The Doors

Today we went down to the apartment (as usual), and saw not only our closet doors installed, but our paneled doors for the bedrooms and bathrooms installed as well. In the last post you saw the paneled doors in progress, but here you can see how fabulous they look on their hinges. We're pleased (as usual) to see the progress—our hallway is starting to look like a real hallway rather than a construction zone.

And speaking of doors, today we also made a rather monumental decision regarding the office doors. Up until today, we were planning on having three sliding glass panel doors. However, we've been concerned about both the look and functionality of them. When looking into it further, we found that there was only one company that could create what we wanted. And a very expensive company at that. SO. Today we asked ourselves, "selves, why do we need doors for the office anyway?" After a short debate, we quickly came upon the unanimous decision that the doors would not be necessary and not worth the expense. We're still deciding how to divide the office from the rest of the room, but we know it won't involve a door. Our current three options are listed below. Vote and let us know which you would prefer.

What should divide the office from the rest of the room?
	Partial wall made of frosted glass
	Floor-to-ceiling bookshelf
	Partial wall with oversize mirror
pollcode.com free polls

Knock Knock

We recently came to the decision that all our closets would be frameless (no molding) and have hidden hinges. The bedroom and bathroom doors, on the other hand, would be simple paneled doors. We based this on two factors—(1) we liked the paneled doors and (2) we could not afford to have paneled doors everywhere. Therefore, this solution allows us to have paneled doors in a way that both makes sense and is affordable. Above, you can see the lovely hidden hinges we got for our closet doors. You can also see how seamless this looks when closed (keep in mind that the door handle will come later).



Here you can see our four paneled doors in progress—we found it more affordable to have our contractor create the paneled doors rather than to buy them. This was especially helpful since our doors seem to be odd (and inconsistent) sizes.

The Green Room

After being away from the apartment for a few days, we were looking forward to our visit this evening. We weren't disappointed. A lot of drywall was put up in the hallway to the bedrooms. You can see how the new closet is taking shape (we're thinking this will be good for Costco supplies), as well as our lovely green guest bathroom (the green is water-resistant drywall, we think). At the end of that row of doors, is the entry to our guest bedroom. This has also been given the drywall treatment. It looks like the guest bedroom is now completely framed out.



Right now, one of the very last things to be framed is the closet across from the guest bathroom (which you can sort see the picture above, on the right side). Before that can be completed though, we are still waiting for Verizon to come and move their wires (which should be within the next two weeks, we hope). We're looking forward to tiling starting soon.

September 14, 2010

The area around the guest bathroom and bedroom now has additional framing to define the walls and doors. This is so nice to see, since one of the main things we wanted to do in renovating the apartment was clear up the little maze going on in this area. The space here is much cleaner and open than it ever was before. It's a little hard to tell right now (especially without walking the space), but hopefully once we get some drywall up you'll be able to see what we mean. It's also nice because it really feels like the "private" part of the apartment versus the "public" part with the living and dining space.



Here you can see the new hallway closet that has been built next to our guest bathroom. This was essentially dead space before, so it's great to make it useful (not that we know what's going in there yet). Today we requested that an outlet can be put in this closet so we can use it to charge our Dust Buster (or better yet, to put our old wine fridge in there). To the right you can see Vanna modeling with our new GE Profile refrigerator. We don't love it, but it has a inside water spout (which we thought was cool) and a good amount of cubic storage. It just didn't seem worth spending a ton of money on a fridge when there are so many other purchases to make for the apartment. Also, oddly, the "prettier" refrigerators didn't necessarily have more capacity.

Bathrooms

Before we left for the weekend (we went down to DC for our final triathlon of the season), we visited the apartment to check on the progress. What we found, finally, was the bathtub in place. This was very exciting to see, especially since the tub has been around for several weeks now. It had been sitting in its box, so we were happy to see it out in its new environment. Steve and I even hopped in to check out the size. It's not as wide as we would have liked, but it's is certainly longer and deeper than our previous bathtub. UPGRADE!



The other thing we did before leaving for DC, was to visit a bathroom showroom. Here we finally determined what under-sink cabinetry to get to go with our sink. We're still feeling that this is a bit more modern than we'd like. But, given the limited space in our bathrooms, we feel that this will at least feel less cramped (and we'll still have one or two drawers under the sink).



