I would keep the white too, I think the metal ones are too modern for a colonial.
Finished our second day of workers in the bathroom today. They got all of the drywall put back up and that was about it I made a small mistake but I can live with it. I never told the contractor that I was considering sconces on each side of the mirror instead of a bar light that had been there before. When the main guy left today he told me I needed bullnose tiles and a bar light. I said I was getting sconces and he showed me the newly fixed walls that only have the old hole for the light over the mirror. :neutral: I am sure I can call the contractor and pay more to have them switch it but I donāt think I care that much. My D21 said she thinks it will be better with a bar light anyway so she will have more than just 2 lightbulbs in there.
Tomorrow is a wasted day as the tile guy canāt come until Wednesday but itās ok because it gives me time to run around and find a replacement for the plastic shower head and look at lights and mirrors!
Iād stay with white too. I wouldnāt bother washing them. New ones are 19-39 cents or so at big box stores. They will look fresher and cleaner than you can ever get by washing them. Makes a much bigger difference than you would ever think and it costs a few bucks. You have to take them off to paint, anyway.
Thanks everyone. I spoke to a couple of home improvement people, and they told me I should put the carpet down and then paint. I listened to them, and the carpet has already been ordered, so itās too late to fix that.
Hopefully it will be fine.
You can definitely paint with the carpet downā¦ the paint people will charge you more because of the prep. Their lame reason - oh, the carpet will make the paint look differently.
Update on our little projects to get the house ready to sell.
-The shower tile is done and it looks great!! The realtor loved it. Cost about $120-150 total. Well worth it!
-Front porch light fixtures. This didnāt go quite according to plan. I wanted to take down and repaint the huge (almost 2 1/2 feet long!!) intricate lanterns on either side of the front door as well as the mounted ceiling lights on either end of the long Acadian style porch. Looked easy enough, and I found some great rose copper spray paint that looked lovely! All was going well right up until the second lantern started coming down in pieces. Fun City!!
So off we went to Home Depot for 2 new lanterns. The ones we liked were bronze instead of copper, so a different can of spray paint for the ceiling lights was also purchased. Lanterns went up, ceiling lights came down & were painted. Cost $107!!! And it looks like a new porch!!
-Front door/crown molding/shutters
Weāre not quite ready to start this project yet but the paint has been purchased. The crown molding around the 6 windows and the front door will be in BenMoore āNickleā, the front door and shutters will be in āKensington Blueā.
-Fireplace tile:
Iāve gone back and forth alot on this project. How intricate did I really want to get?? The realtor was helpful on this, actually. He liked the idea of making it stand out w/o being āfussyā. So, the tile is painted in BM āSea Frothā I then stenciled a fleur de lis in the middle and 2 scrolls in the top corners in BM āDriftwoodā. It was way easier than I thought it was going to be!
Last two projects estimated at approx $150 combined.
Not exactly home improvement, but rather new home construction; Iām very excited to be involved in the design and building of a group of vacation homes. The designs are basically mine with the help of a draftsman, and DW and I are choosing all of the finishes: doors, tile, light fixtures, cabinets, etc.
Itās a lot of fun. Iāll probably post some of our choices as we move forward.
@ChaosParent23 You achieved a lot already for a small cost. Iām glad your RE agent chimed in, that always make me feel more confident about the updates I propose to dh. Itās great that buyers will see upgrades before they ever set foot in the house, too. That nice first impression will probably extend to their feelings about the inside.
@ChaosParent23 Ooh - I love all of the colors you picked! I am terrible at picking and I only have a fw more days before I have to pick color for my bathroom.
We are on day 5 of our bathroom renovation. Day 1 - demolition and install tub and pipes for tub. Day 2 - Fix all the drywall and create a niche in the shower wall. Day 3 - nobody was here. Day 4 - Tile guys came! I thought this would be quick for some reason but nope, they only got about 2/3 of the bigger wall of the tub area done. Day 5 - Tile guys are back, not sure how far they have gone yet but they sure do take a lot of breaks!
