Countertop Issues

Our stone countertops were installed today. But of course, nothing in construction is simple. First of all, we got a great deal. I had originally wanted quartz (manmade - Ceaserstone, Silestone, etc.) counters in the kitchen b/c I didn't want to have to worry about stone maintenance. Polished stone is pretty easy to maintain, but honed, which is the look we like, can be burdensome. We had honed black granite in Hawaii that looked like soapstone and I loved it - the look of it. Cleaning it was so hard. Every fingerprint showed and there were always streaks left behind. Hence going for the manmade, supposedly indestructible stuff.

Fast forward to a few months ago when we made the mistake of stepping into a slab yard. We instantly fell in love with at least 20 pieces of granite/limestone. We thought the cost might be prohibitive on some of our picks so we started shopping for remnant pieces. Basically we got a list of fabricators from the stone importer and started calling and visiting. We found a location that had the seagreass limestone slab that we were dead set on for our bathroom. Full price - $2400. remnant price $1200 - still too high. We continued our search. In the meantime I got quotes for an all quartz kitchen in dark gray. $7000-$8000. Wow. We started looking at other options - including formica - they have some really nice stuff out with different options for edges which look nice. Plus I thought - my 20 year old apartment has the originally formica and it looks pretty good...but I really want to be able to set hot pots on the surface.

Then after a long day of looking at stone and tile I decided to follow a sign and make one last stop while I was in Seattle. Not only did they have a remnant of the limestone we wanted. The owner said he would do our whole house in any instock stone he had for $7000. This was to include two bathrooms, the kitchen, a fireplace surround in matching limestone slab for the bathroom and two miscellaneous wall pieces. I thought this was too good to be true. Also he hadn't even seen our plans. So I sent him our plans and he came back with the same estimate in writing. I took Ben up to the yard to make sure I wasn't getting duped (he can tell you about the vibe of the place - a whole nother story) and again, same price same promise. He even offers to throw on a false edge in the two bathrooms to make the slab look thicker. Hello! He has a million chances to jack up our price - everyone else does with the nitpicky details. He refers to this offer as his "stimulus plan" and says a year ago, same deal would have been at least double.

Long story long - he comes out does the template and even offers to hook us up with a kitchen backsplash (we eventually decide on glass tile) AND he will through on a matching limestone seat in the kids bath/shower after I explain to him our difficulties trying to tile it. Still too good to be true.

Back to the slab choices. For the bathroom we got our Seagrass limestone and fireplace surround (which is actually Cafe Pinta limestone - but close enough), the kids get Lagos Azul limestone and for the kitchen we chose to do the upper island in Antique Brown (looks black) honed granite and the lower island in a Quartzite in a color called Cocoa Nova. It's the color of a light cardboard with faint faint light blue waves. Were we swayed by the beautiful slabs - absolutely. Do I have some trepidation about putting a light colored Quartzite/Sandstone in my kitchen - yes. Am I going to seal the heck out of it. Of course. Especially as I watched two teeny droplets of Dr. Pepper be sucked up instantly by the stuff.

So now to the installation issue at hand. (Sorry for all of the details but I am trying to record so I can remember down the road) We were instructed to put down plywood under the upper island piece for support - the granite we picked is super heavy and has tons of fissures through it - not an integrity issue but just in case. Our millwork guys did so - on the bathrooms as well b/c they were getting a false front. Everything gets installed beautifully. Except that the plywood layer is showing on the island. And not just if you bend over and look. Like from any angle. It looks terrible. (see picture)

We call to express our concern over the job being left like this. He says to put on a finished piece of wood to cover it. No! That would look terrrible in our house. We go back and forth with phone calls, I even went up there to talk to them about it b/c they have to have a solution for it. They do this all the time. He says that the guys who put the plywood down should have made it smaller so it wouldn't show. I say his guys should have cut it back to the right place since we weren't given any instruction about the dimensions of the plywood to be installed. He says he gave us a good deal so.... So what?! It's not a good deal if you get a subpar product. I tell him that everything else they installed looks so great but that this is a focal point and it's what people will see of his work immediately. His guys are coming on Thursday to fix it.

