The Hardware Dilemma

I have a dilemma. A first world problem, really, but a problem nonetheless.

I chose antique brass sconces for over the kitchen window to coordinate with bronze and brass pendants for over the stove.  I originally was going to get the coordinating brass faucet to tie in the brass until I realized that the one I wanted was….twelve hundred dollars.  Not rupees, dollars.  (I have great taste).

I decided to go with a brushed nickel faucet, mainly because I figured that a nickel faucet would blend better into a light countertop and wouldn't be in competition with the brass sconces.  In my many sleepless nights given over to thinking about kitchen fixtures, I realized that an oil rubbed bronze faucet would draw more attention to the disparity in the finish between the brass light directly above the faucet.  Clearly, I have spent too much time thinking about this.

Here's the fixtures I chose:

Brizo Tresa Bridge faucet in Stainless

Visual Comfort Boston Library Sconce in hand rubbed bronze

David Hicks pendant 

I have been hardware shopping this week and I don't know if I should choose the oil rubbed bronze finish or a weathered nickel finish.  Do I try to tie in the bronze from the pendants or the nickel from the faucet?!?!

Here's the case for bronze:

And here's the case for nickel:

While I was out yesterday, I did find a pull that I liked.  It's simple, and has a bit o' bronze in with the nickel.  Or perhaps I should just decide on one or the other and stop all this in-between nonsense?

What say you?  Oil rubbed bronze or nickel hardware ?

The Miracle of Drywall

An exciting day.  

There was a crew of plaster guys at the house today and they got all the cracks on the first floor filled, sanded and sprayed.  I was at the house a couple times today to sign for some packages (the medicine cabinet and upstairs vanity) and I loved seeing the progress each time.

Here's some before and progress shots:

We have two inspections this week and the HVAC should be complete by week's end.  Next week, the tile in the bathroom begins! 

Get out of the kitchen

We're up north this week, and while I am excited to get home to check on the house progress, I am enjoying some time away from apartment living.  We've been fishing, biking, paddle boating and lounging about.  And feeding little birdies at a zoo.

Note my pregnant "bodybuilder veins" look

Right now, I am sitting in a cafe, enjoying the internet connection to do some more research on my countertop options.  I have one more [huge/expensive/overwhelming] kitchen decision to make and then will be done researching pieces of rock online and may return to being a responsible & attentive mother and friend.

To back up, I like the look of marble in the kitchen and have found that that quartz countertops that are made to replicate the look of marble fall short.  I heard about a new product made out of a porcelain slab (in 5' and 10' lengths) that is supposed to replicate the look and have even more durability than the quartz.  I saw a 24" x 24" square of it at the design center and it looked pretty good.  However, because it's new and don't know what it's even called, I haven't been able to find a lot of photos or reviews of it. I may be taking a trip this week to Chicago (the nearest showroom) to check out some options and want to make sure the trip will be (hopefully) be the last countertop quest.  

Here's the showroom pics:

I did some more research on it today and I think it's called "Statuario Venato" Porcelain Slab countertop.  I found these photos of it online:

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Here's my advice to others like me out there:

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Just make the choice and get out of the kitchen.  It's only a ridiculously expensive piece of rock.  

Drywall Progress

I am loving how the kitchen is coming together.  I think it's probably the room I am most excited about in the house.

The drywall guy was there over the weekend filling in the cracks in the plaster walls.  Here's progress:

Last week, I chose the tile and vanity for the master bathroom.  Our other bathrooms have the original white subway tile on the walls with white palettes on the floors.  While we wanted to keep the vintage subway tile vibe in the new bathroom, we wanted it to feel a bit warmer, so I chose a faux wood porcelain tile for the floor.  And I just had to do the herringbone pattern…I just couldn't get it out of my head. 

Perspective

It's funny how perspective changes things.  

I was recently asked how the renovations in the house were coming along and I indicated how great things were looking.  Greg laughed and corrected me, saying that our house is like a crack addict that has recently made some improvements: it looks better, but not not doing quite as well as one would hope.  

I stand corrected.

At the end of the day yesterday, all the wallpaper has been removed out of the first floor bath and back bedroom.  I am certain this was not an easy task, as each strip of wallpaper was still lying on the floor, each piece very small and tedious to remove.  

Here's the back bedroom:

And the bathroom:

I was so excited to see these two rooms stripped down to the bare plaster walls that I began to laugh when I saw them.  Nevermind the fact that the bathroom has the old pieces to the linen cabinet strewn on the floor & tub and it looks like a tsunami aftermath; I was also able to overlook the horrible cracked pea green walls that have been harbored under several layers of wallpaper for decades.  

I sent the photos of the two rooms to Greg and noted the irony of how excited I was to see the rooms in this state, yet anyone else would look at these two rooms and run out of the house, afraid that I had lost my marbles.

My aunt emailed me a complimentary message yesterday, saying that she is enjoying the blog and that I am "very, very….brave!!" (Thanks, Mary Ann!)  In my small town vernacular, perhaps this can be most easily translated into, "Laura is very, very….stupid/naive/crazy!!"

Perhaps. 

Also, here is the kitchen update:

The Cost of Heat

Our house was built with radiant heat.  At some point, the radiators were taken out of the home, presumably because the previous owner was going to switch the heat from radiant to forced air.

Because that switch didn't occur, the house currently has no heat/air source.  We decided to put in forced air so that we could have A/C (hooray!).  The original plan was to use the laundry chutes to run the ducts, but as it turns out, one of the chutes was not large enough to fit the duct work. 

We had three options:

1.  Rip up the wall in the first floor bath and lose all the wall tile in order to run the ducts up that wall (plus add more labor to take down the tile and rebuild the wall).

2.  Run the duct work in the basement, but it would hang 6-8" below the floor joists on an already low ceiling.

3.  Lose the first floor linen cabinet and use a third or half of it to put the ducts in.

I laughed (bitterly) and told our contractor that it was like he was asking me which leg I would rather cut off, the right or left.  (I like having both legs, for the record).  It was painful to decide.  I didn't want to incur the time or cost in ripping up the bath; I want to finish off the basement someday without having people bump their heads; I want to preserve the built-ins in the house because that is one of the features that make the house so cool. 

I talked with Greg, who was far more sensible than I was at the moment and he thought we should go with option 3.  I felt like throwing up about it, but it's probably the best option.  There is a small linen closet in the bathroom, so we still have the functionality of a linen cabinet.

So here's the process of taking the linen cabinet apart:

And here's what it looks like now:

*sniff*

The linen cabinet backs up to the kitchen, and now that the cabinet is gone, I am trying to figure out how to use that 18"-24" of space.  I think that we should integrate that space into the kitchen and add the cabinet to the right of the fridge, as shown here:

On the bright side, the second laundry chute worked fine to run some of the ducts.  Here's what it looks like in our room:

And this, people, is why renovating always costs more than planned.  Stupid duct work.