End result

It's November. No, it didn't take that long to finish, just for me to get around to taking photos and posting them. Here's the end result.

So close and yet so far

It's the little things that hurt the most sometimes.

The plumbers came last week to finish up, and discovered:

1. The sink was the wrong color (oh, and they only discovered this after installing it and then opening up the box with the toilet and recognizing that was a completely different color). Interestingly, the box the sink came in says "Biscuit," but the sink was white.


2. The toilet sits snug against the wall. So snug, in fact, that the tile base trim is too wide and would have to be removed before the toilet could be installed.

The carpeting went in without a hitch and looks great.

So here's what's left.

• Touch-up paint (they come back on Friday)
• Sink install (two week wait to get the right sink)
• Toilet install (they'll do that when they come back to do the sink)
• Fix the tile base around the toilet
• Install the towel bars, TP roll holder, and robe hook
• Shower door/glass and mirror (also about two weeks)
• Carpet install in the hallway and stairs (I bought that separately from the carpet store down the block; it goes in next Tuesday)

I bought a bed and two nightstands; they were delivered today. Also bought a new TV (seen in photo below) that was delivered today and will be wall-mounted a week from Saturday. And I bought a Shoji screen to separate the bedroom area from the office area. I'm not sure when the window treatments will be in. But I'm going to try to get the bed set up on Saturday so I can move in (even though I'll still have to use the upstairs bathroom for a couple of weeks).

Here are two views of the bedroom. See my Panasonic 42" plasma and all the spots for touch-up.

And two views of the bathroom. See my shower fixtures and my uninstalled toilet.

Closing in on the finish line

Hard to believe, but it's down to the last week or so before it's all done.

The vanity top was installed on Monday; the tile guy came back and finished up yesterday and today. The finish plumbing is supposed to get done tomorrow, and the carpeting goes in on Monday. After that, the painters will be back to touch up the paint, and the last thing (which may still be a couple of weeks) is the glass for the shower and the mirror.

Here's how things look so far.

The closet: The hallway leading from the stairs to the bedroom:

My new bedroom:

My vanity with countertop and backsplash:

A closeup view of the backsplash as it wraps around the half wall that separates the vanity from where the toilet will be:
Another view of the vanity. (The sink is just sitting there for now; it's not hooked up yet.)

Color and texture and fabric, oh my!

Things are progressing, and it's all visual now. Light switches and fixtures starting going in today and will get finished tomorrow. Soon the vanity top will be ready and then the finish plumbing and the rest of the tile work gets done. This Thursday I'm taking a personal day off from work to help with figuring out how to install my new closet system.

I ordered window treatments today: Bali Flat Roman Shades (it's the style on the left):


And here's the color/fabric choice I went with (not that you can tell much from the picture):

I also ordered my new bedding from Overstock.com:

And I've been deciding on towels for the bathroom, and all the bath accessories.

I swear when this is over I'll never make another decorating choice for as long as I live.

Glorious Color

All the angst about color was worth it.

Up til now the painters have been doing priming and masking, but today there's color on the walls.

And it's even better than I imagined from the paint chips.

Here are my colors (or at least the best approximations you can get on your monitor), all from Benjamin Moore.

This is for the walls in the hallway leading from the stairs to the bedroom. It's the same wall color for most of the upstairs of my house: Baby Fawn. (Aren't baby fawns spotted?)

This is the bedroom walls: Bennington Gray. (I don't know why it's called "gray," but it looks beautiful on the walls; not too light and not too dark.)

This is the bathroom wall color: Fairview Taupe. (Taupe??? It just looks like the most luscious brown ever to me.)

And this is the trim color, for moldings, walls, and ceilings: Swiss Coffee. (Coffee??? I don't care if it's Swiss or anything else; no matter how much milk I've ever put in coffee, it doesn't come out anything close to this color.)

