I'm not the only creative one

It runs in the family. This is real... really. Let me know if you're in the market :o)


Uncle Earl and his Lawn Art

dining room table?

After another successful trip to Ikea this weekend, Kaaaaaye and I found the potential table for our minuscule dining area. We need something narrow and I'm pretty much obsessed with chocolate colored woodwork.

It's a reasonably priced table with TWO leafs (leaves?). Perfect for 2, ready for 4 and can accommodate up to 8. Perfect for our space. It's definitely on the "potential buy" list.

I also found some stools for our island! The ultimate test was comfort and it was totes comfortable. It's too tall, but Adam can cut a few inches off the legs, right?

Ah... this is the fun stuff.

Everyone needs one.

Water closet. Loo. Powder room. The crapper. It has multiple names, but when it comes down to it, you need these. We happened to build an extra one. When we bought the place, your options for utilizing this ever so necessary room was either upstairs (in our master bath) or downstairs (in the dungeon, okay, the basement, but it's still kinda a dungeon). The fact that there was no loo on the first floor was an issue because we plan on throwing many fabulous parties for friends and family and we'd hate to make people take stairs up or down. Thus, we have the "halfie." Our first floor half bathroom. Tiny, yet practical. And in the spirit of St. Patty's Day, I reveal our half GREEN bath.

We definitely visited other half baths to measure to see what we could get away with in terms of size.

I'd like to thank Lowe's for the toilet, vanity and faucet. Thank you Jesse for ripping out our initial half bath (it was too big) and plumbing in the new and improved version. Kudos to Kaye and Adam for framing the whole darn thing. And, once again, to demonstrate how handy Adam is, he installed both sink and crapper. No leaks once again.

**I also must add that it's truly a water closet (the Euro way to say it) in a sense because we also created a closet out of one of the walls.

Next on the list is finding a cool mirror and light fixture to bring the halfie to its full potential. Any idears? Send them my way!

Helpy Helpersons

I. Love. My. Job. And since I love my job, I tend to spend lots o time at work, doing work, thinking about work, etc. Which leaves small amounts of time for doing things like shopping, cooking and oh, yeah, rehabbing a house. So, I must give props where props are due. First off, my mother, Kaye (pronounced Kaaaaaaaye... little inside joke between me and dad), deserves tons of accolades. I found the roots of my perfectionism. Kaye. She should start her own painting business, seriously, she does better than anyone you could hire. I also owe my optimism and enthusiasm to Kaye as she was our "eternal optimist" throughout this process. Many times I broke down, but Kaye would pump us up and get excited over things like basement windows and caulk. She even gets super stoked about the ability to fill up her mug with water from the fridge for her green tea addiction. Sigh. I wish I was domestic like her.

We've had quite a cast of players in this project as well and many who deserve shout outs:

Andy and April, the "Vic Village Professional Flippers"- thanks for giving us the courage to try something like this and for answering the phone and door when you knew we wanted to ask you a question

Jesse, the Foul Mouthed Plumber - we could not have plumbed without you, f-bombs and all

Dad, the supporter - I know it wasn't fun shoving insulation into the ceiling with a 2x4 contraption, but the sound barrier is amazing

Uncle Paul - for teaching Adam everything he needed to know in order to build, rip out and build again

Partee Fam - for reminding us that we need to cut loose every once and awhile

Vaughn, the Drywall Dude - you're coming back for another punchout, right?

Big Fat Buzz, the painter - I don't know how you worked so fast?!

Dan the Door Man - You're speedy too and I need to call you tomorrow :o)

Dennis the Menace - you're not a menace really, the tile does look beautiful

George the Electrician - thanks for following Adam's instructions to his specifications, we're the best lit house on the block

L.A. - our granite woman; thanks for the lack of b.s. and telling us like it is

Hector the Inspector - well, okay, his name is Tom. But thanks for passing us multiple times!

Tina and her crew of floor layers - we love our bowling alley in the first floor

Ahn, Ikea Kitchen Specialist - thanks for the free dessert! (She was super helpy during the busiest day ever and gave us free cake for being nice customers)

Smitty - for ripping out the crack floors and thanks in advance for our future landscaping project!

And of course, my wonderful, handy and super smart BF (or as LA would call you, SO (significant other)), Adam. You're crazy to think we could do this. Thanks Crazy, I love you.

goodness, gracious, GRANITE

Granite day may have been one of my most favorite days of this entire project. Not only is granite cool and kinda quirky, but for us, it symbolized "the home stretch." Not that I didn't like Adam's visual effects of our cardboard granite, but to have the real deal live and in color in the house..... it provided a day of smiles.

Here we are with the kitchen granite - Cosmos Brown - accompanied by a stainless steel double bowl 16 gauge sink and a goose neck kohler faucet. Although this is granite's show, I must admit that the faucet is pretty flippin sweet too. It pulls out into a sprayer with different sprays! And we strategically placed the soap dispenser on the side where the non-dishwasher dishes will be washed. Call me naive, but hello, dish detergent! Genius.

I also love the bigger bowl and smaller bowl. I'm sure dirty dishes will pile up - I AM living with Adam here - but the right side can be for cleaning... look for vegetables from our garden on the right side someday!

View of the island granite (look, there's Tom our inspector in the background! His famous line is "now, I don't care watcha do..." usually followed by some sort of thing we have to do, e.g. keep it up to code, yada yada, blabbity boo.) I told Tom he'd have a cameo in the blog!

View of the island - check out the reflection of the light!
Picture of the kitchen with granite. Sorry it's so messy! We're still in a bit of a construction zone.

The bathroom! This granite is Giallo Ornamental. We had second thoughts when we visited the granite graveyard to approve our templates, but I. LOVE. IT. The pictures do not do it justice! I also like our one handled kohler forte faucet.

The double vanity! Our house was not made for one, but by golly, we created it. (Again, sorry for the mess! It won't look like this when you visit).

Thank you Lowe's and Marble & Graniteworks. Excellent installation and customer service.

Go Granite Go! It will be in the house for-ev-er.

The best tile EVER.

When re-doing a bathroom, one must seriously consider what he/she wants to look at day in and day out while getting ready to take on the world. Like I have mentioned many times, you find one design and then you. can't. let. it. go. My relationship with the glorious color blox brand of floor tile began one evening in the Great Indoors. Friday evenings for us are usually spent at Lowe's, Home Depot or something of that genre. "Celery stalk" was the first obsession. However, when forced to go to the HP (Hamilton Parker), I found "satin sheets." The HP didn't really do it for me at first. And to be honest, I walked in and desperately wanted Andy and April's tile... imitation is the sincerest form of flattery (or something like that), but I knew that I could find a close runner up. Satin sheets soon became numero uno.

Yeah, it looks like white tile. And these pictures DO NOT do it justice. But it's truly amazing.

It has a white background; hence looking white. But when you get up close, you can see the fine pattern of grays, whites, off whites and silvery goodness. Yes, it's a floor tile. And yes we had to ask the tile place to create the bull nose that adorns the sides. But it is the one. Kasia, Arenda's Polish sister-in-law called it "European." SO COOL.

p.s. still obsessed with the built in shelves for shampoos, conditioners, body washes and everything a girl needs!

Next step for this puppy is shower doors! (But we'll deal with a shower curtain until we can find doors with brushed nickle).