Backsplash Options

I can't believe we are thinking about this already. Originally I wanted to panel this whole wall in the same walnut colored oak veneer as the cabinets but it made the room too dark - it seems there is such a thing as too much wood after all - so we started to look at tiles. From left to right:Venis Dados Crema, Firenze Antracita and Trento Moka porcelain wall tiles all via Porcelanosa. A close-up of my two favorites:


Trento Moka - I'd use the silver grout to lighten contrast with the browns.


Firenze Ambar It comes in Nacar, Oceano and Antracita - all glass-look and a couple marble-look options -Carrara Blanco and Negro Marquina. Click to see all at this gorgeous Romanian site.


Similar glass mosaic tile Erin Adams' Facet by Ann Sacks.
Do any scream "gotta have that" at you?

A very important question

Chaos! Piled-up pillows and books everywhere. The paintings are stacked in the bedrooms, cartons of books line the walls of my office and the pretty pillows that decorated the big blue sectional so beautifully for six weeks (or less) are now piled up on the sofa in the master bedroom. All the tables, chairs and sofas from the kitchen, dining room and den are crowded into the great room where they'll be covered in plastic sheeting until the new floors have been sanded and sealed. My biggest problem is: Where do we put the red wine and liquor now that I've removed the bar?

Template Ready

Meanwhile back in the kitchen, the double wall oven and island range hood are installed and working


the cabinets are in, the electrics have been upgraded and we are awaiting the template guy to come measure for the Caesarstone countertops. It looks almost like a working kitchen again.

And then I lost my mind...

Because re-doing the kitchen and mud-room wasn't stressful enough I decided to replace the 1970s dining room deep-pile, formerly cream, wool carpet with the same hardwood floor at the same time. And because I have pronounced masochistic tendencies I thought I should also replace the matching carpet in the den - in the interest of cohesiveness (and cleanliness), right? We discussed the issues with the raised platform and how to scribe in to the bar/media centre, worked on a direction to run the wood that wouldn't look odd and ordered two bullnoses for the dais and Pete the flooring guy ripped out the carpet.


And that's when the plan changed. He checked the moisture levels on the sub-floor (because he is a professional) where we'd had an issue when the old window had leaked and luckily there was no elevation. We were good to go for hardwood. Then for the fun of it he checked in random spots across the room... and found we were at least two points damper on the dais and a whopping four over the scary stain that kept reappearing over the years on the carpet. When we discover things like this, not-good things, we investigate. We hunted around the basement. Nothing, We checked the moisture levels on the joists underneath. Normal. We plugged in the fan and ran a dehumidifier for hours. No moisture but the levels were still as high.


So Pete decided to pull up a few pieces of plywood to see what was going on. And.... nothing. No leaks, no mold, no dead animals. Just the support beams for the platform and the sub-floor. And the moisture level on that sub-floor? Normal! We had no explanation except trapped air but we did have a huge exposed floor. And that was when I said "Now that we've opened it up when don't we just take the platform out... and the huge built-in, too".


And so we did.

Crickets

The carpenter working on the master bath and kitchen renovations has come up with many excuses for his absence/tardiness. I thought they needed to be shared with a wider audience. They usually start with "Unfortunately..."

I forgot I had to go to court
my truck was in the shop
the part didn't come in
the door didn't come in
I'm on a roll at this other job
the other job ran over
I had a doctor's appointment
my mother had a doctor's appointment
it's going to rain
I had to finish that other job
it rained
I got stuck in traffic
my stomach was upset
I just had to stop by the other job
Snow Day!
I had to pick up a few things
I must have eaten something bad
I had to drive my mother to work
I must have picked up that bug that's going round
I woke up early, turned off the alarm and my cell and went back to sleep
I was going to work but I didn't feel better

this one was, until Friday, my favorite

someone cut through the telephone wire and the alarm doesn't work so I have to stay here until the phone company comes to fix it...

but this, this is the killer - the voicemail he left June 4 at 3:24 PM:


"unfortunately a bartender friend of mine last night played a silly trick on me not knowing I was working today and over-served me... certainly that's not a great excuse but it is what it is. I am going to be at your house first thing tomorrow the morning... I'll see you in the morning"

... and no, he didn't turn up "first thing" next morning to finish up the work.

On wheels

That whole match the cabinet to the picture idea was a real winner - twice over. We took advantage of the carpenter's absence to do a dry run of the cabinets under the window and decided to change the configuration slightly. Then we swapped the images on the window and voila - the carpenter, when he returns, will know exactly what goes where.
By moving one cabinet from the extreme left to the right side of the run we can place the dishwasher next to the sink rather than adjacent. The footprint remains the same but the countertop won't project into the room as far. This will open up in the kitchen even more, so much so that I'm thinking of ordering roller skates and waitress outfit to get around!

