Rainbow

So I am really exited to choose which color to paint the bathroom. I'm so excited that I had to play around with the room using photoshop and came up with these versions of the paint color.

1) this is one of the version that I like...

2

3) and this one

4)

5)

6)

7)

8)

9)

10)

This was a quick play with color and there are a ton of different shades of blue and green, but so far I think I'm leaning towards blue again! What do you think? Which is your favorite? 

Aloha Hui hou!

Don't know what I want

I know what you're thinking - NO woman knows what she wants! But up till 2 days ago, I really DID know what kind of kitchen cabinets I wanted. I swear!

It all hit me when we went to Home Depot to take a look at counter top options. Although I would like granite or manufactured stone, I'm realistic, It's not in the budget right now. It can be revisited down the road. We grabbed a bunch of samples to compare with a piece of our floor tile that Lisa is mailing to us...

And THEN I saw the cabinet samples and thought I'd take a look there. Very bad call. Looking at the distressed cabinet samples - I was not happy with what I was seeing. If you looked at one door, it looked nice enough, but when  you looked at it as a whole kitchen - it was over done, made it look really cheap and got me doubting what I had picked out.

What hasn't changed is that I want shaker cabinet doors:

The last kitchen I bought was shaker style and I really like it. I would like all edges to be straight on the lower cabs.

I would like upper cabinets to have an arch on the top (this one has profile - don't want that - want a shaker with an arch)

What I'm unsure about is the surface. Painted or just stained? or painted and stained? or painted, distressed and glazed? or, or, or......

Painted a cream/vanilla color and distressed - just not as much as here.

See what I mean? One door would be nice, but all of them...petty much the same = too much

I know that my doors are custom made and will get a custom paint job. But what can I expect? Will it look tacky? or will it be just enough? of should I just opt for painted and let time do the rest?

I just know me....I handed my toys down to my kids in very good condition, I really took care of my things. Broke my heart that they didn't take care of my things like I did.

If I opt for not distressed....and it gets a ding or a scratch...I'm going to be pretty upset.

What a dilemma!

Aloha Hui Hou!

We lost it

It's official, we are going to lose the built in in the front room

This what it looks like now

Was hoping to get it to look kinda like this, but now it's history.

I spoke with Lisa and David today and according to the specs for the Bun Baker, it would have to be 16+" away from the wall and any other spot in the room would just be too far into the room. It is a small room as it is, putting something in that has to stand 16" from the wall any place else in the room,  just won't work.

So now the wheels are turning again, what we could do to make it look great. I would like to have stone on the wall behind the bun baker and tile/stone on the floor. The stone would have to be light colored and I am imagining it with out grout. So many new choices!

Aloha Hui Hou!

So much more than just buying it

After we finally found a stove that we could agree on, we thought that was it. Well, we thought wrong.

Today we found out that we have to have the fire marshal stop buy to make sure it's safe. Our home owners insurance has a say too. We might have to fulfill some conditions.

Now we have to make up our minds where we want to put it. Originally I wanted to put it on this wall

but I think it might be too close to the hutch. I don't want the wood drying out and cracking or the paint blowing bubbles.

Then I thought maybe in this corner and forget about the built in, clad the walls with stone and make it a nice rustic corner with a mantel?  Or just put it to the right of the archway and still have the built in?

Will have to think about it a bit more.

Aloha Hui Hou!

North/South? East/West?

The kitchen tile floor is a lot more thought intense than I ever imagined. Should it run North/South? East/West? Metal on the edge of the steps? Bullnose the steps?

One thing I was very sure of was that I didn't want one of those metal things on the edge of the steps or over the transition from the front room to the kitchen. We have them here and they are a pain in the neck to clean.

I am also discovering that every thought I am having on how I would like to have things done in the house is becoming a choice ruled by how much effort it will be to clean! When it boils down to it I guess I AM a Putzteufel! But one that wants everything stream lined for EASY cleaning.

