12" but then we'd have about an inch between the tank and the wall. Originally that bothered me which is why I started my quest for the 14" option, but in the last few weeks I've been noticing how many other toilets are installed that way. Amazing how I've never seen them before! Anyway, I might just give in and get the very simple option above.

The Tub
Finally something we can really keep! I actually like the tub and the deco feel of it.
Eventually we'll have it reglazed I'm sure, but for now it works.

But in keeping with our motto "nothing is easy," not only does the tub not have a shower head, the piping is also installed inside a wall that the bathroom shares with the garage- meaning a shower head was quite possibly never installed because the pipes can (and probably will) freeze. In the next few months we're going to start planning to convert the garage into a master bedroom- which will solve the freezing issue, but until we insulate those walls and install heat in the garage, the only thing we can do is install the pipes, check on them frequently and cross our fingers. With that said, we're using the Kohler Pinstripe set up in the shower to match the faucet and I couldn't be happier!!
But figuring this all out was only half the battle.. now we actually have to get working on it if I ever want a chance at buying new bath towels.