Interior Trim - "Cotton Balls"

The color I chose for the millwork is called "Cotton Balls" by Benjamin Moore.

Garage Door Dilemma

So we decided to paint them the color of the trim. That's not the problem.

The problem is that they are the wrong doors!

I didn't even notice they weren't the ones we picked out. I also didn't notice when they sheetrocked over the only window in our bathroom so that's not saying much. Ben on the other hand notices every detail, every flaw of the build. With his eye tuned for perfection, it's good news for his current plastic surgery patients but a wonder he would have ever chosen me for a mate, but that's a topic I'll take up with my therapist.

So wrong doors, who's to blame? Unfortunately it was Bob's mistake. Which means the garage door company is not going to come exchange them gratis. In fact, it turns out that reparation comes at the price of nearly $2000. The cost of new doors. Bob says just say the word and he will take the hit and get us new doors. I think they are kinda nice. Ben hates them. Neither one of us wants Bob to have to shell out that kind of money, even if it was a dumb mistake that probably wouldn't have occurred had he not been all-consumed with finishing up his son's house.

I say WWJD?

Interior Paint

A quick word to the paint companies:

"Garlic Clove" vs. "Cookie Crumb"? "Mayonnaise" vs. "Cream Pie"? The list could go on.

Why would you even put these names next to each other on a paint swatch? You think I am not swayed by the names you give your paint? I love garlic, but the thought of that being the color of my walls? Just thinking about it makes my house smell.

Name influence case in point - the colors I chose the first go round for my house: "Beach Glass", "Seashell", "Idyllic Isle", "Babbling Brook"... The only one that worked out in real life was "Idyllic Isle" and the jury is still out on the tastefulness of this choice. But you can see what images I am swayed by.

And another thing - the configuration of the paint chips. I admit, I am a sucker for Ralph Lauren and their perfect squares and silvery font - not to mention enchanting names - perfection! But Martha Stewart - for all the things she does right - paint swatches is not one of them. The problem being that each main color has complimentary color suggestions on the swatch. A feature, while helpful to some, I find utterly distracting.


With drywall up in the new house it quickly became time to make some decisions. So about $100 in samples and three days of checking said samples in differing light later - we have the winners.

Inspired by nature (like these rocks behind our house)...

Our main body color, can be found in the great room (kitchen/dining/living), entry, halls and utility room....drum roll please... "Overcast" by Benjamin Moore. As quoted by a designer in House Beautiful - "I think of this as celadon or blanc de Chine. It's the color of water in a bathtub, of the pale early morning sky. When you look at it on a chip it's not very exciting, but once it's up on the walls it reflects itself and becomes richer."

It's the color of masking tape.

Next up, master bedroom and kids bath. Afternoon Shade by FreshAire. The color can be seen on a wall here.

Master Bath: "Sneak Peek". Looks like a slightly greener version of Afternoon Shade.

Guest Bedroom/Office: "Beguile" by Valspar. Ben picked this one to which I replied "what color is that?" with a disgusted look on my face. Descriptor - bluish greenish gray. But guess what? I love it. It's one of my favorite colors we chose.

Lastly, the kids bedrooms. "Idyllic Isle" by Pittsburgh Paint and "Reflection" by Devine Paint. The kids bedroom are mirror images connected in the middle by a double pocket door. Which for now will be sleeping side (bunk beds) (Reflection) and playroom side (Idyllic Isle). Eventually this could end up being separate living spaces for them but for now we like the idea of one giant room.

Exterior Paint

We've been semi-settled on a green color for the exterior of our house for a while. I didn't want to do a boring/safe color - like beige - even though that's the color the siding is already and it looks pretty cute as is. But our neighbors house is that color. So trying to find a color we both liked and one that goes with the house style and the neighborhood - it's a tough task.

