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dendritejungleYou guys, I survived the week! \o/
*happy sigh* I'm safely and serenely ensconced in a comfy hotel room up in Huntsville with my parents dozing away at the far end of the room. Tomorrow I get to see my brother's family, and Sunday is my eldest nephew's second birthday. I can't wait.
I have SO MUCH to talk about! So I figure I'll just tackle a topic or two this post, and then do another tomorrow, etc. But first things first: y'all were tremendously pivotal in helping make my final grout colour decision, so let's do that reveal, shall we?
It was really interesting watching the poll results come in: the first 12 hours had medium grey as the clear leader, but within a day medium and light were head-and-head. Once I realized that products exist to effectly stain grout lighter or darker, I decided to start light and go darker later on if I needed to. I was quite astonished in the end at how light the grout ended up: it looks white! Still, it turned out to be a great decision, since the resulting look really pops and is just FANTASTIC.
So, just to refresh your memories, here's the before:
...and here's the final tile and grouting (but before painting).
AWESOME, EH?!?!?! :D :D :D I am SO excited, I keep grinning every time I look at it. Here's a closeup of the pebble.
Last Sunday was supposed to be a final triumphant paint job, but after ten hours (mostly plastering and sanding) I discovered that the final paint looked far darker in the small, enclosed space than I'd thought it would. WOE.
It looks okay, don't get me wrong, but I was going for a much lighter wall to (a) make the room feel a bit bigger and (b) to contrast more strongly with the dark floor. Frankly, with the current green and my red(dish) towel, I feel like a pimento in an olive. :/ NOT what I'm going for.
I was kinda heartbroken since I'd put so many hours into it, but in retrospect I'd rather have made the mistake in my small, easily-repaintable bathroom than on my endless main living space walls (seriously, I swear my place is a damn TARDIS) everywhere else! So I've learned from my mistake, got a friend in who's amazing with colour to advise me, and tomorrow will be buying sample quantities (handily, there's a Benjamin Moore right next to the hotel ;D) to actually paint test areas in a couple of colours. So with any luck *crosses fingers* I will be able to have everything all sorted for the painting marathon next weekend.
My big accomplishment this week was The New Carpet being put in. My carpet, bless its ancient pile, was original to the building back in THE EIGHTIES. Yes, my carpet is over twenty years old and kinda shows it. Given its age, it's actually held up very well, but It Was Time. I did feel kind of badly for tossing carpet on Earth Day, but hey: TWENTY YEARS OLD. It's not like I'm tossing carpet every week.
My favourite thing about getting it done was seeing the incredible job the guys did tetris-ing (totally a verb) EVERYTHING into my kitchen, bathroom and solarium. Seriously, check this shit out:
That's my solarium (i.e. the far end of my living room that the builders built a glass door across so they could call it a separate room) that is packed TO THE CEILING. Yes, that is my wicker bedframe grazing the ceiling on the right. I AM IN AWE.
This is my kitchen. My stove is behind the mattress (!!!) on the left. For those of you familiar with my bedroom and my wall 'o books, this is that set of IKEA shelves across the doorway.
My poor new bathroom. Heh.
Anyway, they did a terrific job, and I'm amused that my new carpet looks pretty much like my old one. I have no idea if y'all like before-and-after shots as much as I do, but just in case you do, here:
The before of my foyer: you can see the dirt tracks, and mercifully in this particular shot the staining from the flood a few years ago doesn't really show up. You also can't feel how the underpad has pretty much dissolved, leaving one walking pretty much on concrete with a thin veneer of matted carpet.
After. *happy sigh*
The before near my washer: lotsa stains, and my favourite bit on the right is the whitened circle of what I can only assume was once bleach that also ate through the underpadding, creating a sunken spot. Not visible are the carpet tacks which randomly poke through. OW.
After, the same area. :D I'm amused that the underpadding is so thick that the door to the washer now drags on the carpet.
Before, where I ripped out my bedroom closet doors (SO SATISFYING): a corner where a cigarette butt has lain under the carpet for over twenty years. EW. I didn't even dignify this area with an after.
I have to share the hilarious plushness of this new carpet. I swear it's not that thick, but for whatever reason everything just sinks in it like quicksand! The wheels on my poor rollable furniture are kind of ridiculously stuck...
...and when I do move them, they leave behind these rather adorable tracks. Bless.
ANYWAY. It is now stupid o'clock, so I'm going to stop blathering and post this bad boy. More later, I hope. Next up: neat workshops and cherry blossoms!
*happy sigh* I'm safely and serenely ensconced in a comfy hotel room up in Huntsville with my parents dozing away at the far end of the room. Tomorrow I get to see my brother's family, and Sunday is my eldest nephew's second birthday. I can't wait.
I have SO MUCH to talk about! So I figure I'll just tackle a topic or two this post, and then do another tomorrow, etc. But first things first: y'all were tremendously pivotal in helping make my final grout colour decision, so let's do that reveal, shall we?
It was really interesting watching the poll results come in: the first 12 hours had medium grey as the clear leader, but within a day medium and light were head-and-head. Once I realized that products exist to effectly stain grout lighter or darker, I decided to start light and go darker later on if I needed to. I was quite astonished in the end at how light the grout ended up: it looks white! Still, it turned out to be a great decision, since the resulting look really pops and is just FANTASTIC.
So, just to refresh your memories, here's the before:
...and here's the final tile and grouting (but before painting).
AWESOME, EH?!?!?! :D :D :D I am SO excited, I keep grinning every time I look at it. Here's a closeup of the pebble.