Pictures speak louder than...

The cabinet installation is motoring along with only one minor speed bump, a confusion over which box goes where. Yes, we do have a labelled plan and diagram but after a fifteen minute search for a missing part that wasn't missing just misplaced to a different part of the kitchen I reckoned things would go a lot faster if I printed images of the finished cabinets and sticky-taped them to the walls in the correct configuration. It worked. No more holding the plans upside down and squinting - just follow the pretty pictures...

Taped

The hardwood floor is down in the kitchen and I spent much of the weekend playing with the placement of the island. In order for it go back the direction it was before we would have had to move the extractor vent to the west by 6 " - and there is a joist in the way! We could "jump" the joist but there would be a lot of holes in the ceiling, possibly some exploratory cuts in the wall behind Verity's bed where the hvac system runs to the exterior blower and it all seemed a lot of work, plus there was the possibility of a reduction in venting power if we had to insert an elbow into the vent pipe. An easier option was to just pivot the island and run it north-south rather than east-west.



Once it was all taped out something magical happened to the feel of the kitchen, it just fit better in the room - opening it up and emphasizing its trapezoid shape. This room is the same size as the great room but it never felt as large, now the kitchen will be one large area rather than two divided and disjointed spaces. We'll also end up with fewer pinch points than before - by using the full width of the extractor fan cutout the island will be relocated 5" towards the eating area, giving me a 36" pass at the tightest place, everywhere else will have 40" minimum clear. A big selling point is that I'll be able to cook while looking out at the yard - taking in the scenery (and watching the wildlife) from my island in a sea of hardwood.

Kitchen Reno: Flooring Progress!

So far so wood...

Hot Lava

Once the fabulously decorated great room, it's now full of furniture from the kitchen and dining room - the perfect place to challenge the peeps to a game of Hot Lava!

Gone

The leaky sink and faucet, huge range hood, beat-up cabinets... all gone. But what about the elephant in the room, I hear you shout? Don't worry, we didn't discard the refrigerator just because it had tested our patience on several occasions. We simply moved* it to a temporary locale...

*four strong guys and a dolly

Great snakes alive!

Well maybe not snakes per se, just cables that used to service the island. Actually, it reminds me of Medusa's curls* but I digress. Five electric cables plus that huge black insulated one for the halogen cooktop. If you're counting that represents one for the built-in toaster, one for the electric can opener, one for the outlet and one for the range hood... and a spare.


With the island out of the way you can really appreciate the size of the kitchen - we've lived in apartments with less square footage.


*Medusa may be female but I got a preview of the stony glance that The Guy will be using on the carpenter next time he sees him. It's also the face of a man who gets back from a business trip with a case of Montezuma's revenge and finds he has to rip out a kitchen in 24 hours because said carpenter phoned in sick. If looks could kill...

Drastic but effective*

All

my

own

work

The Guy is in Mexico, the carpenter let me down three straight days in a row, the floor guy starts Monday and the kitchen needed to be out before he can rip up the carpet/vinyl/plywood. Someone had to do it and it might as well be the woman with the sledgehammer and a raging temper.
*For full-on rage I recommend cranking the volume to 50 and playing Eamon, Green Day, The Fratellis and Macy Grey until the windows shake. And no, I'm not quite over it yet!

Perfect Pillows Update

Six weeks or so ago the big blue sectional got a major dose of pretty when these gorgeous pillows arrived. They have been much admired but the Awesome Designer thought we could go the extra step and add some more gold tones for that unique touch.


So with one medium-sized remnant and some real magic (plus exact measurements and a great eye) she produced these four fabulous cushions. Absolutely inspired!

Renovation shocker

This can mean only one thing...


The kitchen renovation is actually going to start ahead of schedule.


Cupboards have been emptied, non-essentials packed into boxes to be stored in the basement


while stuff we will use on a daily basis is evenly distributed between the bar in the den and the laundry room


I knew all that extra space would come in handy


One other thing we've learnt... we probably keep too much coffee in the house!

Exhausted by Design

I'm ashamed to say I'd actually forgotten - it was a couple of years ago - blogging about this design duo who, unhampered by their family of six (now seven) young kids, manages to renovate dilapidated buildings and turn them into chic living spaces. I'm overawed by their limitless energy and ability to get things done without a) falling over a toddler or b) having a complete, rocking in the corner, hair-tearing nervous breakdown.


