OMG Windows

First window going in by husband and wife team from K2 Instantiations. Yay for hiring locally!

YAY! NEW WINDOWS!

So here's what I'm dealing with.




























































Yesterday morning when I was at the house doing a few things - my grandfather actually said to me "You know, I was looking at those windows in your bedroom... and they're pretty bad...." I just wanted to go.... yeah no sh*t. Welcome to the party. Let's not focus on you being late, but embrace that you showed up at all....

The windows were purchased from Consolidated Builder's Supply in Oklahoma City with a big thanks to Chad Proffit who has endured many emails and phone calls from both my mother and me. Dan Kerranat K2 Installations is the genius behind the install who begins tomorrow. Dan has the daunting task of basically redoing all of the framing of almost all of the windows in the house. Which by the way are 28 windows.

The deliver guy was super nice and obviously very careful. They arrived sooner than expected and I had to race over to the house because I wanted to make sure none of the frames were bent or glass was broken, but no worry they were all in perfect shape and well wrapped for the travel across town from their warehouse.

These windows are the highest in energy efficiency you can buy. So, we've got three things that will be happening here. First, the re-framing of the windows will create a tighter seal between the windows and the house reducing cold air leaking into the house. Second, we've got windows that are actually sealed up, where as you can see from the photos above are horrible. Even with the storm windows the amount of cold air that leaks into the house is astounding. Third, we're talking about super high efficiency glass that will stop the insane heat that we experience in the summers too.

I happily wrote them the second half of my check to pay them. Total for 28 brand new windows 6 of which feature the Prairie style lines in the upper frame was $5,177. Not bad. I'll be taking pictures of Dan and his team tomorrow and reporting on the work. It's supposed to take them a whole week there's so much to be done. And it's not cheap... $6600 for instillation.

Upstairs Bathroom Progress

Remember this? and then this?

Well the progress has continued :)

Let the games begin

I have officially purchased bathroom renovation ... stuff... and whatnot

Upstairs Bathroom Redux

So - I've basically decided on my inspiration for the upstairs bathroom.


I found tile at HomeDepot for literally 99 cents a tile that is porcelain but has that slate look to it. The thing about slate is its a nightmare to keep clean, and in a bathroom.... well... obviously that's not a happy place to have difficult to keep clean things.

Love the color of the walls - I might do a few panels of waynes coating depending on how much money I have left over.

But the biggest fight has been to find the right vanity. I thought I'd found the perfect one at HomeDepot but its an antique white which is not white enough. But its impossible to find a counter top/vanity combo that is less than 38 inches wide, white, and not over $1500.

So I kind of like these - all of which are different.







Even though this one doesn't have drawers I really like the shape of it. . . .but I really want drawers in a bathroom, right? That's a no brainer.

Upstairs Bathroom

So ... there's been a long delay before I can do anything significant on the house because I have had to wait on my loan. While I'm waiting, however... I demolished the upstairs bathroom... ya know... like ya do...
This is my BFF Peaches beating down a wall...

Shower from hell...


So... inspiration for the bathroom to be honest comes from my friends Chad and Cheyanne's master bathroom. Sage walls slate looking floors and wall tile... very sexy.


This one is my fav

Another cool countertop idea

I just got back from DC last night at 11:30pm and slept in this morning before turning on the saturday morning HGTV shows.

Carter Can featured concrete inspired quartz composite counter tops made by Caesar Stone that are so pretty. Everything Carter does is green, so he's always a great resource.


The conference was great but the highlight of my trip was staying with my friend Sarah who has a different cable package than I do. Which means the Do-it Yourself Network. I've never seen DIY, heard about it... used their website... NEVER seen anything on there. I'm a 100% believer. I'm trying to figure out how we can switch to another cable carrier or how much it would cost just to add their channel because it was so super helpful, you have NO idea! This whole show was about building closets, and I think we all know about my closet disaster experience... Which, let me just say again... I was told there was a window behind that wall.... How hard can it be, right?

Best Green Bathroom idea EVER

In looking around for other green bathroom solutions I stumbled across this.
Pretty cool huh? talk about reduce and reuse! I wonder how hard it would be to do this yourself... hurm...

Countertop Redux

I spent last weekend with friends in Wichita for a conference and met up with my friend Chad's wife who is an architect. She had several good ideas for how I could layout the master bath.

I also had a great conversation with my friend Levi who has been doing a lot of work on his own house he's been redoing. His countertop suggestion was 100% concrete. But his suggestion was never to spend over $40 per sq foot. Every estimate has been in the 60's or 70's per sq foot. Soo thats unfortunate... Given how much we need to do, I'm concerned.

There is a lot to do, but real life has gotten in the way. Since my bff who helped me start to demo the upstairs bath left I've been lazy or out of town. Next week I'm in DC for another conference, hopefully I can get myself into gear once I get back. Until then, I found a bunch of cool stuff to post about, so look forward!

The Countertop Question

Few people know Granite is actually one of the WORST surfaces you can use for your kitchen or bathroom counters because the carbon footprint is SO HUGE. I didn't know... had no idea...

I think our universal fascination with granite countertops is due to the material's tremendous strength and durability, and its aesthetic beauty. Until recently, granite was rarely seen in homes except in beautiful furniture pieces. Now we see it in nearly every mid- to high-end home, and you can buy tiles or order custom slabs at all the big-box building supply stores.

But I have a number of problems with granite and marble materials, and I don't consider many of these products at all "green." First and foremost, granite's extraction does irreparable ecological damage, slicing off enormous sides of mountains and leaving behind altered landscapes and dangerous waste. Granite countertops are gas guzzlers—they create a great big carbon footprint from the energy used to mine, transport, and fabricate rough slabs into beautiful countertops somewhere far away from the stone's original source."

So... understandably I've been looking elsewhere. My options at Lowes are ... laminate apparently. I need to go into the store and ask, however... because they might have other options that aren't on the website. Stone was suggested because it can be reclaimed, or I can look for reclaimed stone... and other recycled materials. One of the most interesting options that was suggested was concrete.

Check these out:

From Concrete Network but they're a little too far away from me... but I love this look!

I actually also found two that had information online and I liked their style Advanced Concrete Designs and Artistic Stone Surface - but only one has emailed me back thus far.

Also an option - Lithistone...?

seen here from Lithistone.net
They're located in Colorado... closer to us... but still a little far away, right? Using local workers is both green and helps promote the state. I'm a fan.
Another option - Ice Stone
From IceStone.biz this is SUPER hawt looking and THEY have a vendor in Tulsa, OK


These guys need better photos that are more detailed and bigger, but another favorite is a company called EnviroGLAS which mixes recycled glass and concrete. Their black version looks pretty much like black granite. Video


Obviously, cost is going to be a major part of this. I hadn't intended to do counter tops but I got a lecture from my mother that if I'm going to renovate the kitchen... I should do it right. To her that means putting in new countertops which would, she said be costly. Little did she know I was going to eliminate granite from any options to begin with.

Ideas? Thoughts? Opinions? Feel free to weigh in any time :)