According to my project manager, we're about three weeks from finishing. Tomorrow the countertop folks are coming to make the template, and it'll be a week or so until that's done. I've been trying to set up a time to meet the glass guy and talk about shower door and mirror. But nothing much can happen until the counter is in place. Then they'll complete the tile (backsplash, cove base, and redo the shower tiles that were cut wrong), do the finish plumbing (sink, toilet, faucet, and all the fixtures in the shower) and and electrical (light fixtures, switches, plugs), carpeting, and install the closet system (which is in boxes in my garage).

Then comes decorating. I've already picked out my new bed:


And my new nightstands:


And maybe this armoire for my TV:

All are from http://www.affordable-beds.com/.

And I found this Shoji screen I really like at http://www.iroomdividers.com/ to separate the bedroom area from where my office will be: I'd kind of like to get a new desk too. I'm thinking of something like this (from West Elm):

But after all this is over, I'm not making another decision for a year!

Dizzy on the color wheel

All of a sudden things seem to be coming together really well. The tile is done (sort of, but keep reading), and all the carpentry is done. The painters started today with priming the walls, and they'll be painting for the better part of the next week.


Picking colors was the hardest part of this project, which is silly, since it's the one decision I am not locked into forever. If I really don't like the colors, I can always repaint. But I kept considering one color palette after another, asked all kinds of friends for advice, and never got any closer to making up my mind. Finally I went to a paint and decorator place near where I work and got some advice, and then I just went with them, because they're the professionals.


So, as for the tile, it looks just incredible. I'm very psyched. But it turns out that the tile setter cut the wrong size holes for the shower, and he's going to have to redo some of them.

See the blue box? That was supposed to be a template for the opening for the two shower tiles. But you can see he just cut tiny little holes for the shower tiles. That's no big deal, because he can use his grinder tool to cut them bigger. But he used that template to cut the holes for the controls -- the big square holes on the left -- and the only solution there is going to be to cut the tiles out and replace them. He'll do that when he comes back to do the backsplash, which won't happen until after the countertop for the vanity is in place.

The vanity looks great! You can't tell from the picture because it's so dark, but it really does.

Mud

The tile people have been at it since Thursday, but they still haven't actually laid any tile. Last week they built the mud pan for the shower, and today they got the floor heat down in what looks like a very liquidy mud pie. I guess it all has to dry before they can do much more.


I decided to go with the John Louis Home Deluxe Organizer closet system in Red Mahogany, along with some extra accessories to fill it out.

Color my world

So now I'm leaning toward another closet option:

I like this because it's made of natural hardwoods, and it's a lot cheaper than the other two options. Shipping is included, and I can have my construction guy, Dustin, install it. But it's a bit of a risk, since I can't see it beforehand to know if I like it. I'll make my final decision this weekend.

Here's my new bedroom, now that drywall is done.

Tomorrow they install the heated bathroom floor and the tile in the shower.

Meanwhile, I'm struggling to pick colors. Here are some choices I'm considering for my bathroom. There's the tile, the mosaic pattern that'll be interspersed, the vanity top I'm leaning toward, and the vanity. Of course, none of the colors is accurate in the pictures.

I'm really not at all sure which way to go. I am leaning to the very dark purple/brown in the top photo, second from the left, for the bedroom, but I'm waiting to get a carpet sample before I make up my mind.

In the closet

Fifteen days of construction are past. All the plumbing and electrical rough-in is complete, and they're almost done hanging drywall (but just hanging; they haven't started all the mudding and sanding).

My challenge this week has been in trying to select a closet system. I've looked at four options, and I've narrowed it down to two, I think.


The question is whether to go with a more built-in, furniture look (from Closets by Design):


or a more modular look that's also more flexible (from The Container Store):

The pictures are just samples, of course. They are very close in price. The Closets by Design is Melamine on particle board, kind of like Formica, and it feels and looks kind of cheap and fake. The elfa closet from The Container Store is natural wood laminate on top of what the saleswoman described as a "honeycomb-like" manufactured structure. Although the structure isn't real, the feel is more solid because it's real wood. Both come with a lifetime warranty.

