Please show me your backsplash...

[rocks]

wait a sec... @rocks was that wallpaper on the ceiling???

Er...uh....yes.

The last renovation was early 80's. The wallpaper was custom hand printed. Very '80's. I hate wallpaper. Maybe it was living in that house?

 

[Tekate]

@rocks that wallpaper! wallpaper is baaaack! I'm having some done in my dining area but it was hard to convince me. Your transformation is stellar!

 

[rocks]

She had it in various forms all over the house. All custom hand printed wall paper. I remember going with mom to select the colors and patterns. The only one I liked was a tone on tone herringbone (bone and white) in all the hallways throughout the house. Now the only room with wallpaper is the dining room....a fine silk string, white and off white, above the chair rail.

When we moved in, the house looked like a bordello. Black, red, hot pink and silver...big and bold wallpaper everywhere with pink red and white tapestry/flowered carpets that were hiding gorgeous wood floors. Yikes!

Opps...
And my manners....thank you!

 

[MaisOuiMadame]

purple shag carpet.

shag carpet

I will be forever haunted by a house we visited that had dark grey shag carpet on all 2nd & 3rd storey floors, walls and CEILINGS.
Never made ut to the end of that one. Just ran out.

Great transformation, @missy and I hear you on the difficult space.

@rocks : what a transformation!!

 

[BlingDreams]

I will be forever haunted by a house we visited that had dark grey shag carpet on all 2nd & 3rd storey floors, walls and CEILINGS.
Never made ut to the end of that one. Just ran out.

Great transformation, @missy and I hear you on the difficult space.

@rocks : what a transformation!!

That sounds like a scene straight from a horror film, where those rooms are used for tortures and the shag carpet is used to muffle the screams

 

[missy]

I will be forever haunted by a house we visited that had dark grey shag carpet on all 2nd & 3rd storey floors, walls and CEILINGS.
Never made ut to the end of that one. Just ran out.

That sounds like a scene straight from a horror film, where those rooms are used for tortures and the shag carpet is used to muffle the screams

Bwahahahaha










Hmmm this is an interesting take...
I guess if you get hungry for some fruit it's easy pickings...

 

[BlingDreams]

Bwahahahaha

I mean, can't you just see some evil monster slowly creaping out of that closet and sneaking up on her while she's starting at herself in the mirror or getting far too much enjoyment out of brushing her hair??

 

[missy]

I mean, can't you just see some evil monster slowly creaping out of that closet and sneaking up on her while she's starting at herself in the mirror or getting far too much enjoyment out of brushing her hair??

Bwahahaha yes....exactly....oooh creepy

 

[mrs-b]

Sigh. General nightmare here.

New basement windows in - which entailed punching holes into concrete. Rubbish EVERYWHERE. Currently sheet-rocking downstairs, reframing, insulating, painting, framing in windows - on and on and on. Replacing a few windows and getting rid of my 'Ode to the 60's' bay window at the front of the house. Painting the outside of the house. Putting in a new bathroom.

And because we're insane - we decided to celebrate all of this...by getting 2 puppies. In winter. In a blizzard.

Forget chocolate - I need drugs.

 

[missy]

Sigh. General nightmare here.

New basement windows in - which entailed punching holes into concrete. Rubbish EVERYWHERE. Currently sheet-rocking downstairs, reframing, insulating, painting, framing in windows - on and on and on. Replacing a few windows and getting rid of my 'Ode to the 60's' bay window at the front of the house. Painting the outside of the house. Putting in a new bathroom.

And because we're insane - we decided to celebrate all of this...by getting 2 puppies. In winter. In a blizzard.

Forget chocolate - I need drugs.

First of all congratulations on your sweet puppies! I saw them on your FB page and commented and they are super sweet! So happy for you and your dh!
And I am sorry about the reno hiccup. It's a pain in the you know what but soon it will be all worth it. We did all new windows too and enlarged them as well through brick. It wasn't fun. But it was worth it. Sending you good thoughts and good luck reno vibes.