Add to the mix a new baby and a camera crew trailing around after them filming their reality show 9 By Design and lesser mortals (me) would be self-medicating by 10 am. The show on Bravo is my new guilty pleasure and I'll be watching tonight with a celebratory G&T. Why the celebration? After years months of planning the kitchen renovation is officially locked and loaded. Demolition begins middle May and I predict many, many relaxing cocktails over the next few months.

The Suns Shine Down On Me

There they are - the powder room suns - waiting, lurking in the dark shadows


peeping out behind the door


Gazing bemused while I wash my hands


And, while I pee, the suns shine down on me - a little judgmentally I feel.

Wallpaper: Il Sole by Cole & Son sold through Lee Jofa

Into the lion's den...

Normally The Guy's office looks like a cross between a recycling centre and the inside of a vacuum cleaner bag; papers are "sorted" into plies and allowed to settle until they've accumulated at least 4 cms dust; found objects, such as cairns (the stones not the dogs) will be strategically placed on the piles to mark who knows what along with cables, chargers, business cards and throat lozenges. Woe betide anyone who attempts to clean up this mess, and so, balanced carefully on a pile of papers or books, will be a duster, or swiffer cloth - maybe both - that he promised to use a week month ago to alleviate the worst of the dirt.
Yesterday I declared it a health hazard and took advantage of his absence to clean up. I also gifted him an assortment of box files and desk folders and sorted his documents and resources into easy to find sections. Well, I'll be able to find them, he may not be used to my filing system...


Now he has a tidy desk it's time to prettify the room - this Larry Laslo fabric Signify in Carnelian from Robert Allen is the exact same shade of red as the pendant lamp and is masculine enough to appeal to The Guy. It will be turned into roman shades by the Awesome Designer as soon as she's finished working on another little project for me...

Our cup runneth over

It's been an exhausting couple of months weeks days. We just dropped our last houseguest off at JFK International and right about now I could use a long, cold Gin & Tonic in a deep, warm bath to start a relaxing evening. Unfortunately, while I am certain to get the former, the latter will have to wait another day as we awoke this morning to the sound of water splashing over the basement floor. Normally we have a dry basement; the plumber pulled out the leaky copper pipes down there and installed new pex and pvc as part of the bathroom/laundry renovation and we had the water heater replaced eighteen months ago. That left only one other possibility: the cesspool had filled with water after the torrential downpours of the last week or two (several neighbors are still pumping groundwater from their basements). Running down to the cellar we discovered grey water coming up from the plug hole in the sink, not the usual way you expect the plumbing to work. After we sent two other houseguests home to shower we called the guy with the pumping equipment and an hour later - and a few hundred dollars poorer - we were pronounced "good" and instructed to go easy on the water use for twenty-four hours... Oh, the joys of home ownership!

Cork or Wood Flooring?

Help! Now we've decided to go for it, the only thing holding up the kitchen renovation is the flooring choice. I've gone over it a bezillion times and I'm no nearer reaching a conclusion but the kitchen cabinets are about to be ordered so I need to make a decision right now.


Here are the issues: We have a sink, water dispenser in fridge. two dog bowls, cook top and wall ovens - that's a lot of potential spills. There are seven (7) doors/entryways to this room - it flows into the foyer, powder room, dining room, great room, mud room and basement and then there is the sliding kitchen door. The foyer and great room have waxed mahogany/walnut parquet floor, the dining room is presently carpeted and the mudroom, which is off at a 120 degree angle, should have the same floor as the kitchen. Oh, and did I mention the kitchen is a trapezoid?


I need the floor to be the same level as the parquet; I don't want anything as visually intrusive as a saddle nor do I want to trip over the transitions. So no slips no trips and as unified as possible. Also eco-friendly and able to stand up to two large dogs and four indoor/outdoor cats. Then there's the New York winter with its mud, snow, ice and ice melt trekking throughout the space and the Long Island summer - pool water and chlorine plus sand from the beach. Ceramic/Porcelain/Stone tiles are not an option here - too hard on the feet and too cold (we don't have room for radiant heating).


I had planned a cork floor for the kitchen - green, easy to install and soft underfoot. The tiles are square so will follow the same pattern as the existing vinyl that works for this space. They can either be waxed or polycoated to seal and are to a certain extent self-healing in the natural state. The flooring guy asked to quote for the job tells me it will be more expensive than wood floors and more easily damaged. I think he's balking because he's used to hardwood installation. His argument? Wood floors can be stained any color, sanded down if they get damaged and are better for resale (not that we're considering selling). Interestingly, Paul Anater of Kitchen and Residential Design had a post on cork floors last week that's worth reading.


So dear interwebs, weigh in with your thoughts. What would be the ideal flooring for The Cool House? Anyone who suggests indoor/outdoor carpeting will be growled at...