Please Vote!

Don likes one best. Sami likes the other.

Which soap holder should we use in the tub area?

Please vote!

Green one

White one

We have been sharing a bug with one another for the last two weeks, so we have not made much progress lately. However, we are finally getting back at it. Don has got the back-splash tiles on the wall behind where the sink will be, and Sami has got the embroidery framed. We are itching to get it done now!

The Mexican tiles await grout

It is fun to finally see what it all looks like

Luke's Frame shop did a great job with the Chinese embroidery

Almost too pretty for a bathroom

Light at the end of the tunnel?

We are now putting tile on the wall, and very soon, the floor. It's starting to look like a room now. As Sami says, it's all in the details. It's true how long details take. Today we devoted an outing to door hardware and grout.

Oops...time to practice on the guitar.

Don

Layers of surfaces

Insulation, wiring, plumbing, wall board, tape, mud, paint, and tile. We take them off and we put them on. At least we are to the putting them on part!

Returning the closet paint-stripped doors and trim to the enlarged closet

Don’t read the text

 

Our collection of interior decorating and how-to magazines and books grows and grows.  We both pore over them to get inspiration and guidance. However, the text below every picture analyzes the colors, patterns, products as though there is a right way and a wrong way to reach a pleasing end. It makes it sound very tricky to get things right. That makes us feel less than confidant about our choices.

So, we have decided to simply not read the text that analyzes the style of anything. Rather, we look and the pictures and decide for our selves; Do we like it? What do we like about it? Why do we like it? It seems to help us decide what colors, products and styles we want and understand why. Often it may be just that we like this or that and if one has a whole room of those things, it is fine with us. What could be better than being surrounded by things you love?

That’s why we will keep much our old stuff and that is why our rooms will never make it into House Beautiful!

All Master Bath surfaces ready for finishing!

Well, maybe not the biggest news to post, but all surfaces (sheetrock and tile backer) for the upstairs bathroom walls and floor are now done, ready for the next step of taping and filling to their finished state. Almost all surfaces are new. The ceiling (except over the tub) and small portions of two walls are original. The toilet flange was marginal for height (had considered adding a 1/4-in backer board layer on top of the 1/2-in already installed). I did a test install, to see if that was needed, and it wasn't, which saved some work. Our new Toto toilet uses an unusual (to me at least) way of mounting. It uses an 'adapter' that mounts to the floor and the floor flange, and then the toilet mounts to that. My test install was installing the adapter, to make sure it would seat on the floor (layed loose tile down) and seal properly with a wax ring. Oh, my, the details!

Don

Coming Together

Don has been putting in full days on the bathroom and things are finally coming together. For the last week he has been installing sheet rock, green board and making a new set of shelves cut into the wall. He has also been making the cupboard that was already there deeper. The cupboard was built before towels were as big and fluffy as they are today. It’s a lot of work for an extra couple of inches!

Almost done with tile backer and sheet rock

Don's do-it-your-self shelf extender system

Sami has had her mind deep into a project totally unrelated to the remodel - writing a history of the Library Cottage.  Once in a while she gets to help lift something heavy or hold on to something while Don gets a screw started. Sami’s feeling a little guilty, but then seldom does an interesting project like the history come along.

Sami did lay out all of the decorative tile on the living room floor the other day to make a plan about which tile goes were. She hasn’t been a total slackard. (Guess who wrote this one)

Back At It - Slowly

There were lots of interruptions in the remodel this summer. We spent much of August and some of September at our “other house,” Spindrift (the Library Cottage). We worked while we were there. Sami served as the general contractor and Don repaired old, worn out bits and pieces. Sami also got a good start on writing the history of the Cottage.. fantastically fascinating.

Refinishing the front screen door at Spindrift

When we were home the garden demanded all of Sami’s attention, canning tomatoes, beans and ketchup and pulling three million weeds!

Now we are slowing moving back into our own remodel. Don systematically finished the installation of the first twelve windows.

Lots of steps

Don is sitting on his home-made window installation seat

All of the fixtures and tile for the upstairs bathroom are finally on hand, so we are moving ahead to put that room back together.

Tiles and fabric awaiting installation

Dare we say that the bathroom will be finished by Christmas. We hope so!