Thank You

Thank you for weighing in and helping us decide on our bathroom sconces. Initially it wasn't our first choice, but after the strong public opinion, we ordered the Avia sconce from Restoration Hardware. Now that they have arrived and we see them in person, we're quite pleased with the selection. So, thank you for your input. We'll probably be asking you to weigh in our pendant lamp dilemma as well.

Amii Stewart*

This evening our suspicions were confirmed when we saw that the green sound proofing now extends beyond our bedroom into about half of the apartment. Only the main room needs to be sound proofed at this point. While initially we were dismayed at having to lay down sound proofing under the wood flooring (mainly due to the expense), we both admit that the noise level in the apartment is now greatly reduced. Granted, it was never so loud before, but now it is really nice and quiet. I'm sure our neighbors will also be pleased.



When we peaked into our bedroom, we were delighted to see this—our new wood floor! We didn't tread on it since we aren't sure how delicate it is while it is still being laid, but we were able to get a few snaps of it for you. We still can't stop talking about how great it looks—which it should after all the consideration that went into choosing it.

* Let us know if you get the title of this post—or not.

Meeting of the Minds

This morning we met with our architects from formativ and went over a laundry list of items. Our contractor, Lew, was also in attendance so that we were able to update him immediately on our decisions. One long-standing (yet not-so-exciting) point of discussion was about the trim that will border our "main" doors—these are the doors to the bedrooms and bathrooms. We have now settled on what we will be doing for this trim as well as for the baseboards. It's minor, but it's something we can cross off of our (very long) list.

We also reviewed the paint colors that we are considering for the various rooms in the apartment. Essentially, we're thinking about "grey". Pale grey in the main room, medium grey in the master bedroom, dark grey in the guest bedroom, and a pale grey blue in the bathrooms. We were sort of expecting to narrow down our top 2 or 3 choices for each room to 1, but Ron and Lissa (our architects) suggested that Lew get some paint samples from Benjamin Moore and try them out on the walls. I'm hoping this will help our finalize the colors, but I'm betting on more indecision and contemplation.

Since our wood flooring arrived last week, we were able to sneak a peak at it today with everyone there. I wish we could have paused and taken a photo for you, because it was pretty great. I was getting nervous (it's such a big decision based off of a relatively small sample of flooring) but WOW! I think, er hope, you'll have the same reaction when you see it. Just wait. Right now the sound proofing continues to be set down, but after that, comes the flooring. Hopefully we'll be able to take a picture before it gets covered up with protective paper.

We also took a sneak peak of our new kitchen sink since that recently arrived. Well, we sort of peaked at it—the bottom actually, since it was up-side-down in a big box. Given the weight of the thing we didn't try to turn it around, but boy it's big. B-I-G BIG! I'm excited just thinking about all the dishes we can pile in there! Thankfully we're getting a dishwasher (and that it's not Steve or I)—I hope it's big enough.

There was one other big point of discussion today, and that was about the pendant light that will go over our dining room table. We have the very long (90.5") Big Sur dining table from Crate & Barrel and we LOVE LOVE LOVE it. We want to make sure that the pendant light we choose fits both the table and the room. However, we have a big issue—the ceiling connection where the pendant needs to attach is not directly over the table. We have had a lot of discussion over this one issue and I think we'll be asking you to vote on our pendant lamp finalists soon...

An Embarrassment of Riches

Sometimes self-restraint pays off. This week it certainly did as we held off in visiting the apartment during the latter part of this week. And so we were like kids in a candy store when we entered the apartment today—OH WHERE OH WHERE TO LOOK FIRST! The built-in shelving in the office is partially completed! And the built-ins along the windows too!



And in the guest bedroom MORE built-ins have been built! BUT WAIT! THERE'S MORE! In the master bedroom the sound proofing has been laid down! (Our co-op requires sound proofing to be laid under the wood flooring).



NO! LOOK! OVER THERE! They have laid the cement flooring in the guest bathroom in preparation to start tiling! And in the kitchen—THE KITCHEN! The kitchen cabinetry has arrived! The joy! The excitement! It's almost too much at once—but not really.

We've Gone Global!

Perhaps unbeknownst to many of you, we track our blog using Google Analytics. Don't worry, this program doesn't divulge any of your personal details to us. It does, however, allow us to see how many people are actually following our blog and how many people visit on any given day. If we didn't do this, we would never know if anyone ever visited Innexperience. Mind you, it would help if our visitors left comments on our posts (a-hem), but since that rarely happens, Google Analytics helps satisfy our curiosity. Every day I go to the Google Analytics page for Innexperiece to see how many people visited the previous day. Part of the information that the program gathers (apart from numbers of visits), is where our visitors are located. Generally you come from one of five states—Maryland, Washington, Hawaii, New York, and New Jersey. Recently we've branched out and added six more states to that list! HOWEVER, today, as I was casually looking at the map I noticed that CHINA (YES! CHINA!) was noted! We had one visitor from Shanghai, China visit us yesterday! Mind you, they stayed for less than a second (perhaps the sensors kicked them off?) but STILL! CHINA! Here's the map to prove it.

Floor Delivery

Although you would think that there is nothing to report today, Columbus Day, since our contractors did not work due to the holiday (or at least we don't think they worked). However, we actually have some news. Today we received a call from the shipper who will be delivering our wood floors on Wednesday. This Wednesday. Yes, it was supposed to happen tomorrow (Tuesday), but we'll take Wednesday. We're just happy to hear that the wood is on it's way—especially after mechanical problems on the truck delivering them from California. For those of you who have forgotten what the flooring will look like, here's a picture. It's the European Oak Lugano from LV Wood Floors here in NYC.

And the Winners Are...

After much deliberation, and some last minute back-and-forth (not to mention some assistance from you), we have decided upon our wall sconces. In this much maligned category we have found two acceptable winners. One—the Henry from Waterworks (shown on the left)—can be hung either as a ceiling mounted fixture or a wall sconce. We will be getting three of these—one to be used as a hallway wall sconce and the other two to be used as a ceiling fixture in our entryway and bedroom hallways. The second—the Avia from Restoration Hardware—will be used in both our guest and master bathrooms.

For those of you embarking on your own sconce (or lighting) adventure, below is the list of resources we scoured—but feel free to add to this list for others to use. We wish you luck (you'll need it).

Restoration Hardware (restorationhardware.com)
Waterworks (www.waterworks.com)
Schoolhouse Electric Co. (www.schoolhouseelectric.com)
Y Lighting (ylighting.com)
Velocity Art and Design (www.velocityartanddesign.com)
www.remodelista.com
Rejuvenation Hardware (www.rejuvenation.com)
Lighting By Gregory (www.lightingbygregory.com)
Circa Lighting (www.circalighting.com)
Hudson Valley Lighting (www.hudsonvalleylighting.com)