And why settle for just the drugs? You can have it all. Here ya go. ((Hugs)).

 

[BlingDreams]

Sigh. General nightmare here.

New basement windows in - which entailed punching holes into concrete. Rubbish EVERYWHERE. Currently sheet-rocking downstairs, reframing, insulating, painting, framing in windows - on and on and on. Replacing a few windows and getting rid of my 'Ode to the 60's' bay window at the front of the house. Painting the outside of the house. Putting in a new bathroom.

And because we're insane - we decided to celebrate all of this...by getting 2 puppies. In winter. In a blizzard.

Forget chocolate - I need drugs.

Oh my word, that IS a lot!!! I thought we were crazy for adding a grown dog in the midst of our craziness (we just adopted the mother of the puppy we got in November, so now we have a 7 month old and an almost 3 year-old). Having that... plus all that noise and mess... plus puppies... plus snow....

How about a nice Hot Toddy instead?!

 

[BlingDreams]

We just chose our front doors! Another battle, as we were initially told "Oh, we only offer a standard (boring) door, to which we said "Rubbish!" And sure enough, after a bunch of back and forth it turned out there was a hidden catalog somewhere for people who specifically requested it. Sigh. Nothing seems to be easy....

Anyway, here's what we decided on. We'll have two full glass panel doors (seen below) for our double front door entry and I'll be using the same iron/glass pattern but as a half panel for our mud room door (so upper half is glass/iron and the lower half is wood).

We'll have the frame painted black (as well as our shutters) and oil rubbed bronze handles.

Our pattern is slightly different, as we have 8-foot doors and this is the 6+ foot door. Essentially we'll have those top smaller scrolls at the bottom too. But I've always loved iron scrollwork, have several decorative pieces in the house already, and am so excited to have them as my front door now too!!

 

[mrs-b]

We just chose our front doors! Another battle, as we were initially told "Oh, we only offer a standard (boring) door, to which we said "Rubbish!" And sure enough, after a bunch of back and forth it turned out there was a hidden catalog somewhere for people who specifically requested it. Sigh. Nothing seems to be easy....

Anyway, here's what we decided on. We'll have two full glass panel doors (seen below) for our double front door entry and I'll be using the same iron/glass pattern but as a half panel for our mud room door (so upper half is glass/iron and the lower half is wood).

We'll have the frame painted black (as well as our shutters) and oil rubbed bronze handles.

Our pattern is slightly different, as we have 8-foot doors and this is the 6+ foot door. Essentially we'll have those top smaller scrolls at the bottom too. But I've always loved iron scrollwork, have several decorative pieces in the house already, and am so excited to have them as my front door now too!!

@ILikeShiny - so lovely!

We've decided to ditch the bathroom for now, but, as a trade off, to replace all the windows in the house, rather than just a few. We're having vinyl windows - not my first choice - because the maintenance on wood windows in MA is just insane. They're also a lot warmer because they're sealed differently.

Did I mention that we're switching over from oil to gas? This will mean digging up my front yard and removing the old fuel tank. We're also putting gas fireplaces in our three open fires; I'm just over buying wood, setting fires, cleaning up after them, and the smoke and blackness they produce.

It occurs to me I'm exhausted....

PS @missy - thank you for the drugs - not a moment too soon! Now I just need a gallon or two of white wine!

 

[missy]

We just chose our front doors! Another battle, as we were initially told "Oh, we only offer a standard (boring) door, to which we said "Rubbish!" And sure enough, after a bunch of back and forth it turned out there was a hidden catalog somewhere for people who specifically requested it. Sigh. Nothing seems to be easy....

Anyway, here's what we decided on. We'll have two full glass panel doors (seen below) for our double front door entry and I'll be using the same iron/glass pattern but as a half panel for our mud room door (so upper half is glass/iron and the lower half is wood).

