Saturday, March 7, 2015

In which we ponder the influence 50 shades of Gray has had on our decor.

We finally sat down and chose a color for the walls downstairs.  Greg mentioned that he'd always liked the color of my living room when we lived in Chicago.  I personally thought the color was too dark and then we talked about the color of the wooden walls at Sunny Side, which are stained with a mixture of 1 part "Proper Gray" paint to 7 parts water.  We found a color that we liked called "grayish" and that it is!  This particular gray matches all the other shades of gray we have in the apartment and then some.  In different corners of the room, the color can look brown or violet or white, depending on the light.  We love it!





While I was painting, Greg was upstairs toiling at tiling.  He does such good work.  I mix the mortar and he slathers it on and lays out the tile.  24 hours or so later, I take up the float and the grout sponge and get to work.

What a champ!

Of course, there is a bow in the ceiling too....




Can you find the bow in the wall that Greg had to contend with?  For a brand new bathroom, nothing was square!

I still have to grout, but the tough job is over!


Oh, we also finished grouting the tiles downstairs.  The slate is the most labor intensive and these tiles took about a week in total between sealing, laying out, laying down, cleaning and sealing again, grouting, cleaning, and cleaning and cleaning and cleaning and sealing one final time.  Phew! But we do love the look.



The results are really worth it.

 look at how big the shower is! 


OK, many of you heard this one already, but Marden's called....and the Stark-ish type carpet they carry, that we have on hold was being marked down, and did we still want it.  "Marked down to what, I said?"  "I don't know, but we'll call you back...how much do you need?"  The roll was 13' wide and I needed 85 feet in length off their 100 foot roll, plus padding.  When we found this carpet, it reminded me of someone's summer house in the Hamptons.  In my mind it would be perfect.  Greg thought it looked cheap.. Weird color, "marigold cream" and very low pile.  Well, it was cheap at .71 cents a square foot...probably the cheapest carpet we would be lucky to find. We had to contend with finding over 1000 square feet of it too.  

When they called back, the price had been marked down to .59 cents a square foot...can't beat it!  The linen white walls that I painted in the bedrooms will be perfect with this as the carpeting and some nice painted furniture.  Done!

Oooo, and best part of this week was coming closer on the design of the stairs in the apartment.  All I will say is that it involves Doak's!!

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