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.

Three bandaged fingers, two broken nails, and a partridge in a pear tree

Since my fleeing the attic a few days ago, I was successful in cleaning things out up there.  Granted, I had to bring Rudy (the in-laws' 85-pound dog) to keep me company, but it's done.  

This week has been mainly devoted to the bathroom.  Trevor and I both took turns ripping it apart, and it turned out like this:



After I removed the mirror (which I did before wielding the sledge hammer) I had to take a picture of what was behind it. In addition to the pink, check out the texture of that dust. I really thing I could have measured depth, like 1/8-1/4 inch or so. They don't make it like that anymore.

I made a lot of phone calls to find our best price for the Carrara marble tile we decided to use on the floor.  After a fair amount of deliberation, we decided to use marble even though everybody says it's fragile.  Todd's going to try really hard to not wear his high heels in the bathroom, and I will not drag my sledge hammer around after demolition is complete.  I can't figure out what bare feet could possibly do to stone, though I do suppose I will have to remember to trim my two-foot-long toenail... Everywhere else in the valley was turning up $9.95/sf (yikes) for the marble, except Home Depot, which is $3.99/sf.  Guess where we're getting it....

We also priced out radiant flooring, which came in at about $250 with the programmable thermostat.  It's now available as an electric net, so it can be cut and flipped around to fit the space.  That's a lot handier than having to lay a slab of concrete and lay a hydronic system, and it will be quite nice on those chilly mornings!

The vanity is underway, and it's going to look like the picture I posted last week.  Trevor nabbed a sink for $35, which is great.  I don't know anything about it, other than it's white, and I'm pretty sure it's porcelain.  I find the less I know about things, the better.  Before the idea of a soaker tub crossed my mind, we would have ended up with a $50 tub from Builder's Bargain.  Sometimes knowing your options isn't the best thing.  The fan, pictured, falls into the category of tolerably tacky.  It's better than the one that looked like a modernist's interpretation of a magic carpet ride.

Yesterday, I also picked up the tongue-in-groove pine paneling that I'm going to use to put a chair-rail height border around my office. It will be painted white. I was inordinately proud that my roof-rack bungee job held firm about five miles home. I did upset quite a few drivers behind me for going going ten under the speed limit and accelerating even slower than usual, but if I'd been in California, I'd probably be dead (some kind soul having shot me), so I consider the trip a success on all fronts. I love bungee cords.

This weekend, our plumber friend Eric will be doing all the plumbing stuff for the bathroom. I had hopes for installing a system that would use graywater (drainage from the sink or bathtub) to flush the toilet or water landscaping, but after doing a little research, I've concluded that a little more planning may have been useful for such an undertaking. It's apparently not so easy, plus you have to be really careful about using biodegradable soap and stuff. The book Todd's aunt gave us for Christmas about green remodeling has green-brainwashed me into entertaining all sorts of interesting methods of efficiency and conservation.

Speaking of conservation, we're using Trevor's blowtorch to light up our first fire in our fireplace tonight! Burning things is almost as much fun as smashing them with a sledge hammer.