We have been on the go since I returned from New York with more kitchen parts. The push is on to finish everything by the end of June. If the gods are willing than so am I! There is so much to share, but some of my photos are on another device which I keep leaving at the building, so at some point you will see the new stairs and all the IKEA cabinets put together.
For now we have to go back several weeks to show you the progress, oh readers not on facebook:
The tiles in the master bathroom came out beautifully.
The shower is four feet square
The floor of the master bathroom. With the Deco double vanity that now hangs on the wall, this bathroom is killer!
The bathroom provides a nice entrance to the the master bedroom and also provides a great privacy barrier between the master bedroom and the rest of the apartment.
Speaking of vanities, our downstairs slab and copper vanity is almost ready!
While the tiling has been fun and the bathrooms look gorgeous. Greg and I made a decision to scrap the tile projects for the mud room and the kitchen floor in favor of hardwood floors in those areas. When we added up what the tile, grout, mortar, Hardie backer board, and caulk cost us as well as the time (we estimated that it would probably take at least 4-5 days per area to prep and execute more tiling. We made this decision lightly and worried about it all the way home with 350 square feet of flooring in the back of the truck. But we love the floor...pre-finished ash in a gray wash with lots of texture.
I think the tiles worked out to 2.29 a square foot, which is a great deal. Add the mortar and the rest, and we got ourselves up to almost $4.00 a square foot for the floor, without our time. The floor, which is a premium grade flooring, was on a manager's special from Lumber Liquidators for $2.49 a square foot. Going by the time it took us to put down the hardwood floor on the first level, it should take us a day to install each floor, saving us probably four days of work on each. So, we are essentially trading the kitchen floor tile and materials in for enough materials to do both floors plus saving all that time. BOOYAH!!!
It took us a few weeks of experimentation to figure out trim colors for the living area downstairs. Big surprise that we picked a gray color! We originally wanted to use old weathered boards for the trim, but we couldn't fine enough of what we needed, so we decided to make our own! I found a "slate colored" Minwax stain that I cut 1:1 with water and ragged onto the boards. After letting them dry for a while, a single coat of poly was applied to help with upkeep. The boards below were used as the stair risers.
And finally, the winter took a toll on the property, so Greg and I spent a couple of days raking and cleaning the lot, re-raking the pea stone, etc. I don't know where all the pea-stone went, but I am sure a lot of it has been tracked into various spaces in the building...perhaps not the best treatment for the parking lot, but so far, better looking than hot top.
For those of you who live out of state, here is a photo of the back lot around 11:30 in the morning on a Monday . Meanwhile in Belfast, the pizza kitchen located in the lower level, opens at 11am every day and the place is packed out by 11:30
I finally had occasion to leave all the lights on last night on my way to dinner so that I could see the ole' girl all happily lit up...first time in years, I think!
No comments:
Post a Comment