C O U N T R Y L I V I N G ?

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there a great Country Living feature called "brooklyn's small town charms"

here's part of the intro: "today, Brooklyn still feels more heartland than Big Apple, with ribbon-worthy pie cafés hanging out shingles next to soda shops and general stores. to make navigating this supersized Mayberry manageable, we planned day trips around three of our favorite areas — Greenpoint and Williamsburg; Atlantic Avenue, Carroll Gardens, and Red Hook; and Prospect Park and Park Slope".

a supersized Mayberry"? cool! love the map!

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B A T H R O O M C O M I N ' A L O N G

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it's been hard to really appreciate how amazing the bathroom is looking since our contractor had cardboard covering the floor and plywood covering the tub to protect everything while the work was going on.
we have some really killer tile installed and now that everyone's cleaned everything out of the room we can see how awesome it all really is including a great installation job.
on the floors we've got a woodgrain tile from italy which covers the floor and then travels up the wall...there will eventually (hopefully next week) be a custom vanity and floating shelf on that wall as well with a large mirror (very cool lighting will be featured in a post soon). the shower has a great matt finish subway tile in a modern stacked pattern. it's hard to show good bathroom pics since the room is missing alot right now...but let's enjoy the tile for now!

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L O W E R S L O O K I N ' G O O D

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our contractor's has been working fast and furious to finish us out. yesterday all the lower cabinet doors have been put in...with a minor glitch. our cool trash pullout cabinet and the drawer above it don't open fully because they both hit the entry door molding :-(  these are the things that just kinda pop up out of nowhere and late in the process since it's something that only showed up when the doors went on. all of this is of course fixable (after much discussion and few few moment of freak out).
the lower cabinets are all the same darker gray (excuse the difference in the pictures)
and uppers are a lighter gray.

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G O R G E O U S

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these pendant lights are crazy beautiful. they are, as chris likes to say, 'the jewelry of the room'. it's true! i can't imagine my kitchen going out on the town without her fancy earrings on!

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H O W M A N Y P E O P L E . . .

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how many people does it take to install a stove? from the looks of this photo 3...but actually 4 when the eletrician gets involved.

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W E E K E N D M A D N E S S !

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that's madness in a good way. we had just about all trades in the house this weekend and really made some great progress! jon the plumber came on monday as well as mohammed our eletrician, plus our contractor and his helper were here...so a full house!

lots of installing and plumber action!

hello hot stuff

chris with our awesome plumber jon

it's starting to look like a kitchen!

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D R A W E R A S S E M B L Y

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the bedroom served as the only clean, quiet space to put all the drawer tracks on the wood drawers that came from the cabinet maker. the cats supervised.

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F I R S T C O A T

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we're partaking in a pretty big experiment here in our brooklyn kitchen. cork floors. it's an experiment because i've never actually seen a new cork floor in person. i've see plenty of really old cork...like in our friend marks 1920's building on the upper west side...it's original to the apartment and still looks amazing.
there's many benefits of cork flooring for us.
- it's a sustainable/green product, made from the bark of the tree which grows back
- it's mold/mildew resistant
- it's soft on the feet
- it's a good sound insulation since our bedroom is below
- it's easy to install and low maintenance
i have to admit...when the floor first was installed a few days ago i was pretty bummed out...it looked pretty bad. it wasn't really installed correctly which resulted in gaps between the tiles (which are 12"x24"), and then the tiles themselves had such a wide variety of color variations that it looked a bit mismatched.
our contractor put the first protective coating on and it definitely looks way better! whew!
more pics to come ;-)

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C O U N T E R T O P I N !

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big day in the kitchen on saturday. the gorgeous Caesarstone countertops went in! We chose a very light color/pattern called 'organic' which is white with a very light gray mottling that looks almost like a moonscape. it's killer. there was a few moments of drama with things not fitting great, and a chip in the edge, but it all worked out beautifully!
We also had the windowsills cut from the same material.

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L U M B E R H E A V E N

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here's chris' favorite place aside from our house and lowes...dykes lumber. made a few field trips here looking for molding to match the rest of the period molding in the house...didn't find exact...but close enough. it's always kind of fun and weird to go there.

