Changes at our house

It's hard to post something that pushes Norris' photo of our beautiful neighborhood off the top of the page, but there is a lot going on at our house.  Some of it has already started, and the rest will be happening over the course of the next 6 weeks.



We had several places in our master shower where the tile had cracked.  The last of these left a big hole I was unwilling to try to keep caulked.  This particular tile is no longer being made, so replacing the tiles was not an option - the whole shower had to come out. Here's one of my before shots.  I took the photo at night so the lights are reflected in the glass, but the reflections will be useful later.

Having a shower put in to a bathroom that is not otherwise going to be renovated was a little bit daunting, so we hired a professional local decorating firm, Allard and Roberts, to help with tile selection and other details. They are also acting as the General Contractor, coordinating the comings and goings of the various tradespeople.  First was the glass removal, followed by the demolition, which were both done last week.

This is what the shower looked like after the demolition. Visible in the lower right, under the left side of the window, is some water damage from the built-in shower seat. All the tilers we've encountered along the way had said these built in seats - other than the simple shelf style - leak. I will admit, when we decided to rip out the entire shower, I let up on my caulk-repair vigilance. 

Tile installers are happy to put in the simple ledge style bench, but the way the fog rolls through this elevation, I just can see the mildew growing underneath where we'd never be putting our heads down low enough to see it.  We're getting a portable steel or teak bench this time around.

Another issue underlying our tile was unevenness in the supporting framing system which may have contributed to the variety of cracking problems.  The demolition contractor also pointed out there needed to be better support where the heavy glass shower wall was attached, at the right where the demolished area meets the painted drywall.

(See that towel heater? That's not because we really love warm towels - it's because without it, they won't dry in some months - remember that fog I mentioned?)


The plumber was here on Monday to do the rough in for our new fixtures. Today we have our tile installer, Ronnie.  I took this picture of him an hour or two ago when he was cleaning up after planing the framing flat and installing new 2x4s in that area I just wrote about, as well as framing for the niche's new location.

Also notice behind Ronnie's head is the hole where one of our twin medicine cabinets was installed. Norris has enlarged the opening and installed the new supporting cross-studs for larger cabinets that we think will be esthetically more compatible with our beveled mirrors and new light fixtures. (the old cabinet was visible in the reflection in my first photo.)

Enough of the technical, behind-the-walls stuff: here's how Ronnie is charting out the plan for where the tile seams are going to wind up, top and bottom. (They will be installed horizontally).  He's already worked out where they will fall around the niche and window.

I really like the diagonal lines in this large format tile our decorators Chelsea and Sharon picked for us. Our existing floor tile is a neutral gray. This new tile combines the gray with a warmer taupe, in a very subtle pattern so as not to compete with the busier granite at the sinks.

And more pretty stuff - we're buying all new furniture for the living room.  Here are the upholstery samples - the charcoal on the top is a swivel recliner for Norris, the tweed is a new sofa, the patterned linen is an armless chair, and the slightly green-gray whatever it is (it is sort of like vinyl, but not) will cover two ottoman-benches that will replace our large coffee table.  There will be wood pieces as well - console and end tables and a storage chest. 

Here is another photo of the upholstery on our existing rug.  We don't know whether this combination - particularly the dark charcoal - is going to go with the rug or not.  We'll see when it gets here.  If not, we'll move this rug to our bedroom and get a new rug for the living area.

And lastly, just because this was too cute, is a photo I took of Lu, curled up in a very small basket we had out for our New Year's Eve cheese fondu dinner.

Lu keeps a close eye on all these tradespeople - good thing he knows how to rest up. We have several weeks of this to go, because after the tiling will come repainting nearly the entire house. No we're not doing it ourselves.  Some of these walls are more than 20 feet high.