We'll have the frame painted black (as well as our shutters) and oil rubbed bronze handles.

Our pattern is slightly different, as we have 8-foot doors and this is the 6+ foot door. Essentially we'll have those top smaller scrolls at the bottom too. But I've always loved iron scrollwork, have several decorative pieces in the house already, and am so excited to have them as my front door now too!!

Oh my @ILikeShiny, I love this and it reminds me of my parents old front door from the 1960s! What is old is new again. Lovely!

@mrs-b you're very welcome and I hope you are feeling better.

 

[missy]

PS @missy - thank you for the drugs - not a moment too soon! Now I just need a gallon or two of white wine!

Here's some wine for ya @mrs-b

 

[mrs-b]

Here's some wine for ya @mrs-b

Is it bad that it's 9.38am, and I'm looking at that picture above and thinking "Mmmmmm...wine...."

I currently have the sheetrockers downstairs and the window guys upstairs. The puppy and I are hiding out in the office! He's staying busy by checking out the room carefully, in case there's a square mm that he hasn't peed on.

 

[Arcadian]

@ILikeShiny Lovely door choice! I have glass impact glass windows and doors. No boarding up, no shutters, and no sitting in the dark! The door was pretty darn expensive though, but hey, don't care!! I can see LIGHT out the thing!!!

 

[BlingDreams]

@ILikeShiny Lovely door choice! I have glass impact glass windows and doors. No boarding up, no shutters, and no sitting in the dark! The door was pretty darn expensive though, but hey, don't care!! I can see LIGHT out the thing!!!

This. This is exactly what finally swayed me. I did some google imaging searching and saw photos like these and was SOLD

 

[rocks]

Fancy! Where are you building?

 

[mrs-b]

This. This is exactly what finally swayed me. I did some google imaging searching and saw photos like these and was SOLD

@ILikeShiny - I have some friends who own a huge house in Scottsdale - 5800 sq ft. Their house has a lot of this sort of detail; it's fabulous! They have the wrought iron door and window detail with stone flagging floors and a huge, temp controlled, built-in cellar lining the wall of one of their halls. The ceiling in their TV room is 20ft high, and their landscaping is to die for. When I see detail like that black wrought iron work, I immediately think of their home!

ETA Pls post many, many pics!

 

[BlingDreams]

@ILikeShiny - I have some friends who own a huge house in Scottsdale - 5800 sq ft. Their house has a lot of this sort of detail; it's fabulous! They have the wrought iron door and window detail with stone flagging floors and a huge, temp controlled, built-in cellar lining the wall of one of their halls. The ceiling in their TV room is 20ft high, and their landscaping is to die for. When I see detail like that black wrought iron work, I immediately think of their home!

ETA Pls post many, many pics!

Well, I'll start by saying a bit embarrassingly that our home will be ~7,000sqft not including the basement. It's SO much larger than we had planned on building but the layout was just perfect so we said what the heck

Building a wine cellar is definitely on our to-do list! First up will be a stone patio and covered porch, plus adding all of the wireless trinkets we want (ceiling speakers, light dimmers, etc). I really can't wait for this all to come together

 

[missy]

Well, I'll start by saying a bit embarrassingly that our home will be ~7,000sqft not including the basement. It's SO much larger than we had planned on building but the layout was just perfect so we said what the heck

Building a wine cellar is definitely on our to-do list! First up will be a stone patio and covered porch, plus adding all of the wireless trinkets we want (ceiling speakers, light dimmers, etc). I really can't wait for this all to come together

Wow a wine cellar sounds amazing!! I’m so excited for you @ILikeShiny! It all sounds amazing.

 

[BlingDreams]

More snafu's.

Had to literally flip our master bathroom on its head today. Long story but it had to do with the location of the motor for the bathtub jets, access panels, and where the faucets could be. So now we've reconfigured everything and THINK it's good to go (again).

