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Saturday, July 7, 2012

I Need a Little Blog Love + Unplanned Master Bath Reno

Well, I miss blogging.  I miss DIY, and I miss home decorating too!  I haven't written a post in over a year, but I haven't completely disappeared.

Of course I could say "things have been hectic", or "there's so much going on", but hey, those are bad excuses for someone that thrives on this creative outlet.  The truth is I haven't taken (yes, taken) much ME time in the last year and a half.  There are valid reasons for that, but suffice it to say I'd like to be "back" at this.

Since it's been so long, here's a recap of the last year:

Backyard was re-done
We got a new couch
We got a new bed
I learned how to seal granite counters
I became addicted to Pinterest
I made a lot of projects around the house
Water heater broke
Leak in bathroom wall lead (is leading...) to an entire renovation (of course, unplanned)
Little Man grew, and grew, and grew, and is doing all sorts of fun things
I took up couponing as a hobby
I got out of the habit of crafting, thrifting, and DIY-ing (but this is an important start back to that!)

Item # 7 on the list is the most pressing right now.  We have an open construction zone in our house and it's been there for 6 weeks already.  It started with a re-caulk, found a leak, found mold, bathroom taped and sealed off, dried out, air purifiers, holes in the walls... and we land where we are today, with an open construction zone, and no estimate of exactly when phase 3 (construction) actually starts.

Good news is we caught the problem early enough for the damage to be covered under out homeowners policy.  Everyone should check if mold damage is part of their policy because it's quick to grow, expensive to deal with, and not always covered.  Because I'm the designed/decorator, hubs had asked me to start picking the finishes out for the put-back portion of construction.

Here are my ideas, in what I think is FINALLY coming into a solid image in my head!

First, there's paint.  I'm going for a beigey/grey color, and this is a favorite:

Benjamin Moore, "Shaker Beige" (a top 100 BM color)



Then, the furniture/vanity.  We're replacing an old late 70's 36" vanity with a modern 60" vanity, since we had the room, and a bunch of dead space.

Estate by RSI, Avalon in Java, w/white solid surface top

   

Next, shower and floor tiles... We had laminate in the bathroom before, so this will be an upgrade for insurance purposes for us, but if we're going this far, we're going to do it as much as we can how WE want it.  So, I've picked these.

American Olean/Equinox in Cocoa, 20x20" floor tiles & 13x13 shower wall tiles:


There will also be some toiletry storage in the shower, and I like a design with two cubbies, like this:


As well as the cubbies, the shower will likely get a border of a contasting tile as a design punch.  I'm just not sure how high to put it up the wall- the tile will now be carried all the way up the wall.

But, something like this probably:


We also need new shower doors, for which I picked clear glass.  We have a large stall shower, like this one, in our master bath.

Kohler Frameless shower door:


I'm debating brushed nickel or polished high shine silver fixtures.  I think I like the shiny contrast of the high shine fixtures, but they're so much more difficult to keep clean.  But also, with the shower doors being high shine, I need it to match! 

I like this set, AquaSource 2 handle polished chrome watersense faucet

So those are my selections.  Since we weren't anticipating this reno right now, our selections are probably not EXACTLY what we would have picked if we had a real $10,000 budget.  But, I think I'll be pleased with these picks.

Hopefully I'll be popping in more frequently now.  Saturday afternoons are a treat around this house- little man is still sleeping 3+ hours on the weekends, which is affording hubs some naptime, and me some personal time (which includes blogging again!)

I hope you are still here with me and will stick around for another re-start and new posts!