Anyway - I degrees....lol

One of my thoughts/worries was how that tile edge will look on the stairs. There is no V tile available that could go over the edge. Lisa sent me a pic of what the tile will look like when cut - an edge that you would see - no way to hide it...

I wasn't thrilled with the thought that it would be a white line.

Last night Lisa wrote me, letting me know that there is a way to stain that edge. They did a sample that shows it will stain - but not the final color we'll wind up with.

Getting a little bit closer to what I could be happy with.

My next thought is that if the tiles run North to South the edge of the stairs would be several cuts, like a row of teeth. I thought maybe, when we reach that edge we could run a tile East to West.

See the one small piece? Upper left side?

so if you look at the stairs there would be, at the most - one vertical grout line per step edge.

Hey, don't laugh! At least I tried to give you the picture! lol 

See what I mean? The tile in the room runs North to South till you get to the stairs. Less cuts, nicer flow. I am sure that the stairs are wider than the one row of tile that I've drawn here. But they can stager it, hiding the cut where the step hits the riser.

I like the thought of one cut/grout line on each step, better than the thought of a row of teeth.

Aloha Hui Hou!

It's outta here!

So, they have pulled up the floor in the kitchen.

See the dark line on the wall? Thats from the glue they used to hold the vinyl baseboard in place. Sticky mess. When we're done, we'll have a tile baseboard, just like in the bathroom..

Even the toe kick will be tile.

This is a stove that they just shoved in the kitchen so we could buy the house (stupid loan rules)  No idea if it works or not.

Aloha Hui hou!!

Thinking about paint!

As you know we want to paint the bathroom. Looking at it I am torn between a pale blue that I originally envisioned and a strong green color. Each color has so many different hues that it won't be easy to make up our minds.

I don't want to waste a minute when we there, so I plan to hit the floor running by already having nice big color samples that I can tape to the wall and see what they look like in the light of the bathroom. Today I had a chance to stop off at the hardware store up the street to grab some paint samples for the bathroom.

I have 20 some samples and taped a few of the same color together to get a nice big swatch of color.

The paint brand the store featured was Valspar and they had something I'd never seen before and find it very, very cool. They offered these nifty foils that looked like a furnished bedroom, front room etc, BUT the walls were see thru! So to get an idea what a whole room would look like all you have to do is hold a color swatch behind the foil. SO cool!

It doesn't totally match because  you have to take natural light into consideration, but it gets my color wheels turning. It's also fun to discover something new!

Aloha Hui Hou!

End of Drama

I called Tony last Tuesday to ask what the gentleman had to say. Tony said that he called the guy and left a message, telling him if he feels he needs to call the police, then that is what he should do. So far the guy has yet to return the call. Which made Tony a bit upset. First the guy shows up making accusations, calling to follow up, throwing around his weight and then nothing.

We have come to the conclusion that if he shouldn't hear from the guy by Friday, he's just paint the sink and tuough luck for the other guy

And that's exactly what happened. I called again on Monday and Tony said not a peep from the guy. Sink is being painted - Drama over and out.

Aloha Hui Hou!

On to the next!

The next room we will be working on is our kitchen and the first thing to change is the floor.

Right now there is vinyl, really bad vinyl. Around the edges of the room there is a black line and we thought it was mold. The home inspector told us it's the glue the holds the vinyl down. Guess they used so much that it just oozed out from underneath the flooring.

Can you see the dark line along the bottom? That's sticky glue!

 When we were there last summer I got down on hands and knees to scrub the floor - didn't make much of a difference. Which was another reason to get new flooring.

The contractor looked under the vinyl and there is no hidden hard wood floor. Shucks. So we decided to put in the same tile as we have in the bathroom. From what Lisa says it's really hard tile and should hold up well.

It will cover the floor, the two steps down to the landing and the landing. I'm hoping to get a sunken floor mat on the landing. We will see if it is possible.

