Curve Ball

Our exterior wall in the kitchen came out today. The walls between the kitchen and dining room similarly disappeared. Then the ceiling joists went *poof*. This was all before 9am. 

Once I was up and conscious, we met with the cabinet lady who, along with our contractor, had some great ideas for how we could utilize the space better. This of course meant taking out 

yet another 5' section of wall, moving the header for the opening between the mud room and kitchen above the ceiling line and replacing the wall support with a stud in the wall so that the mud room and kitchen effectively become one room. Go figure, more demo. All that being said and done, I was very lucky that our contractor was there and such a help. He on the other hand thought that his 'helpful suggestions' of demo and destruction would cause him to receive a crowbar to the brow from E. I assured him that if something like that were to happen, E was far to calm to deliver the blow, he'd most likely distract him while I took a swing. Of course, we are thrilled with the outcome of the meeting and our new plans are in the works. I go take a look at them this Wednesday. I'll be in NY over the weekend then we'll order our cabinets on Monday! I'll submit new plans to the permit department as well, "yay." (I truly hope you caught the sarcasm)

The past few days have been filled with visions of tiles and mosaics dancing in my heads. Literally, I've been dreaming of bathroom tile - not kidding. I went a hunting and came up with all the tile in one lovely store, again, at the suggestion of our contractor. Before calling him I did spent several hours (o.k. 4) missing the mark. He's truly indispensable.

  

Here is the inspiration for the Master Bath:

I found a flat 2" large hex tile with a matte finish along with a matching white 4" square and a matte 1/2" matte black liner to replicate the floor in the above bathroom. Let me tell you, matching white to white is no picnic.

I am taking a cue from this bathroom tile job and using the same tile pattern on the shower floor as on the rest of the floor. I'm just crazy enough to add the 1" black and white square pattern around the lower portion of the shower. Our shower is a 60" by 32" rather than the corner unit pictured above. It's pretty standard. 

This is the picture that started it all. I fell in love with the double black liner around the top of the subway tile wainscoting. Needless to say, that too will be in our bathroom. When the lines approach the shower, the top line will make a 90-degree turn up and over the shower while the lower line will remain at the same level crossing the shower much like the liner in the previous image.

Of course the color inspiration is important too - fresh minty blue walls with rich red accents. We have two pretty stained glass windows in the bathroom that have a touch of this blue and red in them. I hope that this helps them stand out. The previous color scheme of glossy black walls and ceiling with half white and blue linoleum and half dark cracked slate didn't quite win me over.

My father-in-law was over again this past weekend lending a hand. The old insulation came out in the kitchen ceiling, the old plaster got opened up in the utility room allowing for the world's largest water storage tank to fit in it. The remaining header separating the mud-room from the laundry room came down. Similarly, the header dividing the master bath in two had it's last hurrah. Meanwhile, I tore down the rest of the tile from the front bath shower, revealing some pretty black spots, aka nasty mold. Not to fear blog followers, it was contained in the sheet rock under the tile and has been safely removed from the property. 

And not to be outdone, Sophie caused a bit of destruction and mayhem of her own. Although her master plan on not getting caught went out the window the moment E found her sitting calmly in her bed. 

"What do you mean I ate my way into the trash? Foolish human, it was the fat cat, I swear it." Please note stylish new brown paper bag handle collar Sophie inadvertently acquired.