Opinions, anyone? Help me get out of the closet and on with my life!

Day Ten

They've been at it for ten days. The framing is done, the plumbing rough-in is done, and the electrical rough-in is underway. Next week they'll be repairing the concrete and probably will start drywall.

I selected a light fixture for inside the closet. It's Energy Star rated, using compact fluorescent bulbs:


Here are some pictures after ten days of construction. This one shows the framing for the closet and bathroom:

Here's the shower, or what will be the shower. You can see the shower head and two body tiles just right of center, then just to the left of the tiles is the connection for the hand-held, and to the left are the three valves. The leftmost valve controls just the main showerhead. The next one over from that turns on water for either the body sprays or the handheld, and the one just below that switches between those two. I won't be able to use the body sprays and the handheld at the same time; it's the compromise I had to make to get everything I wanted without spending an extra $10K.
Here's where the vanity will go. There's a half wall on the left.
And here's my new electric tankless on-demand hot water heater (with the cover removed). This will hook up only to the main showerhead. The other three will draw from my existing tank. I was astonished at how small it is. But it draws 28,000 watts of power.

I had to make decisions about locations on all these valves and sprays this week, plus the locations of wall switches, outlets, and light fixtures. It wasn't easy.

Complicating it all, I had my new alarm system installed on Wednesday... and fixed on Thursday... and fixed again today, Saturday. He programmed it wrong, and there were other wiring problems, and he disconnected my phone in the process. Today I found out that he wasn't the only one who disconnected my phone. It turns out that when they removed the phone jack from the downstairs bedroom, they reconnected the wrong wires. I finally got it all working. Now I just need to paint where the old alarm sensors were replaced with new ones.

Fun!

Dust

It's everywhere.

I'm not sure it's right to call it dust. It's this layer of powder that settles on everything, in everything. It's white, except when I spray it and wipe it, it's dark grey.

I guess it's going to be my friend for the next couple of months.

I'm hoping the worst of it is from them breaking up the concrete slab, which happened last week, but I know there's be plenty more when they get to the drywall phase.

They got rid of all the debris, and they have put in the rough framing of the spaces. The closet is smaller than I imagined. It's going to be a good size to store all my clothes, but I don't think it'll end up being a dressing room. It's still hard to judge.

Anyway, it's exciting to see the space actually laid out after just one week. Still a long way to go.

Mezuzah

I have a home alarm system, and the remodel means moving a few things around. Motion detectors were on walls that no longer exist, or that would detect motion inside the closet.

In the past I've worked with one alarm company, but they've been just awful about responding to my phone calls, so I decided to look into a new alarm company. I Googled, and found a company. I called them last Friday, and I talked to the owner. We made an appointment for someone to come over this afternoon and check things out.

A guy named Sam showed up as scheduled. The first thing I noticed about him was that he was wearing a Star of David on a chain around his neck. This is Seattle, not New York, so while Jewish people are not thought of as a different species, we're still something of a rarity.

Anyway, he spent an hour with me looking over everything and figuring everything out. At the end he said he'd tell the owner to give me a good deal, and I said, thanks. Then he said, "You're Jewish, right?" I said, "Yes." I'm pretty sure the only reason he'd figure that out is from the Mezuzah on my door. (It certainly isn't from my last name.) He said that the owner is Jewish and he likes to give a break to Jewish customers. He asked me where I go to synagogue. I told him I'm a lapsed Jew. He said he is, too, but he occasionally goes to an orthodox synagogue.

I'm not sure how ethical it is to give favored pricing on the basis of religion, but I'm not unsure enough to reject it. I guess it pays to post a Mezuzah on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.

Day One

They started this morning, bright and early.

Yes, they were supposed to start last week. But they made up for it today with a great start on the demolition.