A Place to Sit

Coming home from Thanksgiving weekend, we were feeling very thankful after seeing the progress made on our two bathrooms. Both bathrooms now have the Laufen toilets installed and the under-sink cabinets partially installed. The sinks are just resting on the cabinets for now, and we hope to see them fully functioning by the end of the week. We did test the toilets and although they are working, we're still a bit perplexed as to which button on the top = big flush versus little flush. It's not as intuitive as we would have thought. Time to search for the manual (or do a bunch of test flushes—you're welcome to come join in the fun).

Palette not Palate

We last discussed paint colors back in early November. At that time, Lew had just painted some color swatches on the walls for us to review. Above you can see all the other colors options that we had reviewed—and rejected—prior to getting to this point. You can also see how we created our own little process for selecting the colors and narrowing them down. By the end we had three categories—winners, runners up, and rejects. We're quite happy with our winners (from darkest to lightest):

Benjamin Moore San Antonio Gray (AC-29)
This is medium grey for our guest bedroom.
Benjamin Moore Gray Owl (OC 52)
This is a light grey that will go in our master bedroom.
Benjamin Moore White Wisp (2137-70)
This is a very pale grey that will go in most of the main living + dining room.
Benjamin Moore First Snowfall (1618)
This is a light blue-grey for our master bathroom.
Benjamin Moore Chantilly Lace (OC-65)
This white is for our trim, bedroom + bathroom doors, and the guest bathroom.

Sink-a-licious

The much anticipated installation of our kitchen sink has finally occurred. As you may have gathered by now, we're very excited about this. We knew going in that the sink we chose was rather traditional given the style of the rest of our kitchen. We weren't terribly concerned about this since we love the sink so much. And you know what? It's pretty darn fabulous. Who says that your kitchen can't be a mash-up?

Color

With approximately one week left of working days before we move in, our bedrooms and bathrooms are getting closer to completion. Our walls are being painted and the built-ins finished. We are loving the colors we ended up with for our master bedroom, guest bedroom, and master bathroom. Above and below you can see these colors.



The medicine cabinets have now been installed in our bathrooms, as you can see below. We hope to see the light fixtures in place above them soon. Also scheduled to happen this week, is the installation of the stone shower curb and threshold for the master bathroom. Those items had to be specially ordered to match our floor tile in that bathroom. Once they are in, we can then have The Glass Guy come and measure for the shower in the master bathroom.

Packing

This weekend's main activity is packing and more packing. We've already picked up additional packing supplies twice today—making it seven times that we have needed more boxes, paper, bubble pop and tape. Happily, Tonka does not seem to be much disturbed by all this, and is enjoying being king of the tower (of boxes). While we pack, Steven has also been patiently roasting a turkey—sort of a dry run for Thanksgiving, as well as a good way to feed us through these next few days once we've packed all our cooking supplies. After today, we have turkey tacos and turkey sandwiches to look forward to (in addition to plain ol' roast turkey with gravy and cranberry sauce).

Moving Day

It's official. We have an official moving day now, set for Tuesday November 30th. Sadly, it doesn't look like the apartment (or the necessities in the apartment—like faucets with running water) will be ready for us at that time. Happily, Steven happens to know a few people at Kimpton Hotels. They are kind enough to let us stay at Ink 48 (thank you Mark Fischer) for a few days while Lew (hopefully) wraps up a few last items that will make living in our apartment more... livable. In the meantime, if anyone has some time to spare we're accepting packing assistance.

Linens and Things

Today our linen closet made an appearance for the first time. Initially, we were a bit thrown off by how much room the closet occupies (after all, we have been waiting 2.5 months for Verizon to move the wires so we could build the closet). But we are already fond of our new addition and are looking forward to putting our oversize map of Paris on the side wall created by the closet. We thought that we would have to build a soffit at the top of the new closet to hide some of the Verizon wires where they meet the ceiling. However, based on what we have seen thus far, we think that we will be able to avoid the soffit. The soffit wasn't a big big issue, but we are pleased not to have a random bump in the ceiling if we don't need one.

Separately, we were concerned about the placement of our medicine cabinets in the master and guest bathrooms. It turns out that the cabinets are so tall that the light fixtures at the very top of them end up too close to the ceiling. We think that we should be able to lower the cabinets a bit (sacrificing a small glass shelf that had been planned for under the cabinets) and make room for the lights above. Disaster averted. Thankfully, we visit the apartment almost everyday so that we can catch these issues before they blow-up into full scale problems.

The SMEG Opera A1XU6

Our range is now in place, next to the dishwasher. You can ignore the zebra stripes—that's just a protective outfit until we're ready to officially call the kitchen open for business. Hopefully our farmhouse sink will join the duo soon (it will slip into the spot to the left of the dishwasher).

Home on the Range

Our SMEG range has finally been uncrated and now sits boldly in the center of our living room. But perhaps boldly is too strong a word? Maybe it's sad that it hasn't been placed into it's permanent home in the kitchen yet? We are hoping that it will be installed there soon, but in the meantime have been drooling over all the burners.



Also in the living room, the large wall of built-ins continues to be, uh, built. You can see here how the center section now has doors. This will be a nice space for hiding all sorts of unsightly things. Not sure what that would include really, but it's nice to have that extra storage.