I bought almost everything else I will need - lights, mirror, faucets, etc. Only thing left is the toilet and I will pick that up at Home Depot next week. Now I am going to start buying the things I need for the kitchen because I donāt want to be in a time crunch again like I was for the bathroom.
I like to think I do a pretty good job picking colorsā¦ Iām just not so great at the actual painting. I primed the fireplace tile and called DH in tears. I had taped the holy heck out of the fire box, but still somehow managed to get paint on it! I had a few spots that ran, another few spots where the tape pulled up the paint. I was a mess! Thankfully DH is awesome & fixed everything right up. He left me to the stenciling though, and that turned out great.
@momtogkc I love those built in shower shelves! If we were doing a total renovation, Iād definitely ask for those!
Tile is definitely time consuming. Not especially hard, but tedious. DH just tiled the 3 walls above the shower & it still took 2 days.
Anyone have experience with Murphy beds? We have a spare room off our bedroom which currently has a couchbed in it. Weāre thinking of putting two small closets in and having a Murphy bed in between, instead of the couch. The room currently has no closets.
A Murphy bed should be more comfortable for occasional guests than the couch bed. But theyāre hard to find. I found some at Costco, but Iām put off by the comments which indicate low quality, many days of outgassing, and several heavy boxes that you get to put together yourself. I thought of buying just the armature from a different place and hiring someone to build a cabinet around and in front of it. Maybe bifold doors in front of the armature could hide it.
As someone who needs to sleep on a Murphy bed every other monthā¦I hate them! So NOT comfortable. If this is in a room which will only see the very infrequent guest, thatās probably fine but if you will use it often, I would look at other options.
Most nice murphy beds I have seen are basically, when unfolded, platform beds that you put a regular mattress on. A lot of the ones that include a mattress use memory foam mattresses. Thereās no reason it should be uncomfortable.
They arenāt cheap though, and they all require assembly because the cabinets are too big.
I scheduled delivery of the bluestone for patio for May 8th. Work will start at the end of that week or the following Monday. Project has been expanded to now include the other side off the 2nd set of deck steps to the garden bed opposite that side. It will also start at the fence gate, then go around the garden bed in front of the deck into the main patio which will be off other set of steps off deck.
Evidently there are newer type āgel mattressesā - we will see how DD/SILās sleeper sofa is when it arrives, coordinated with their move (they purchased through Rooms to Go; it is a $200 upgrade from the other āstandardā mattress).
I guess if a better gel mattress could work with a murphy bed. But you may be ālimitingā the room for resale as well.
@momofsenior1 just stayed at a bnb and the bedding was amazing, daughter also agreed. The owner said they bought a featherbed down topper from Innstyle, a company who now sells to the public, not just bnb -inn owners.
I think this is the one https://www.innstyle.com/dream-on-featherbed/
I did some research, compared on amazon, and read comments about needing the fluff regularly to maintain.
We have a three inch memory foam topper at home now and Iām not a fan.
My DD and her DH built a Murphy bed in their parlor. They have a full sized regular queen bed mattress so itās great. It also works well for them as their kids are in the real bedrooms so this is for company. The cabinet and shelves cover the entire wall. They built the cabinets and bought a kit for the bed thing.
@Mom22039 - Weāre building homes to sell in an oceanside community. We saw a market niche for vacation homes and have partnered with a builder to build small (700-900 sf) homes we can bring to market for under $200k (detached homes, not condos).
Itās been fun designing the homes. My goal has been to pack a lot of features into an small, affordable package. So far we have four different floor plans under construction. All have 2 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms and 3 of the 4 plans have attached garages. In a sense, theyāre a cross between ātinyā and conventional houses. Since theyāre designed as vacation retreats as opposed to full time houses, the kitchens, bedrooms, and closets are small.
Iām currently designing a few more floor plans. But now that we have homes under construction, my focus is more on choosing finish materials such as plumbing fixtures, doors, tile, cabinets, countertops, light fixtures, etc, basically all the fun stuff. One thing is certain, itās a lot easier making those decisions on a home youāre never going to live in.
Their lame reason - oh, the carpet will make the paint look differently.