AND, we also received one of our tile shipments. This one was from Ann Sacks and is for the shower floor in our master bathroom. The rest of the floor in there will also be slate herringbone tile, but will be made from larger 3" x 6" tiles. We went with the smaller mosaic for the shower because, we were told, it will help avoid slippage in there. We love it AND we're lucky they still had it in stock, because for some reason they are discontinuing it once it's gone.

All About Inspiration

We continue to search for inspiration as we finalize the design in the apartment. This weekend we stayed at the Palomar Philadelphia which had a beautiful pocket door that we thought could work well for our master bathroom door. The door was paneled, which is something we had not thought about before. Now we are. Unfortunately a paneled door can be double the price of a regular door. We'll have to think about this one before making a final decision. Separately, Restoration Hardware has continued to impress us with their new look. We found this sink cabinet idea there, and are debating whether this would be a good route to go. In the main room, we are still debating how to structure our large wall of built-ins (which will house both media and wine, among other things).



We saw this wine rack in Philly and liked the way the bottles sit and poke out from the shelving. Perhaps we'll try this. We are now looking for ideas for an entryway bench as well as a sofa for the main room. Send us pictures of what you've done, seen done, or would like to do.

Initial Drywall

Today we quickly stopped by the apartment before heading off to see some tennis at the U.S. Open. Since today was Labor Day, the work we saw was completed last week. It seems that things are still slow going—meaning that what is being done are things we can't really see (like electrical). HOWEVER, we did see some drywall going up around the entryway closet and on the wall that divides the kitchen from the office. The latter was great to see because we can now start imaging things like how big our refrigerator will be and how much closet space will be in our office.



The only negative thing we saw today was a bench. I know that may not sound like much, but since this was a bench that had yet to be decided upon (meaning where we even going to have one and what would it look like if we did?) we were dismayed to see it already completed. Needless to say, we've already reached out to our architects to say, what'sup with that?

It's Electric!

Today we saw that some electrical was now being run through the framing for our walls and closets. You can see this in the pictures above. We also noticed some areas of concern in how this was being run. We've passed our comments on to the architects, but overall feel good about this progress. During our last renovation, the electrical gave us such a headache that it is nice to see it moving along so quickly here.

The other thing that happened today was that the Verizon area foreman came to pay us a visit. He needed to come survey some live telephone wires so that he can arrange for them to be moved slightly. This, in turn, will allow us to move a wall. Happily, Mr. Verizon seemed very nice and, even better, we now have his direct number. For anyone who's dealt with Verizon knows, this is a godsend. We're hoping they can have someone come in soon to move the line so we can proceed with our wall.



And one more thing happened today—the remainder of the wall dividing the guest bath and bedroom was removed. You can see this in the picture above. Lew decided that it would be easier to rebuild the wall rather than work around the existing one. For now though, it makes for one huge room, now doesn't it?

So Much So Soon (not that we're complaining)

We've been debating what to post about because there has been so much going on. I guess the first thing to say is that we have finally decided (and ORDERED) our bathroom faucets. There was much back and forth about what to get because there were two very similar choices we were deciding between. In the end, we decided on the Dornbracht Tara wall mounted faucet in polished chrome. Above you can see two views of it (the only side view was in the black finish, so just ignore the color).

Then we also ordered our bathtub, which has since been delivered. I was hoping to show you a picture of it in situ, but alas, the electricity in our apartment has been cut since they are now working on the electrical. I last visited in the evening, so there was no way I could make my way around in the dark—let alone take a photo. Maybe next time. AND speaking of deliveries, we have now arranged for our GE refrigerator and wine fridge to be delivered on Tuesday. We are clearly most excited about the latter.



The next thing we are trying to determine is what toilet to get. I know. How mundane. But quite frankly, I'm finding some design details on the Toto toilet bothersome. Take a look. The Toto (above left) has something funky happening at the back of the lid. On the right is a Laufen toilet, which is also a bit more classic (and classy) looking. I'm leaning to the Laufen, but this is still to be decided. Hopefully soon. I don't know how much more debate we can take over a toilet.