Laptop in Paradise

Last summer Louis booked us a vacation in St. John. At the time we had NO idea we'd be extremely busy home owners by May 2010 so we paid for it in full and laughed at the idea of trip insurance.  Not smart. Fastforward to April 2010 and we were desperately trying to reschedule or resell it- no dice. SO, here we are, vacationing in St. John while construction continues and I have YET to find tile, faucets, blah. Hence the laptop. I'm sitting here drinking a Pina Colada and surfing faucet websites. Honestly I'm thrilled to be doing this here instead of in our tiny apartment "office" that's the size of a cocoon and gets hot enough to bake cookies.

Faucets. You'd think it'd be easy to order faucets but alas, the prices and styles vary greatly. I've probably spent over 100 hours looking at faucet porn online. Between faucet and tile research I probably could have been trained to fly a plane or at least have gotten a motorcycle license. Oh well. My Modern-French-Country theme makes it easier to know what I'm looking for. The problem is whether to go with a brand name and hopefully have some piece of mind or to scrimp and buy the cheap knock off that may or may not spring a leak. I lean towards spending more because if my sink breaks, it affects the countertop which would be unebelieveably expensive to redo for a different sink.

Perrin & Rowe $300-500+ 

Here it is in a farm style kitchen very similar to what I'm doing-

I love the cross bar and the swan neck but I'm torn between that look or this one-

Hmm, yeah I like this one. It's more classic victorian country. BUT the swan neck option offers more space for moving big pans around. I really want as much space as possible between the bottom of the sink and the spout in order to wash our large pots and pans with abandon. Right now I struggle with a teenie sink and a faucet that juts out horizontally with NO arch at ALL to the neck. I loathe it. There's no way to get water to the top of the pots and pans since I have to swing the faucet out of the way to even fit them in the sink. Life is so hard, right Haiti?

The more victorian country looking faucet is also WAY cheaper....I think I just sold myself. I'm good. Now the question is 2 or 3 leg? The faucet above is a 2 "legger". This one is a 3 legger-

I think I like the 2 legger better. "2 legger better" sounds like the name of a band.

If only I could decide on tile. The search continues!

Obsession: One Woman's Journey to Find the Perfect Finishes, DAMN YOU "SARAH'S HOUSE"!!

I love that door. I have no use for it but I love it. I always stare at the pretty blue paint aging in the weather outside my favorite antique spot. Ok gotta focus...MUST. FIND. TILE. MUSTFINDTILE. I've been obsessively searching for the perfect tile for the main level half bath for weeks and weeks now. Shoot me. The problem is- I have no idea of what I want to do design wise in there. I bought an antique looking pedestal sink-

And I'm going with sconces on either side of a mirror above it. Here are the sconces I picked-

And I'm thinking an old mirror like this one-

The problem is- so far I've kept things pretty neutral throughout, various shades of white, marble, travertine tans, beiges and so on.  I want to have fun with the half bath but still keep it in the farmhouse theme.  The REAL problem is me watching WAY too much "Sarah's House" on HGTV lately. 

In her new season, she's bought a farmhouse on a bunch of acres (LIKE ME!) and is renovating it room by room (LIKE ME!) and has fabulous design experience (*crickets*) and a fabulous gay friend/design partner who helps her and they laugh and laugh (*crickets and tear for the gay friend I can't find*). Sarah and Tommy recently did a very cool farmhouse bathroom and used prints I never would have-

They chose traditional beadboard, a vessel sink, an oldey type mirror but then she punched it up with a great bird print wallpaper and an awesome brass piece that she had made into a light. My problem is making the tiles I pick for the floor 1. very affordable and 2. interesting and pretty and 3. understated enough that they allow me to select whatever wallpaper I want later without being a distraction. Meh!

I keep coming back to this...

but grout is NOT a friend to any high traffic area like a main level half bath.  I need more inspiration.

That's a little too formal. Need more farm. 

That could work...beige marble could tie into the dark brown hardwoods nicely and still work with beadboard. I want a border design which is a whole other reason why this is so hard. AND I need it by this weekend. 

Look how awesome this pantry door is, THIS is exactly what I'm trying to do!

I found a place online that makes thousands of old reproduction screen doors. That door looks like a 2 footer...hmm. 

I also need to find, ready?, here we go:

- 3 chandeliers

- sconces for the master and shared bath

- bath accessories like towel bars, hooks

- granite for the kitchen

- marble for the master vanity

- a mailbox and mailbox stand

- a bidet

- a fireplace mantel

- stylish radiator covers

So much to do. I need decorator friends to fall from the sky. NOW. *Preferably gay*

When I get stressed out I look at photos of progress from the house to lift my spirits!

The hardwoods have been patched over where the old stairs used to be and throughout the kitchen.

 

The drywall is almost 100% up, this is the shared full bath. I LOVE the solar tube. Great way to spend $300. 

This is the front door entry. I loathe that front door but have to save a buck by repainting it and removing those god-awful stained glass panels. The floor at the entry will be tile. I selected a design to go in the center of travertine-

I'm setting it at an angle to make the space seem less boxy. 

I'm heading out there pretty early so I've gotta rest up but here are some before and halfway-done pics of the main living area.

BEFORE: 

View of the main room, kitchen, old hallway, front door and horrid open staircase/deathtrap. 