The doorway to the right leads out side and down to the basement.

We've decided that the tiles should run North/South

They are starting to rip it up this week or next.

Aloha Hui hou!

Few more details

I asked for a few more pictures of some details that I couldn't see in the first batch.

This is the window from the outside. They will fill out the bottom edge when the weather is better.

Here you see my socket in the draw.

Which is plugged into the socket in the back of the cabinet.

Here you see how far back it goes and the blue thing is the surround of the socket in the drawer.

This is across from the shower, a hooks for our towels.

Now all I need is a pic of the inside of the built in.

Waiting for the bid on the shower surround....once that's done I'll get more pictures!

Aloha Hui Hou!

A bit more snow

Looks like even in the Idaho desert they have a bit of snow

I'm going to need a sun lamp to get thru the "dark" months!

What do you do to get over the winter blues? Not asking Peggy, because I know her answer is move to Hawaii :oP

Aloha Hui Hou!

Before and After

Put some pics together to really show the wonderful transformation from original bathroom to "Our" Bathroom.

As you see the layout is totally different. When you look at the heating vent you see that we've gained about a foot in floor space.

The new vanity is a bit shorter than the old one, but it is much deeper. The old medicine cabinet looks great in it's new surroundings. 

The tub was beyond saving and the shower surround was 3 sheets of plastic. In the new bath we've lost the tub and the "shower" is smaller than before, but it is all tile, up to the ceiling, and we have storage! 

This was a major tight spot in the original bathroom. Also notice how nice and slim the new tank is. It has a 2 flush system. Should save us a lot of water.

My fingers are itching to paint. Originally I wanted to go for a pale blue...but right now green is kinda singing to me...I'll have to wait till we're there and see what looks best. 

Aloha Hui Hou!

I've been outted!

Today I received a letter in the mail that I should admit that I have a Farmgirl in me!

How did they know? lol

Seriously now, I somehow got on the mailing list for a magazine call MaryJanesFarm. The magazine seems to be about old fashioned values, not about the latest fashions. It covers topics like organic gardening, crafting, quilting, farming and decorating - all in a much simpler way.

We already are subscribed to the Mother Earth News magazine and enjoy reading the articles and have found some things that we might want to get for the house, like the Vermont Bun Baker.

What magazines do you subscribe to and why do you enjoy them?

Aloha Hui Hou!

And the drama unfolds

So, not too long ago I wrote about our wonderful sink and that we are getting it resurfaced. Remember? Well, I get a phone call from our contractor Lisa and she informs me that she just spoke with Tony and HE says a guy showed up in his shop last week claiming our sink was his sink, it was stolen a year ago and he wants it back.

A little stunned I agree to call Tony and find out what's going on. I reach Tony and he tells me the same story, that the guy says it's his sink, it was stolen a year ago and he wants it back. When Tony asked him how he knows it's his sink he said he recognizes a chip in the sink. The guy even called again wanting to know "what are we going to do about my sink?"

Tony asks me what I want to do. I tell him, if the dude wants to call the cops, he should. I bought it in good faith and I'm not going to just give it up because he says so.  He will have to prove it is his.

I'll keep you posted!

Aloha Hui Hou!

Done!

So! They've finished the bath (except for the shower surround) and we are very pleased! Stiff white chick doing the happy dance here....lol

They put the medicine cabinet in - I can take it out to fix it up when we get there and then I get to paint! We'll see if all that HGTV watching comes in handy...lol

So with no further ado......Our new bathroom!

I hope that will be enough light...nah, just kidding

With the hardware we picked out

Look at that! Isn't it beautiful! Smooth lines, no place for dust to collect....I love it!

Wow! All nice and white! Doesn't it look great?

I merged the two pics that I have to make this one pic. The lighting is a bit different and the angle was too, but you get the idea. 

This is the timer for the bathroom exhaust. 

The exhaust is in the light. 

Aloha Hui Hou!