Reasons why I love the fireplace

Todd and I got hit with a nasty cold a few days ago, and it reminded me why I don't normally get sick. (Because it sucks.) I've been having trouble forming coherent sentences, so I bought stuff (which requires little verbal aptitude, only the understanding of credit card usage) and got in Trevor's way instead of blogging. And sat by the fire while I attempted to work. I'm telling you, there's very little, if anything, that beats this when it is raining, snowing, or some combination of the two.

On Tuesday, the two pieces of furniture we've been waiting for arrived. We ordered them on Christmas Eve from Garrison's in Medford (which I love. I'm a big fan of good customer service, and they are the greatest. Even their delivery guys were polite and friendly.) One piece was a matching end table (its other half was has been lonely) and the other is this amazing teak console that I was enchanted by from the moment I read the little story that accompanied the floor model in the store. Apparently, India is redoing its rail system, and some enterprising individual has purchased all of the old teak railroad ties and is making furniture out of them. Cool, huh? (I know it's a little gimmicky, but it's still a beautiful piece.) It's behind the couch in this picture, with my nickel lamp on it. Just as a refresher, here's what it looked like before.

On the note of bathroom progress, the floor is down and grouted as of this morning, the walls are primed, the tile in the shower is sealed (apparently you have to spray a sealer on the grout so water doesn't soak in), and Mack of McKenzie's Creations installed our gorgeous 35" vanity yesterday. This is one knockoff that's worlds better than the original. The green on the walls was supposed to turn out a lot more sage-y than it did, and we're going to switch to a light blue. It'll be somewhere in the spectrum between ice blue and sky blue, and it should look great with the marble. And it won't make the whole bathroom glow green, like it does at the moment.  I can't believe that I'm going to get to use it every day, and I'm utterly stunned that it used to be a cramped, icky little room. So different! When it's all done, I'll post a comparison.

Trevor took the hunk of marble for the vanity top to cut it to size, cut the sink hole in it, and hone the top of it. I have hopes that a honed (matte finish) vanity and a polished (shiny) floor won't look too weird together. Then we just have to have Eric come back to finish up the plumbing, and our buddies from Precision Electric come hook up the electricity, and we'll be in business. Oh, and put the toilet back. Minor detail.  

I was going to post a bunch of bathroom pictures, but blogger is not cooperating and won't upload anything at the moment.  Stay tuned, I guess.