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 :)

Windows, doors, and mores

Sorry things haven't been more exciting. Updates this week have included having lots of long conversations with Darren my new BFF in the Lowe's construction department. Darren is a sweet guy, in fact everyone in the store has been so awesome and great at answering my plethora of questions... but Darren and I talked about 30 times in the last few days and not once did he get annoyed!

We talked both about windows and siding. I got an estimate from a great contractor Darren suggested that is an installer Lowe's uses and we are looking at a few different products. When I look at windows I want the most energy efficient I can get for the price. But I also want them to look pretty spiffy too. There are a few options but I think I'm going to go with the middle of the road on efficiency. They are a tiny bit more, but my estimations gave me about $200 per window and with PaPa's discount doing that middle of the road gets us right there. The lower end is $160 so if we want to save we can always go with that... but I really want to do the right thing here. This can save us so much in the end.

They are the Thermastar double hung by Pella

The pic to the upper right is the style our neighbors chose - which I kind of like.. Its a little bit Craftsman style, but I probably wouldn't put the grid thing on the bottom. The cost actually also includes screens, which is awesome, since all of the screens on the south side of the house are shredded. No... seriously... I will have to post pics of that.

I don't think I'm going to have much room in our budget but I REALLY want a new back door. The one we have is literally falling off, its a miracle we haven't gotten broken into because I think someone could probably break it down if they really wanted to. The one I want is white, has a nice window, but the blinds are ... get this... BUILT IN! EEEE!!!

And a normal storm door. My grandfather thinks we're already at an upgrade because the door we have now isn't made of wood and doesn't go SMACK when you let it close. Its actually metal and every hail storm it still stands... somehow.

So... here's my question to you, dear readers... On the south side of the house we have this two windows that are exposed to a huge amount of sunlight. And they've been pretty well taken out via hail damage, rain, time, and other such things. Someone suggested putting an awning over them. Something like what's on the left - which is super cute. Is it practical? Is it effective and efficient? Does it help protect against full sunlight and the elements?

What are some other options or alternatives?

Ideas? Thoughts? Recipes?

Master Bathroom Design Dilemma

I posted photos of the master bathroom and all of its horror.... but the major problem I have with that bathroom is that its about 6 feet by 8 feet in size. Long bathroom... not a lot of room. The bath tub/shower is about two feet from the vanity and sinks. This makes things pretty tight and impossible to turn into a true master bathroom.

Behind the bathroom (which is to the north) is the furnace and a linen cabinet that is accessible from the hall way. To the west of the bathroom on the other side of the wall is the hall way from which that linen cabinet is accessible. From within that hall way there are two hall closets both about 4 feet deep.

My mother's suggestion was to move the furnace because evidently furnaces should be in the center part of the house to be the most efficient in heath distribution. But one estimate on cost from a heating and air company proved to be totally unrealistic coming in at about $27,000. Another company came in and told me it was a total waste of time and money because I could just build into the hall way. I'd anticipated that, but it them limits the closet options for the "piano room" which I've now put a bed in for use as a guest room or sitting room.

I drew up some plans with a neat program I got in the back of a bathroom book I found at Lowe's. The book was $20 but like I said... software! If I break down the wall between the current bath and hall as well as the wall between the two hall closets and create a wall linking everything together - you basically connect a 6X8 foot space to about a 6X7 foot space.

My dilemma is how the heck I create essentially a Jack and Jill bathroom with a large tub, separate shower, two vanities, and a toilet and moving the least amount of plumbing.

Click to make larger

The quick fixes

This is the before photo of my grandfather's bedroom. He chose the color... a little too much for me :) but its what he wanted.


Kitchen we installed a new ceiling fan that puts off more light, removed the awful flowered wallpaper on the soffit and painted it red. The red actually matches the color in my grandmother's dishes that are in the cabinet. On the actual wall I put up a beige wallpaper that looks like bricks.

Before Photo



Before Photo

Before Photo - the coolest thing about this room is the door there. You might remember from the original photo that there was a giant mirror, well once we removed the mirror to freshen up the trim, doors, molding etc... we found that the original owner of the house had signed behind the door. SOOO cool so we kept that part, and I hope to find one of those frames you can put around stuff like that... put a plaque on the wall or something neat.
Before Photo




Paint color is something I can't remember but I can find it on the sample and share later. The linens in the "piano room" which is now a guest room of sorts were on sale at Target. All of the wallpaper has been removed, plaster patched, and painted. Molding, trim, and doors have been painted with a high gloss white. And you can't see on the built ins in the Living Room but the knobs are these great crystal knobs I got from ebay for like $2 each.