On Thursday we almost had a snafu with our kitchen island. I had drawn out and submitted how I wanted it to be laid out but when I received the engineer's preliminary drawing back I noticed one of the spots looked smaller than expected. It turned out they'd decided to switch the garbage can pull-out, putting in a smaller one, to accommodate our sink choice; however, they didn't tell us that had happened! They were surprised when I said "nope, I'd rather shrink our sink than the garbage can" (it's the prep sink so not as big of a deal); we truly would have been peeved if we'd walked in to discover that change without being consulted . Thankfully it was an easy fix and I only lost a few inches of sink.

And then yesterday we were sent some drawings of the exact specs for the (now changed) bathroom and I noticed one of the measurements for tile height was higher than had been agreed upon. Instead of getting in to a he-said-she-said about it I just screen-shotted a view of the email showing the correct measurement and said "fix it".

Sigh. I think that's the most frustrating part of this experience is that we have to double check to make sure everyone else is doing what was agreed upon, especially before it's too late to fix it

I will admit that it was VERY cool getting a prelim drawing of the island though; seeing everything coming to fruition is pretty exciting!

 

[BlingDreams]

Fancy! Where are you building?

Sorry! Just saw this!!

We live in the Metro DC area, about 30 minutes from the city (depending on traffic... could be as much as two hours ). Most property out here is 1/10 a 1/2 acre so finding a 5-acre lot, that is nothing but fully matured hardwood trees, was an unbelievable coup by my SO. I’m as excited about the solitude and nature as I am the house!

 

[rocks]

Sorry! Just saw this!!

We live in the Metro DC area, about 30 minutes from the city (depending on traffic... could be as much as two hours ). Most property out here is 1/10 a 1/2 acre so finding a 5-acre lot, that is nothing but fully matured hardwood trees, was an unbelievable coup by my SO. I’m as excited about the solitude and nature as I am the house!

That is extraordinary. I don't think that exists within a 30minute (no traffic) radius of NYC. How did you find it before the developers?

Enjoy!

 

[DAF]

So, DF and I went to the stone yard today to narrow down the choices for our countertops. I originially wanted River White granite, but once we looked at it again, I decided it was too stripey and I should look for something that looked more random. I found Super White quartzite, which I fell in love with online, and another quartzite called Blue Magma. The cost is more than I thought it would be, but that's not my issue. My issue is that I'm having difficulty choosing between the two. I'd like to explain my reasoning for both, but first, here are the slabs:



OK, DF and I will hopefully be retiring in about 10 years and heading for someplace with a lower cost of living. Given that, we've said that this is NOT our forever kitchen, ergo, we were choosing mid priced cabinets, flooring and we thought countertops.

The pros:

The practical side of me, the one that says neutral will sell the house better down the road, wants the Super White. I also wanted the proverbial all white kitchen, so the white background with grey better meets that criteria. Also, I thought I would colorize with accessorize with fabric chairs and roman shades.

The Blue Magma just looks soooo organic to me. It's beautiful. I am in awe when I see the things that this earth can produce. It's interesting, a conversation piece. It offsets all that white as well. It does limit my ability to accessorize with color.

The cons:
When we came home from shopping, I looked up Superwhite and found that although it is sold as a quartzite, it can behave like a marble, i.e. etching, staining, scratching when dishes are slid across them. I want low maintenance. I'm thinking now that unless the stone yard guarantees that it is a quartzite and will replace if any of the above occurs, I should choose something else.

The only con of the Blue Magma is that it limits my ability to accessorize with color. It was a bright, sunny day out there. When I looked at the pictures, the Blue Magma did look more blue and gray, kind of like a bad summer storm moving in. It has some beige in it as well and quartz veins.