I wanted to have Sara do some photoshop magic and make a mock-up of our house in various shades - ranging from green to blue-grey. And then conduct a poll. But we ran out of time. We did do as we did with the interior colors and bought samples and painted them on left over pieces of siding. It's surprising how different it can look from swatch to cement board. We vascillated between a couple of choices - there aren't as many appropriate options for the exterior - which is a good and a bad thing. We settled on one when we met one evening at the house. The next day at noon it seemed clear that the other one was a better choice. We got multiple opinions.

The next day they started painting. I went by at 10am and they hadn't started. I went back at 2pm and as I drove up my heart sank and I was sure we had made a mistake. A mistake that would require the repainting of the entire house if that's what we decided. The whole house was done. I can't even put my finger on what was wrong about the color. It was neither too light nor too dark. Just wrong.

Maybe I just can't see past the fact that the trim hasn't been painted yet so it looks like one big green disaster. Also, they painted the detail in the gables green even though I specifically told the builder that I wanted that area to be the same color as the trim. And Ben told him the same thing. Luckily it can be painted over when they do the trim tomorrow.

Updates - Cork and Tub

Just an update on a couple items that were up in the air - the hideous retro tub and the cork flooring options.

As of now and therefore a permanent fixture since they have drywalled around it - the tub and it's crazy design on the side stayed. I did everything I could to find a tub the same size that could serve as a replacement. Only they were all double the price. So I gave up. Then someone we know replaced their shower with a tub that was smaller than the drain requirement - thus providing us with a solution - getting a smaller, more standard, less "decorative" tub. The only problem - when I discovered this option I had only 24 hrs to get the old tub out and a new one in. The plumbers would charge a $100 pickup fee to do so, which at this point in the build $100 is pocket change and would be worth it. But time got the best of me and I wasn't able to deliver. Am I mad that no one - the plumber, the general contractor etc. couldn't lead me to a solution? Yes.

Now on to the cork flooring selection. We took all of the options to the house and it turned out that none of them looked good in mudroom with our bench and that a vinyl tile I had picked up at Lowe's looked quite nice. It also didn't look right in the downstairs bathroom. In the laundry room, which was our first choice for the cork anyhow, it looks great. We ended up getting the Madrid because we think it'll go best with the concrete countertops we plan on putting in there. I think it looks very utility like. Whatever that means.

Flooring

The decisions are coming fast and furious and most importantly - permanent - now. Up until the inside was done we've been able to just peruse and dream and sketch, but we have to make some very important and scary decisions ASAP!

So flooring. We've pretty much been settled on our hardwood choice since we laid eyes on it and put a deposit down in November. It's hardwood of the engineered variety - which is thinner layers of real wood veneer, usually with a stronger finish and more versatile than hardwood but more versatile. We fell in love with a handscraped (but not overly so) Acacia (also known as Asian Walnut). We choose it for it's color pattern - the blonde in it goes with the cabinet color we are going with. We also could have fallen in love with many other beautiful varieties - but this one happened to be in our price range. Here is a sample of Acacia wood:

Our is more distressed looking than this, because if we didn't order it distressed it would quickly become so anyway.

(We get flooring samples and let our kids carry them around, try to gouge them, use them as weapons etc. not to mention I toss them in the back of the car and tote them around a lot to see how they hold up - and this one passes the test.)

So that only takes care of about 500 sq. ft (kitchen, dining, and surrounding areas) Are we dumb to put wood in the kitchen? We'll soon find out.

In the entry we are putting tile - TBD. There will also be tile in the master bath.

In the kids bath we are probably putting vinyl. I am kind of interested in doing the vinyl that looks like wood and comes in planks. I saw it on Divine Design (dee dah) and I think it looks cool.

In the laundry room I have been dead set on cork since the beginning. It feels so nice underfoot - it would be ideal in the kitchen but if we did that we'd have to do the dining room in it also and it might be a little much. So the good news for me is that Ben has come around on the idea of cork and we are considering it for the mudroom and possibly downstairs bathroom as well. There are so many variety's and looks of cork and the installation is a snap (literally) so it saves Ben some time tiling and it's super sustainable/environmentally friendly so I'm sure that swayed him as well. The reasons I want it is that it is not cold and hard like tile, and it absorbs sound. The only downside (that I can see after my extensive research) to cork is the price. If you put it in rooms where you had originally budgeted for vinyl it can be 5-6 times more. You can get cheaper cork, but it doesn't hold up as well and it's still more expensive. But we found some of the good stuff on sale and have seen leftovers lots on Craigslist - now we just have to choose a color.

