Do We Have a Winner?

The glass tile samples came today. As you can see below, we think we might have a winner. Of course, we have to find a paint color that coordinates with both the tile and my stand mixer. This tile has such a fantastic variety of warm sunset colors, I have to believe we'll have plenty of color options. As for the other samples, I believe the term 'epic fail' may apply. From top to bottom:

* cobblestones - umm...they were buy 4 get 1 free...and I thought the stones would be smaller the actual cobblestones!

* the red ovals were out of stock, so there was a hand-written note on my invoice: "out of stock - try opal ovals." the opal is lovely, but what project could I possibly be doing where the two would be interchangeable?

* desert waterfall: I really do love this one. I bought it because out master bath is shades of sand and blues and some day we plan to get rid of the crappy plastic shower surround. It's too expensive to do more than an accent, but isn't it awesome?

* sunset mosaic - totally needs to be in my kitchen!'

* got twizzlers?


So now I have some fun glass tiles to do arts & crafts. I don't know what kinds of crafts, but there's got to be something!

Rookwood Red

I found out that Sherwin Williams has a fun little app on its website that allows you to upload a picture of a room and experiment with different paint colors. After 1/2 hour and every shade of the rainbow, Scott and I are still fond of the first color I clicked on.

The area under the microwave is left intentionally white, for an eventual white tile backsplash (yeah, boring, but not with a crazy-dark color on the walls).

So what do you think? I like it because it matches my stand mixer! (nope, you can't see the stand mixer past the other stuff on the counter. you'll have to take my word for it)

And Now It's Truly BATH-TASTIC!

Can you believe we're finally done? (except for touching up the ceiling and baseboards and replacing the faucet) Here's two pictures. There's lots more - before, during, and after - up on my Facebook page for those of you who are my friends there!

This picture shows everything we did: the lighting, the mirror, the towel ring, and the print. Oh, and of course the incredibly purple wall color! (I tried to tell you...)

And this picture spotlights the beautiful print we found and fell in love with at World Market. I voted to paint the frame white, but Scott voted to do a brushed nickel finish so that it would match the light. He was absolutely right. The print just pops on that back wall, and it's positioned so that it looks just as pretty reflected in the mirror when you're sitting on the potty or when you're standing at the sink as it does when you're looking at it straight ahead.

*tear*

I'm so proud of us! I'm absolutely beyond thrilled with the final project... so if you don't like it, please go easy in the comments.

It's a Cat Day Today

Milo and I have a common personality trait: desire to curl up in a comfortable spot for as long as possible. After all, who needs work when there's a warm comfortable place to nap?Meanwhile, Elph is more the dominant task-master type. Here she's either saying "don't forget to flush," or "this room should be painted by now...stop slacking!"

Poor thing...since she's smaller than the boys, she'll probably always be my little black kitten. Of course, you can see here she's definitely more cat now. And look at that puffy raccoon tail! She still has it! So cute!

(just one) Mission Accomplished

I did our 2009 tax return today. Of course, I couldn't file because the IRS now requires paper documentation to prove that we bought a house. Because apparently last year they didn't require any proof and - surprise, surprise! - people claimed houses they didn't own! So now I just need to print, attach copious amounts of paper, and send via certified mail.

My 'honey do' list today was much longer than just that, but I fizzled out early. I didn't re-texture the patches on the bathroom wall, or tape & tarp the bathroom in preparation for next weekend's painting extravaganza, or grocery shop... Today was pretty much an epic failure.

But boy, did I need the rest!

So now I embark on another four-day work week, followed by the aforementioned taping & tarping (now scheduled for Thursday while Scott is at work), priming on Friday, and painting on Saturday. Then all that's left is the mounting (heh) of the mirror, the new towel ring, and the artwork above the toilet.

Actually...

Here's a list of actual things that Scott and I did today:

1. Trip to Lowe's to buy paint, primer, and a new towel holder for powder room.

2. Removal of old towel bar, using sharp blade and new pry bar.

(also bought pry bar and mallet at Lowe's during #1)

3. Discovery of two perfectly rectangular holes behind old towel bar.

4. Discovery that builders installed vanity light without a junction box and that installation of new vanity light without a junction box is impossible.

5. Googled "install vanity light no junction box," and got great instructions from diynetwork.com on how to install a junction box.

5a. Curse like a sailor, throw brief tantrum.

6. Trip to Lowe's to buy wall patches, spackle, and aerosol can of "orange peel" wall texture to fix holes where old towel bar was. Also bought new junction box. The girl in the drywall section was quite helpful. The guy in the electrical section was dumb as a box of rocks. And he looked like the boss from Office Space. Luckily, there was a nice middle-aged customer who came to my rescue. Twice. I say "my" rescue because, as a man, Scott can't ask for help. So he disappears ("hey - we NEEDED a drywall saw!") while I ask for help. It's ok. At least then I get to hear the instructions first-hand and don't need to second guess later.

7. Scott patches holes in one wall while I cut a big circular hole in another wall.

8. Realize plumbing is close to the wall and that junction box is too deep and therefore won't fit.

8a. Curse like a (&$%(# sailor. Lament that we're stuck with ugly Broadway-style lighting forever.

9. Scott uses drywall saw to cut the back off of the plastic junction box while I watch two hours worth of DVRed TV shows. Yep...two hours. The man is dedicated!

10. Anchor junction box into drywall, install light fixture, and test out lighting.

11. Go to garage and do some test-runs of orange peel texturing on cardboard (and on the garage wall). Damn, it's cold out!

12. Eat dinner of chicken tenders and fish planks at 9 pm while mocking the Olympic opening ceremony.

13. Blog about day that was supposed to be fun but, like most home improvement projects, turned out to be frustrating.

I took lots of pictures today, but I'm saving them for a full before & after. Tomorrow while Scott is at work I'm definitely going to texture over the wall patches and tape off the baseboards and ceiling. I might prime, but it's likely I'll wait for next Friday and Saturday to prime & paint when Scott is there to help. Not that there's room for two of us in there at a time...