Laurie's World

The shower is ready to tile–so now I have NO MORE EXCUSES!

The guys got all their part done today–so I let it sit for a day or 2 and then get working I suppose  : )

So the one thing we never got around to when we did our reno almost three years ago, was the Master bath. It is a horrendous mess of disgusting glossy, white 6×6 ceramic tiles. Just in case you were wondering  : )

So since I am given to taking these things on for myself (for the most part)…I started a couple weeks ago with prepping the walls. Had to take down all the towel bars etc. Had to fix all the walls (and ceiling) including the spots where the drywall was patched and repaired when we changed the window configuration during the reno. Got the first coat of paint on! I also stripped and refinished the cabinets and medicine chest–I HATE that white wash finish on the oak cabinets. I know oak cabinets are very “80’s”, but I am not interested in laying down a few thousand dollars for new cabinets…so it is what it is. And besides–I thought the 80s were GREAT! : )

I stripped and refinished the baseboards also–thinking I might reuse them. Might tile the base board–but want to keep my options open…

When I was ready to really dig in–I started with the countertop. It had the (in)famous white tiles on it–so as i was banging away on them…I was just gaining some steam and was about half way through when I make a mistake and ended up slicing my thumb open. So this stalled out my progress for a week or so while I waited for my thumb to grow back…

Anyway–got it under control and then last weekend I finished up getting the tile on the counter–I still have to grout, but it looks DANG good! I just LOVE this slate tile I am using. I wish I had the courage and the money to do the whole bath in it–but I am going with the safe choice of the tile I used in the other 2 bathrooms.

Anyway—making a short story long here!! The main obstacle for this whole project for me is the shower. So in the interest of having it done correctly and in less than 6 months…I hired some tile guys to come in and do the demo and build the shower pan, they will also hang the new backer board and get the whole thing ready for me to just come in on the glory train and get those tile on…

This is how it looks as of this morning…they will be back this morning to move onto phase 2…stay tuned…

OK…so we did pretty good on this renovation thing we took on last summer…made decent choices as to what we did and who we chose to do it…BUT…in all honesty…those of you who followed our adventures closely might remember some of the drama we had with the drywall.

Well anyway…there were so many issues that needed to be fixed, and the battle with trying to get the original guys to send someone who knows what they are doing to come and fix it was getting VERY old…so we just broke down and hired our own drywall professional  to come and do it right. So here we are…This is where the big crack in the living room wall was getting fixed…

and the foyer issues…

The family room…

OK…the sunroom too…

Oh yeah…and the kitchen…

OK…so you get the picture…we had to redo pretty much the entire main floor…WHAT a mess!! BUT…I am nuttin’ if not cheeryabout these things…

SO…now as you can imagine…with pretty much all the joints being redone and most of the corners being ripped out and redone…the entire main floor had to be repainted…SIGH! I took this opportunity to extend the colour I had in the sunroom into the family room…

Oh Yeah…I forgot to put up the pictures of the grouted tiling i finished up in the kitchen last weekend…I just need to remember to call the plumber to get the pot filler tap installed and then I am golden

Oh yeah…and put one more face plate on that outlet!!

OK…as promised Mom…here are our snow pictures! Yes, it is April 18th, 2008

Man oh Man! A few nice days and the weeds go WILD…so I had to do something about it. So I spent Sunday, Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday weeding, planting, transplanting etc etc etc. Here are a few shots of what is left after I rototilled a good chunk of it underJust too many weeds!!!

Here is my new collection of Black Mondo grass under the Blue Spruce at the front porch…they are small, but they are will grow–I am a patient gardener

Here is the bed up by the street that I had Manuel build a retaining wall around…

and the other one that started the wall building

The view from the street–our yard have recovered from the reno–and looks even better for it

This is the back…the little trees look pretty scrubby…but they will fill out nicely in a few weeks (and they are white and red)

After 4 days of yard work, I decided to move indoors and get the tiling done in the kitchen! I quickly remembered why I dislike tiling (but also how rewarding it is). This is the darndest thing…it does not look like much, but this is 2 long days of work! Maybe I am just slow…

I decided to go with a large 12×12 point to point framed with 4x9s. So this is where it sits as of tonight…it is all in, but not grouted…so disregard the white lines. It really changes the look of the kitchen…I do NOT miss the bright white drywall behind the range!

I also did the raised area of the island…

Well…we are really just down to the fussy last little bits now. Very short pick up list

Still have to tile behind the range and the raised portion of the island, install the undercounter lighting, finish putting magnets in the recessed lighting, putting the pool fence back in, make 2 more septic tank lids, lots of decorating (DUH!), shampoo the carpets in the bedrooms upstairs, strip, sand and restain the stair stringer, repair the walls around all the window trim in the living room, laundry room and the master bath where the doofus’ (I am trying to be nice) wrecked it when they took off the old trim, paint the back door, the foyer, the white walls in the living room, the front door trim and the dings that have been put in the doors, finish swapping out the doors and the hinges to satin nickel upstairs, put up the house numbers outside, install the post light, install the threshold to the door of the guest bath, order glass for the corner cupboard in the kitchen, order and receive the kitchen table and chairs so that we can install the last 2 chandeliers, and finally return all the stuff we bought but never used to Home Depot and Lowes–WHEW!!

Anyway, this is what the place looks like these days…I will take some outside pix when the sun comes up in the am

taking this picture allows me to see that we missed some spots in this room with the candlelight finish

We are close to the end now…YEAH! Leroy was here on Friday (and will be back tomorrow) to get the rest of the trim done. You will see in some of the pictures below that he got the door and baseboard trim done in the mudroom and the baseboards in the family and the sun room. Still to go is the foyer and the living room, Jackie’s window and one piece of floor trim in Rachael and Jackie’s room. He has a bunch of puttying to do as well as a few things on a pick up list for the kitchen.

Neils (electrician) was here today and he and Troy got a bunch more work done. Almost done with all that except for the undecounter lights, the light over the sink, the light in the foyer and getting the right circuits moved so they can be powered by the generator (should that be required) and the dishwasher. I think that is it…

Troy put the thing in the switch at the front door that you program with your longitude and lattitude and then it calculates when the sun rises and sets and turns the lights on and off accordingly. Kind of a fun little thing for $25

The girls were working on their pumpkins today…so we will start with that

The wall that looks white in the photo below is actually brown with a faux finish on it called "candlelight". It is a clear coat that kind of catches the light and makes the wall look shimmery in certain lights…so the flash must have caused it to reflect all light and make it look weird like that…kind of like a reflective coating on a road sign or something I am thinking…

Since we have the white table in the eating area now (until we get the proper one that will fit), Troy just put in one of the three chandeliers that will hang over the table.

I have grouted and sealed all the tiled areas in the floor and the back spalsh that are completed…I still have to do the backsplash behind the range, the small area created behind the raised bar in the island and the backsplash in the sunroom. BUT htis does not seem like juch compared to what I have already completed.

Still have to put the closet doors back on…but you get the idea!

We chose to use satin nickel plates on the outelets and switches in the kitchen. It looks really good and blends more with the slate that a white plate would…

OK…got a few things cleaned up today…so i thought i would take some pictures to show y’all.

Terry got the closet floor finished for me…so that is IT for hardwood…PHEW!

Got the table that held all the tools and junk cleaned up and moved out of the eating area…We had our first family meal tonight with us all sitting around the table like normal peopleAnd I made a decision about stools for the island, and I went to get them today and Terry put them all together for me…

And here is my tile all cleaned up…still not grouted yet though

and the view up and down the front hall…