 

[Arcadian]

Well, I'll start by saying a bit embarrassingly that our home will be ~7,000sqft not including the basement. It's SO much larger than we had planned on building but the layout was just perfect so we said what the heck

Building a wine cellar is definitely on our to-do list! First up will be a stone patio and covered porch, plus adding all of the wireless trinkets we want (ceiling speakers, light dimmers, etc). I really can't wait for this all to come together

I knew you were building big, just not THAT big.... Thas not a house, thas a PALACE!! When we moved I intentionally went smaller..... I'm actually glad for that, though I will live vicariously through you!!

 

[BlingDreams]

That is extraordinary. I don't think that exists within a 30minute (no traffic) radius of NYC. How did you find it before the developers?

Enjoy!

Extraordinary is the perfect word, and I didn't think it existed either. I was really resisting moving again (I've done it too often recently), but SO never stopped looking and when he came across this opportunity I knew I'd be a fool to say no. It's on a little tucked-away road that up until recently has had all farm land, but some of those owners are now selling and their land is being snatched up. It is owned by a developer, but we had a selection of house plans as well as the opportunity to customize (to an extent... and pulling teeth each time!). We're in the most affluent part of the state and that's what the builder is targeting with this development - no lots under 5 acres and a price point that's too embarrassing to mention.

One of my favorite parts about our lot is that it backs to county-owned park land, which means that no one will ever build behind us so our tree-views are secure

When SO retires in about 10 years we plan to build our "forever" place from scratch so we're seeing this as good practice for that experience!!

 

[Arcadian]

@DAF That blue is GORGEOUS! You're right it will not be everyone's cuppa tea, and if you're planning on selling in a few years, probably get the blandest thing you can get. If its 10 years or more, get whatcha want. Id get that and design like hell around it...lol

 

[BlingDreams]

So, DF and I went to the stone yard today to narrow down the choices for our countertops. I originially wanted River White granite, but once we looked at it again, I decided it was too stripey and I should look for something that looked more random. I found Super White quartzite, which I fell in love with online, and another quartzite called Blue Magma. The cost is more than I thought it would be, but that's not my issue. My issue is that I'm having difficulty choosing between the two. I'd like to explain my reasoning for both, but first, here are the slabs:



OK, DF and I will hopefully be retiring in about 10 years and heading for someplace with a lower cost of living. Given that, we've said that this is NOT our forever kitchen, ergo, we were choosing mid priced cabinets, flooring and we thought countertops.

The pros:

The practical side of me, the one that says neutral will sell the house better down the road, wants the Super White. I also wanted the proverbial all white kitchen, so the white background with grey better meets that criteria. Also, I thought I would colorize with accessorize with fabric chairs and roman shades.

The Blue Magma just looks soooo organic to me. It's beautiful. I am in awe when I see the things that this earth can produce. It's interesting, a conversation piece. It offsets all that white as well. It does limit my ability to accessorize with color.

The cons:
When we came home from shopping, I looked up Superwhite and found that although it is sold as a quartzite, it can behave like a marble, i.e. etching, staining, scratching when dishes are slid across them. I want low maintenance. I'm thinking now that unless the stone yard guarantees that it is a quartzite and will replace if any of the above occurs, I should choose something else.

The only con of the Blue Magma is that it limits my ability to accessorize with color. It was a bright, sunny day out there. When I looked at the pictures, the Blue Magma did look more blue and gray, kind of like a bad summer storm moving in. It has some beige in it as well and quartz veins.

I completely understand the dilemma, as it's kind of what I went through too. In the end I went with a cream/black/white countertop as that's what I had always envisioned, but I was REALLY tempted to choose an amazing "how did the earth create THAT" piece of granite. I just couldn't fit it in to my plan for decorating the house.

That being said, blue is a very safe color for decorating choices, so resale may not be as big of a concern; you can easily add yellows, greens, purples, and reds in your surroundings and they'll go beautifully with the blue. And it's SUCH a stunning piece that it's sure to be a conversation piece. Since you'll be there for 10 years, I say if your heart loves it then go for it. And if the new owners don't like it, they can replace it!

Not a blue countertop, but do you see what I mean?