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P R O G R E S S

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i'm late to post the 'action' from earlier this week.
the upper cabinets went in along with the microwave that is above the stove.
our contractor kindly covered all the painted cabinet edges in blue tape so nothings gets scratched while work is going on, and speaking of blue, the floor is currently coated in a blue waterproof membrane and waiting for the cork to be installed.
the backsplash tile has been installed but not grouted.
our countertop was templated on monday and is being installed on saturday...can't wait!
last week new windows went in...after alot of drama and waiting i was a little disappointed with them but after everything is done and trimmed and gorgeous i'm sure they'll be fine. anythings better than the  "1972 brown aluminum,  clouded over glass, wont stay open with a 2x4 underneath"  windows that were in there before!

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L O W E R S I N

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the lower cabinets are making their way into the kitchen!

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T I L E U P

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the guys installed the big wall of tile which flows all the way to ceiling from the lower cabinets. there'll be opens shelves (hence the giant brackets) as well on this wall. of course the gaps wont be so noticeable once everything's grouted. looking good!

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T O O C U T E T U E S D A Y

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very noble...and very naughty.

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T I L E R E - P L A N N I N G

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according to our architect's plan, every surface has been meticulously mapped out, especially the tile layouts as they dictated the alignment of alot of other things. until you're contractor is installing them... then it's all down the toilet (dramatic, yes). Unfortunately, the idiots we bought our tile from...which was  delivered 3 weeks late...gave us the wrong measurements. so everything that had been planned
had to be re-planned, and discussed for an hour and a half.
we have a large wall above a set of lower cabinets that's going to be all tile up to the 9 foot ceiling ...it's alot! so it has to be right and look spot-on. in the plans 9 of these large tiles fit perfectly. in reality there'd be a strip of tile at the ceiling that would look ridiculous. so to fill that unexpected gap everything else in the room had to be moved up a half inch and bigger spacers need to go between the tiles.
so no, i will no be recommending this tile supplier.
all's well though! these aren't huge changes but they definitely throw a wrench in.

gerald (one of our architects) trying to figure it all out with the guys

here's our contractor laying it all out on the floor to see how it can fit better

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O K , A L R E A D Y ! !

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i love snow, really. it's just getting a little nuts...and it's not melting from the last storm. we have a mountain of snow in front of our house the size of a church bus that'll probably be there til april!

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T O O C U T E T U E S D A Y

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cabinet assembly edition. arnold is literally sitting in a box of cabinet door hinges. i guess somehow that's comfortable.

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A S S E M B L Y W E E K E N D

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this weekend was all about cabinet assembly... for me at least. chris worked on the closets so we can put all our stuff back in them! personally i can't wait to get my stuff into these cabinets!
the cabinets were ordered from Scherr's in North Dakota. they are fully custom. the great people at Scherr's worked with our architect Emily and went back and forth a few times on shop drawings until they were perfect. everything is clearly packaged & labeled for easy assembly once they get here, which was as easy (actually easier) as assembling any ikea cabinet...only made 10 times better. the boxes look amazingly well made so far and the construction and custom paint on the door and edge panels looks spot on. i'm excited to recommend them to everyone looking into doing an affordable kitchen remodel.
i'll write a full (and i'm sure glowing) review of these cabinets when they're up.

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L A T E A R R I V A L S

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finally! late to the party are the cabinets and the bathroom tiles. well they're
finally here...and strangely they picked a snow day to arrive...not the best conditions for unloading a truck but hey, we'll take whatever we can get! The cabinet doors look great...the paint came out gorgeous and smooth and looks pretty durable. Now it's a weekend of assembly!

bathroom woodgrain tiles from italy

G R A Y G R A Y G R A Y ?

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maybe 2 different grays for cabinets and very light gray walls is too much gray. never thought i'd say it but yes...there is such a concept as too much gray. so 2 grays in the cabinets and white for the walls. that was easy!

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T H A N K S

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just got $105 bucks back from NY state for recycling my old non-energy efficient fridge!

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