 

View from the front door looking at the side door leading to the porch. 

HALFWAY DONE:

New layout with hallway at the left of the structure where our foreman "CQ" is standing.

No more staircase deathtrap!

More tomorrow. -Sarah

70 Degrees With A Chance of Overwhelmed

Every good blogger takes 6 weeks off. That's my new rule. Sorry folks but I got pretty busy with a myriad of house details to settle on, my and Louis' birthday and I completely neglected the blog! If I was a fainting goat I would have...fainted. By the way, in my search for a fainting picture I came across a lot of goats and Marie Osmond when she fainted on Dancing with the Stars (Stars, as in, people you may or may not recognize). I hope she's not offended I went with a goat!

SO- here's what's been going on since I last blogged.

1. After we knocked down all the walls I made the decision to pay the contractors to take over the last bit of demo and it made me sick how quickly they got it done. Best money I ever spent.

2. Walls are up, plumbing is set, old stairs are gone, new stairs are in and electrical is done. The picture below is looking up to where the new staircase was cut from the bottom floor.

3. I ordered an awesome kitchen through Home Depot and even though they made me a deal I couldn't refuse, the shipping time is probably going to screw me and hold everything up.

4. I'm a regular at the antiquing shops and am fixing up as many old pieces as I can.

5. I've selected a TON of finishes for the house- pics below.

6. Louis and I are moving in at the end of May...construction will still be going on until mid-June but we have to vacate our current apartment. I couldn't care less about the mess, no kitchen, no shower, etc. I'm just happy I won't be driving 2 hours everyday to go out there!

7. I now have a 1,000 square foot garden that's fenced in to keep the deer out. I'll be planting all my seedlings in it this weekend.

8. One of my worm bins died. No explanation. They're like the Lost Colony of Roanoke, I'll just never know what happened.

9. I didn't get chickens this year, there's no way I could have kept an eye on them without living there full time. I know for a fact there's a big fox population on the farm. The upside is I have more time to construct a Dynasty-type house with a top notch security system for them for next year.

10. I feel like there should be a 10 to round this out, let's see, we bought a tractor and we sprayed for ticks. That second part is important info for anyone who plans to visit! The tractor is old but it was affordable and we don't need new.

SO- as far as the house goes, I'm going with what I'm calling "Modern French Country".

The Master Bath: it'll be mostly marble and white with chrome accents. I got the floor tiles from Home Depot, it's Carerra marble with small black accents.

I searched for a claw foot tub to renovate but in the end I copped out and ordered a new cast iron reproduction which saved me a lot of time. It's the tub in the image below, I love the telephone style fixtures.

The shower will be all marble and I found the antique piece below to refinish, paint white or a lighter shade of grey and add a marble top, vessel sinks and old farm pump-style faucets.

Here are the basin vessel sinks I found.

And the farmhouse well pump-esque faucets.

 I found this amazing mirror at the Restoration Hardware outlet to go above the master sinks, the silver trim is chipped at one corner so I got it for 60% off! 

The shower will be simple marble foot by foot tiles with this antique shower fixture-

I scrimped on the other main level full bath in order to splurge on the master. The other bathroom will be tiled in the same simple subway white tiles as in the picture of the shower above. It will have a marble floor and like the master bathroom, that floor will be heated. I chose a budget friendly vanity for the shared bath instead of again converting an antique.

The kitchen:
Metal cup pulls for the cabinets, farmhouse apron sink, antique glass cabinet fronts. Here are some pictures that inspired my selections.

Like the picture above, the floors in our kitchen will be hardwood. We're going with a rich brown.

The faucet I chose looks very similar to the one above. I love the bar connecting the levers. 

I decided to hide the dishwasher by covering it with a cabinet panel. Here's what my cabinets look like-

They're Thomasville Maple cabinets with a toasted almond wash. Here's what they look like in the display kitchen.

You can't even tell they have a wash from far away, it's understated. Like the picture above I'm doing a large island (4x6) that will have seating on two sides and pillar legs that match leg accents I placed on either side of the sink and stovetop. I went with an exposed hood above a 5 burner gas stovetop and I got a great deal on a clearance floor model GE Profile in stainless steel from Home Depot.

My new obsession is finding an awesome pantry door a la Southern Living. Check out these very cool ideas!

Love, love, LOVE the idea of using an old farmhouse screen door! My pantry is 5x7 but the doorway itself is only a little over 2 feet...I need to see what I can do with that. 

You can paint chalkboard on anything so that's an easy project.

I'm pretty damn excited to organize and decorate the pantry. After not having one for my entire adult life, I have a lot of pantry-living to do! I'm thinking of beadboarding the wall behind the shelves and using a trim similar to the one above to edge them. 

I have yet to tackle landscaping. It's daunting. So much to do. I'll have time for it once we're out there full time. That's what I say to myself. 

I still have to settle on tile for the half bath. I want it to be rustic farmhouse yet elegant in there so I'm having issues with what that means for the tile floor. This is a classic farmhouse tile floor but I can't decide if it's too busy or boring-

I also need to pull the trigger on buying faucets for the half and shared bath. They'll all look like the image below but it's amazing how many selections are available in that style. 

I'll be at more antique shops and tile places tomorrow, wish me luck! Annnd I'll be blogging daily again!