Verizon

Today, after much calling and prodding which lasted two and a half months (since August 27th!), Verizon FINALLY came and added some length onto the phone wires running through our apartment. This was necessary in order to rearrange some of our walls. Adding to our delight, was that Verizon (who of course showed up without any advance notice) happened to arrive at the apartment when we were there meeting with our architect and contractor. Thus, clear instructions were to be had and wires were moved! We still feel that the cost was exorbitant and the process painstakingly long considering the work took less than a day (monopoly, anyone?) but are just plain happy to be done with the situation. Their coffee break probably took longer than the actual work. Regardless, now our linen closet can be built. Whew.



Starting with the visit from Verizon, today was a particularly eventful day. Two appliances are now happily ensconced in their new homes (see the Bosch dishwasher and GE Profile fridge) and our built-in china cabinet now has doors. And, to top off such a productive day, we already have a buyer for our Room and Board cabinet (which we just posted on Craig's List last night). Oh happy day! If only every day could be so happy.

The Great Wall

All the apartments in our line have a large nook in the main living area. This is approximately 15' wide by 12" deep. The two other apartments that we have seen in our line utilize this space for furniture. However, when we bought our place, the previous owner had really maximized the area with built-in bookshelves. Given their pour condition, we knew we either had to get rid of them all together or rebuild them. Although really, we didn't even consider not having built-ins in this area. It just makes sense to get the most out of what is otherwise a dead space.

You can see how our built-in wall is divided into three areas—media on the far left, hidden storage in the middle, and a dining-centric area on the far right. Note the space for the wine rack. That will hold approximately 85 bottles. You're welcome to come and enjoy some with us!

Getting Better

Now that Lew has finished tiling the guest bathroom walls all the way down to the floor tiles, we are feeling much better about the situation in there. It seems that the black stripe of waterproof paint we originally saw really affected how the two surfaces worked together. We're also hoping that when the bathroom is grouted (with white grout), that the overall look will continue to be improved. In the meantime, a big sigh of relief. We still feel that this will be lovely in the end—just some growing pains for Lara. If not, perhaps the guest bathroom will end up being Steve's.

Be Our Guest

After several days of admiring the tile work in our master bath, we finally have the tile up in the guest bathroom. We have the glass tile on the walls set subway-style, and 6" Carrera marble tiles set on the diagonal for the floor. Although I love these each individually, I'm not in love—yet. Maybe it's because I wasn't expecting the glass tile to have such a green-blue tint to it? I'm a bit disconcerted by my lack of love for this bathroom. Steve suggested that perhaps we just need the other fixtures in here, which, admittedly, will brighten it up. I think that having the floor and the walls the same color value just seems weird to me. Perhaps if we simply paint the walls white (instead of the pale blue-grey we had planned on) I might feel better about this bathroom. For now I'll just have to love the walls and floor individually until it all comes together.

Built-In Progress

Over the past two days great progress has been made on the built-in units that run along our windows. You can see in these pictures how the doors of the cabinets have now been added, thus hiding our hidden storage along with the unsightly heating and cooling units. Next they will be painted and have a Corian surface installed on the top to help protect them from wear and tear.

Silestone vs. Corian

As our kitchen cabinetry gets closer to completion, we're debating whether to use Silestone or Corian for our countertops. We've heard pros and cons for both of them—from heat resistance to stain resistance (and not to mention scratch resistance). Now we're curious to know your thoughts on the contest for countertop supremacy and which reigns supreme.

Which would you recommend for a kitchen countertop?
	Silestone
	Corian
pollcode.com free polls

More Details

The details in our kitchen are now be worked out. Slim pieces of wood are being placed—filling in where there are gaps between cabinetry. Here you can see how pieces of walnut have been added to surround where our refrigerator will go. This will give us a custom-fit look (without the expensive of a SubZero fridge). In our bedroom, the built-in unit is being finished. The top surface is being clamped on, and will then be painted. You can see where the shelves will go in the open cubbies. Once the doors are added, this will be a seamless unit and we will have a Corian top put on to help protect it from wear and tear.

OMG

Overall Much Goodness. This evening we had a wonderful visit to the apartment. I feel like we always have a wonderful visit these days—especially now that we are seeing the exciting part of the renovation where everything comes together. So I feel that whenever we post we say how great or exciting things are. I guess it is better this way than having us lament the misery of it all and how many wrong decisions we made. Luckily, that is not the case (at least not yet). Today we saw developments in both the kitchen and bathroom. In the kitchen, you can see how the additional cabinetry has been, err, added, as well as under cabinet lighting installed. You can almost smell the food being cooked!



The process in the master bathroom was also wonderful to see. Whereas the last time we visited only a portion of the wall tile had been completed, today we saw almost ALL the tiles in place. We're quite thrilled to see the flooring and walls together—although we wonder if they go as well together as we had imagined? I think it's still too early to tell. Tiles aside, we also received our sinks and, most importantly, the lovely soft-close toilet lids. I know. The excitement around here never ends. Ever.

Kitchen Expansion

Today our kitchen grew. A cabinet was added above where the refrigerator will be, and another cabinet added to the outer area of the kitchen, above where the wine fridge will be. We also gained an island. Sadly not in the Caribbean, but still quite lovely. Look at those drawers!



We have also started testing paint swatches in the various rooms. Here you can see three shades of grey next in our master bedroom. These are NOT color accurate, so please don't judge! We, however, did judge. And determined that we need to mix some things around. We hope to have new colors to review by this weekend, since we can then look in the day time when there is better light to be had.