I LOVE that piece of wood! Perfect! I’m so glad that you decided not to tile around the fireplace. It just looks great, and the driftwood is such a great touch.
I also like the nickel sconce. Love airy little flirt of it.
I would actually be inclined to use the same tile combo in the master. It’s very nice-looking, and there is something to be said for continuity, especially in a small house. Sometimes a lot of variation in bathrooms is more strained-looking than attractive, to me. I prefer a certain neutrality combined with quality. There are a lot of houses where it appears they went all out on the master suite, and the other bedrooms and “hall” bath are bland little el cheapo boxes. (Not that that applies to this house.)
That is going to look awesome on the mantle. You have incorporated some really nifty design touches that will only be enhanced when the new owners move in with their furniture, etc. If I win the lottery before this house sells, I’m going to fly out to take the tour of the finished house
After seeing the photo of the log, Mr. commented, “It would be good for the cats. Nice, soft wood for rubbing their whiskers and scratching their claws!” Men.
Definitely use the driftwood for the mantle. It will get an extra $20K in the selling price!! Seriously, it’s touches like that that make someone fall in love with a house, so they wind up bidding emotionally instead of rationally.
I’ve largely given up House Hunters except for a few international episodes, so now my only HGTV addiction is Fixer Upper. Joanna would be all over that driftwood. She has her carpenter take reclaimed/recovered wood in many episodes and make mantles, tables, movable kitchen islands, etc. I am guessing that it’s very much the thing now, though the disclaimer is that I’m a Southerner with a house full of traditional furniture. However, if I could toss it all and start over, I would very much go after that casual, comfortable look that is so in vogue right now.
I’m definitely going to go with the driftwood, but on top of the cost of the piece of wood (don’t ask), it’s going to take some rework and engineering to get it to sit flush and correct on the mantle. We are going to clean it, I have to give the cut end a little grey wash to match the rest of it and then it will be sealed with a satin/matte sealant so it has just a little bit of sheen.
Today was pressure day to select tile for the main bathroom. I loaded some pictures of all the tile samples set up against the back of the vanity for coloring. Because the vanity has a strong color and it has a lot of design in the front, I need to go somewhat neutral for the tile in this bathroom. I don’t want to overwhelm with ‘too much’ going on. Also, I need to appeal to the largest percentage of buyers since I took a risk with the vanity.
I’m going to save the ‘final’ selection as a little surprise.
Also, we finished all our wood trim on the exterior and are going to have final painting on Saturday, plus more painting on the interior
I do like ‘Fixer Upper’ because she has great ideas. Reclaimed wood is the latest thing out here, but it is usually done in a contemporary style against ‘industrial’ in a lot of the new restaurants. It will be probably be out of fashion soon, hopefully not before I sell the house
For some reason I did not take a picture of what I finally chose as the flooring tile. My agent came over yesterday afternoon and helped me go through all the mix and match selections and we have chosen a very muted palette with different textures. I splurged on the floor tile and shower inset and am trying to find a good price on the large quantity of shower wall tile to balance the splurges.
Now that the kitchen sink has been installed down into the sink cabinet (minimal cutting - I have no idea what the big fuss was while I was gone), I had the countertop guy come over and measure what we need for the countertops. Most ‘prefab’ countertops that are purchased come with a standard 6" backsplash. I have decided that I want an 8" backsplash because I want the backsplash to go all the way up to the window behind the sink and I want the countertop material used for a nice ledge on the window sill. So this means I either have to buy 4 pcs prefab so he can cut out the large backsplashes or I have to buy ‘slabs’ and everything will have to be fabricated with labor.
I am very lucky because my countertop guy (who I have used for over 5 years) invites me down to his yard and I can look through a lot of slabs left over from other projects. He has two large gorgeous pieces of Calcatta marble in his yard that he wanted me to use. Normally these slabs would be about $1,000 each. He is giving them to me for $300 each, so that would be $600 for the entire material cost. I loved the marble but there was some ‘red’ veining in the corners of the marble that I did not like. He promised me that he would cut around these red veins - I told him they could not be on the main countertop area, if he needs those corners of material please put them behind the sink or behind the stove where they will not be visible.
The only issue with using ‘slabs’ is that I am going to be paying a large fabrication labor cost, more than I normally would. This is because he has to create the square edging by hand and he is going to have to make the backsplash by hand.
While smaller tiles do look cool on floors, they come with a baggage - lots of grout! Cleaning the grout (unless you use epoxy) is a major pain in the rear. Larger, non-skid tiles would be preferable, IMO.
Yesterday my carpenter finished all the trim work around the windows and doors in the house. We went with beefy 4" trim and it looks really nice (instead of standard 2" casing around doors). He also positioned the new vanity into the back bathroom to figure out the complex plumbing to install the faucet and drain. As soon as he put the vanity into the room I realized that the wall color is just not right. To save money I told them to paint up both bathrooms with some left over Swiss Coffee satin paint. Unfortunately the Swiss Coffee has a ‘yellowish’ tinge to it and it just does not look right in the grey/white bathroom. Here we go again! repaint the bathrooms. I’m sure the other bathroom will have the same problem
To get the wide wood trim around the front windows he had to go up on the roof and tie a rope around his waist. The rope is looped around the fireplace chimney. Then he hung down from the top to get the pieces of wood screwed in around the windows. Yikes! it was kind of scary.
Laundry room all complete with 220 outlet for electric dryer, hot/cold water outlets for washer, drain for washer and vent system for dryer. Although the little laundry room seems small in pictures, it’s actually nice and large and we will have a large pantry closet in there also.
Lots of painting completed yesterday - 2nd coat of the green on the siding and all exterior trim painted in with 2 coats of semi gloss
A couple of pictures loaded - see if you can see the yellowish tinge in the wall paint compared to the tile and vanity installed in the back bathroom
I think you made the right call about repainting the bathroom walls. I would go with a color that has just a hint of blue/grey/etc.
BTW, I love how the painted siding looks! You picked the right color. It perfectly complements the whites (trim, wall, clouds!) and the gorgeous blue sky.
With two coats on the siding, the color is really singing. Agree about the bathroom paint. Sorry, Swiss coffee is my go-to trim color, but not with the gray/white. Will have to remember that for when we do our bathroom!
I do not like that curvy tile, I forget the name of that design. It just screams “old” to me. My mother had that pattern in her harvest gold Solarium floor back in the '70s. Not a fan.
And BTW, the tile in the back bathroom is octagon, not hexagon. So if you do the octagon in the main bathroom, it will be similar to the back bathroom. Although the main tile size is different, so it would probably be ok. Unified, but different, yeah that’s it.
ETA: apparently that’s called a “lantern” pattern.