If you want to see some crazy (I think tacky) cork installations click here.

The rest of the house will be carpet - color and texture also TBD.

Decking Material

Another on-the-fly decision to be made - what color decking material do we want? No time for a poll and certainly no super attractive options as far as I can tell from the 1" x 2" swatches. I have a couple of questions about this but no time to get answers - 1) why is it so expensive? ($950 just for the weatherproofing) 2) why can't we just put vinyl or something else out there, wouldn't it do the same thing?

We ended up going with the Coral selection in the Designer series. (Third one down on the left) It's not really a coral color but more of a neutral taupe with some gray flecks. The prices of all choices were the same.
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Cupcakes and Tile

Up until now I've been content to browse magazines and library books for design ideas, marking or ripping out a page here and there, sketching ideas, then stuffing it into an ever growing folder of design ideas - some for this house, some for homes to come. But going into a store, putting together concepts and colors - actual commitment - that seems so scary! I guess we've made quite a few decisions thus far - from the big decisions like the floor plans to the small decisions that come up daily - like which lights do you want to switch on at the same time or how do you want this or that window to open? But for some reason tile and countertops scare me to death. They also happen to be the most exciting. A recent (yesterday) trip to a tile showroom doubled as a workout since my heart rate was kept up for so long. (I get the same condition when perusing the high end architecture and design magazines at Barnes & Noble) First of all, they immediately put on a movie for my kids and gave them candy. On the other side of the room they had a plate of chocolate cupcakes with a sign that said - help yourself - don't mind if I do. Then Ben and I were able to roam the displays of tile at will (I know why they didn't want kids accompanying the parents, they barely wanted us to touch the samples on exhibit). In the floor and on the walls they had examples of how their tiles could be used - fabulously at that. I fell for a particular tile. A grayscale paisley that would be super cute in the kids bathroom. Unfortunately it was $53.20 PER TILE. A 4 x 6" tile at that. I could maybe afford one.

Unfortunately the tile selection turned out to be the least of our coveting/champagne-taste-on-a-beer-budget issue. Next we went to the stone warehouse. There I fell for the quartz, then the granite, then the basalt, then the limestone... Natures artwork, quarried and polished by man.

We left, awestruck, with samples in hand so that we could go home and try to figure out how we could work some of this fabulousness into our budget. Who knew tile shopping could be so much fun?

Some of my favorite tile stores that I can't afford but love to look at and you might like to look at too:

http://www.annsacks.com/home.html-

http://www.pentalonline.com/

http://www.redrocktileworks.com/images/prelude%20collection/texTILE%20Catalog.pdf

Does anyone else hate this bathtub? (Poll)

Originally this bathroom was supposed to have one of those drop in fiberglass faux tile shower/tub combo deals. I was looking forward to not having grout or caulking to have to clean. It turns out we have a window in the way and so that decision had to be changed. Imagine my surprise when I come to the house and discover this tub upstairs in the kids bath. I did not choose this tub and I dislike it very much. I don't want to be a jerk about it but the wave design on the side doesn't really go with...well anything.

The only pro is that the tub is huge. But I'm confident that I can find a decent tub with less decor on the side for a reasonable price. Unless this one was free I don't really want to look at it for the next few years.

Am I being unreasonable? Does anyone like the looks of the tub? I'll put up a poll.

Security vs. Insulation

After much research we found that insulating the inner walls and second floor wasn't going to do much in the way of sound proofing or energy efficiency so we spent that $1000 on a security system instead.

After having been broken into once (while at home) it was an easy choice. I don't mind the sounds of a lively home flowing through the walls as long as we are all safe and sound.