Last Sunday was supposed to be a final triumphant paint job, but after ten hours (mostly plastering and sanding) I discovered that the final paint looked far darker in the small, enclosed space than I'd thought it would. WOE.
It looks okay, don't get me wrong, but I was going for a much lighter wall to (a) make the room feel a bit bigger and (b) to contrast more strongly with the dark floor. Frankly, with the current green and my red(dish) towel, I feel like a pimento in an olive. :/ NOT what I'm going for.
I was kinda heartbroken since I'd put so many hours into it, but in retrospect I'd rather have made the mistake in my small, easily-repaintable bathroom than on my endless main living space walls (seriously, I swear my place is a damn TARDIS) everywhere else! So I've learned from my mistake, got a friend in who's amazing with colour to advise me, and tomorrow will be buying sample quantities (handily, there's a Benjamin Moore right next to the hotel ;D) to actually paint test areas in a couple of colours. So with any luck *crosses fingers* I will be able to have everything all sorted for the painting marathon next weekend.
My big accomplishment this week was The New Carpet being put in. My carpet, bless its ancient pile, was original to the building back in THE EIGHTIES. Yes, my carpet is over twenty years old and kinda shows it. Given its age, it's actually held up very well, but It Was Time. I did feel kind of badly for tossing carpet on Earth Day, but hey: TWENTY YEARS OLD. It's not like I'm tossing carpet every week.
My favourite thing about getting it done was seeing the incredible job the guys did tetris-ing (totally a verb) EVERYTHING into my kitchen, bathroom and solarium. Seriously, check this shit out:
That's my solarium (i.e. the far end of my living room that the builders built a glass door across so they could call it a separate room) that is packed TO THE CEILING. Yes, that is my wicker bedframe grazing the ceiling on the right. I AM IN AWE.
This is my kitchen. My stove is behind the mattress (!!!) on the left. For those of you familiar with my bedroom and my wall 'o books, this is that set of IKEA shelves across the doorway.
My poor new bathroom. Heh.
Anyway, they did a terrific job, and I'm amused that my new carpet looks pretty much like my old one. I have no idea if y'all like before-and-after shots as much as I do, but just in case you do, here:
The before of my foyer: you can see the dirt tracks, and mercifully in this particular shot the staining from the flood a few years ago doesn't really show up. You also can't feel how the underpad has pretty much dissolved, leaving one walking pretty much on concrete with a thin veneer of matted carpet.
After. *happy sigh*
The before near my washer: lotsa stains, and my favourite bit on the right is the whitened circle of what I can only assume was once bleach that also ate through the underpadding, creating a sunken spot. Not visible are the carpet tacks which randomly poke through. OW.
After, the same area. :D I'm amused that the underpadding is so thick that the door to the washer now drags on the carpet.
Before, where I ripped out my bedroom closet doors (SO SATISFYING): a corner where a cigarette butt has lain under the carpet for over twenty years. EW. I didn't even dignify this area with an after.
I have to share the hilarious plushness of this new carpet. I swear it's not that thick, but for whatever reason everything just sinks in it like quicksand! The wheels on my poor rollable furniture are kind of ridiculously stuck...
...and when I do move them, they leave behind these rather adorable tracks. Bless.
ANYWAY. It is now stupid o'clock, so I'm going to stop blathering and post this bad boy. More later, I hope. Next up: neat workshops and cherry blossoms!
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
(no subject)
Date: 2010-04-24 05:39 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2010-04-24 09:45 am (UTC)!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
did you have that when i visited? we didn't have ours when you visited us.
(no subject)
Date: 2010-04-24 09:45 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2010-04-24 12:47 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2010-04-24 11:48 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2010-04-24 12:43 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2010-04-24 12:42 pm (UTC)I have loved that shower curtain SO MUCH over the years (and yes, I did have it when you stayed with me - but goodness knows I've got a lot of visual distraction in my bathroom/around my place so it would be easy to miss), but it's finally gotten irrecoverably grotty. And they no longer sell them up here. WOE.
(no subject)
Date: 2010-04-24 12:38 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2010-04-24 01:30 pm (UTC)Girlfriend hazard pay, hrm?
I'll have to think about that...
(But honestly, once we opened the windows, they weren't that bad at all...)
(no subject)
Date: 2010-04-24 12:17 pm (UTC)Were you able to take some advantage of the home tax credit (ie bought stuff before the deadline)? It really helps with the bottom line.
(no subject)
Date: 2010-04-24 12:50 pm (UTC)I was able to take advantage of the tax credit: my contractor is being flexible with the date of the invoice. ;) Also, I bought a lot of the supplies in January.
Edited because that was NOT the icon I was going for...
(no subject)
Date: 2010-04-24 02:33 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2010-04-25 01:37 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2010-04-24 03:14 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2010-04-25 02:43 am (UTC)If you ever come to Canada you'll have to let me know so you can come visit.
(no subject)
Date: 2010-05-02 01:18 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2010-04-25 05:26 am (UTC)For the bathroom paint colour how about matching the side of the tub? It looks...beige? Ivory? I'm not quite sure from the photo. I really like the new tiles around the tub, so pretty!
(no subject)
Date: 2010-04-25 11:25 am (UTC)Interesting through, but given that I have some other whites going on (the sink in particular is a rather unfortunately blinding blue-white) I'm a little worried that an off-white will look clash-y. My current plan is just to go with a lighter green.
I am SO THRILLED with the tub tiles. Glad you like them too! :D
(no subject)
Date: 2010-04-26 01:39 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2010-05-05 03:49 am (UTC)Ofcourse, I'm saying this nearly a week after your painting party, so I bet you've already done whatever you're doing. :-)