Pocket Door Time

I finally found a carpenter who would take on the pocket door project for the powder room/half-bath in the entryway. Just to remind you of the context, here is a picture of what I started with:

A teeney-tiny bathroom with a door that would not even open all the way - it would hit the sink and stop short of opening all the way by a few inches.

Unacceptable.

So I took out EVERYTHING - stripped it down to the subflooring, changed the light fixtures, sink, toilet, paint colors, medicine cabinet, flooring - you name it, it was removed and replaced, as you can see in the pictures here:

But that still left a new problem with the door. The old door would have been able to close, but, damn, I just didn't want to rehang it in this cool new space. The room is so small that the door would be a significant ugliness. So we bit the bullet and are paying to have a pocket door installed. It just wasn't going to be right to do anything less.

So the old door frame is gone, and i have already missed my opportunity to photograph part of the house's skeleton. The pocket door frame has been installed and the sheet rock is up, taped, mudded, sanded and ready for paint already. This guy rocks. The painter starts tomorrow, and the door will be installed before the end of the week!

I am planning to get a facelift

We went and talked with the designer who is coming up with a plan for residing and reroofing the house. Since it will get an entirely new skin, we want to add a little drama. The front of the house looks like we live in a hobbit hole at best, in the hobbit's garage at worst. The siding and roof are in bad shape, though not leaking. He has come up with a very cool entryway addition with some pretty exciting posts and beams, with a metal roof and board & batten siding. We also asked him to incorporate some stacked stone facing, and he has lots of it in more places than I had thought of, so that is a big plus. We had a bit of a problem imagining exactly what this might look like with the actual materials, so he is going to work up the design drawings a bit more with some color adjustments, and also a couple alternatives for materials. But I did some surfing and found a blog with some nice examples of these materials, so now I am starting to get it. Here are two paticularly nice pictures from that blog, with all the elements he showed us, just not in the same configurations.

Our windows don't open out like the ones below, but this is a very nice example of the types of materials and structures we will probably incorporate into the changes to the facade. He has proposed using cabling like this for the railings on the decks, which i also love.

I found a "Better Homes & Gardens" specialty magazine called "Exteriors" (they have one for every topic I can thing of) that has some other interesting variations along this same theme. After I show these to my husband and get a yes/no vote on the options, I will go back to the designer and see if we can finalize the plans.

Then we'll need to get bids.

Gulp.

Even an ancient dog can learn new tricks

Just in time for the Beijing Olympics: here is a link to a great New York Times article about home renovation in China. It has shining examples of how you can blend the very old and the new to create an incredible environment. Inspiring!

I want to live here

Here is a very interesting site on bathroom fixture design. It is not every day that a showroom embraces minimalism, rather than cramming every sample down your throat.

Down to the last details in two bathrooms.........

I visited my mom and sister in Indiana over the weekend, and it came to my attention that I have not posted the progress on the powder room in the entryway and the bathroom in our guest bedroom. So here is a the powder room with lights, mirrors, towel bar, etc., all installed..........


The to-do-list for this bathroom is down to patching the grout in a couple spots, and there is a carpenter that will start on the pocket door this week - yay, finally!

And here is the replacement faucet for the guest bathroom, flanked by my exciting find - - - glass soap dish and water tumbler mini-shelves (ordered from www.atgstores.com) that are such a fine match for the sink. You can get a better sense of the iridescent quality of the backsplash tiles in this picture, too. I bought the last of the tiles from www.naturalstoneoutlet.com, so they no longer have them on their website.

And notice also the sleek drain pipe. It takes something that is so functional and turns it into a sculptural detail. I never thought I would be so admiring of a piece of plumbing. My plumber has temporarilly connected the water supply lines with brass fittings, but has ordered chrome, which he will install the next time he is working on another project. The sink, faucet, and drain pipe are all from ModernDanish.com, so if the hot links to the individual pieces don't work, just go to their homepage and browse. It is so worth it.
Here is a picture of the light fixture. There is a new exhaust fan with ceiling light, too, so now there is more light overall in the room. That ceiling light allowed me to turn off the lights in the 3-light fixture so I could get a decent photograph. The only things left to do here are 1) install the toilet paper holder, 2) finish the floor, and waaayy off in the future we will replace the shower with a real shower pan and tile walls. When we do that, I want to cut a small window to let some light into the bathroom from the adjacent closet, which actually has a window in it.

Time out to welcome readers of LiveModern

Welcome to my blog! I found LiveModern when searching for shogi-screen doors. This is a saga about renovating a house that was modern in 1978. But just like that space odyssey mission to Jupiter that was due to arrive in 2001, the place was freeze-dried soon after launch. It has been revived from that state, and is slowly reanimating as I move from room to room renovating the life back into it. It is a great house on a splendid lot in a pleasant neighborhood in a sleepy little university town in beautiful part of western Virginia - in a word, it is worthy. While out-dated now, it will live on eternally modern if I have anything to say about it. . . . . and I can't shut up!

Please take a bit of time to go back to the first entry where I launched this operation so you will have the context for what I am doing here, and I hope you will find it interesting and maybe even inspiring. My philosophy is that the world would be a better place if we would all get busy retiling our bathrooms, kitchens, and any other appropriate surface we can find. Stone and tile are among the most beautiful materials on the planet, so earthy and organic even when shiney and synthetic. These materials will play a major role in my renovation as it evolves over the next few years.

So browse or study as your schedule permits, and feel free to send me your comments, questions (even if they start out with "why in the hell.......") or suggestions, because this is my new obsession in life.

Thanks for your time!

p.s. every surface is or can be made appropriate!

The One That Got Away

On a recent trip we had chance to see what the new owners of our former residence has done to the kitchen. Gutting that sucker was long over-due, and something I wanted to do everyday that I lived there, but the list of projects there was way too long and I just never got there. This is not exactly what I would have done, but I think they did an outstanding job. Tiles, cabinets, appliances, everything is new. These are cell-phone pictures, so the quality is not the greatest, but I think it is still clear that it was well-executed.

The new counter-tops are concrete, and the cabinets are all a nice matte black. I love the in-cabinet lights. The wall tiles are black with red and black glass accent strips.
The microwave is the same one we had, but the other appliances are new. I love the hardware on the cabinets, too.

Here is a close up shot of the glass tiles on one end of the room.....

And the wall tiles with strips of glass as accents......

And this is the floor, which is the same tile as those on the wall behind the range.......

Looking from the kitchen into the breakfast nook.......

Not a fan of the table and chairs, or color scheme, but again I think it is very nicely done. The light fixture is the same one we put up, and they even made that nasty paneling look good by painting it.

All in all, an outstanding job.

A Busman's Holiday

So what does someone who is obsessed with tiling her way through a home renovation do when she takes a long-weekend vacation to a restful cottage on a beautiful lake in Northern Michigan?

She tiles something, of course.


Now that I am home again, it occurs to me that I should have taken pictures of the 3 previous tiling projects I did at my aunt and uncle's summer cottage. Here is a picture of them, standing outside the front door. Aren't they cute in this picture?


I did those other projects years ago, back when I was just getting my start - a kitchen back-splash and 2 bathroom floors. I was worried about how these would hold up in the extreme environment of deep solid freeze every winter, but there is nary a crack anywhere in all 3 of them. So when I got there and saw the raw concrete of the recently repaired fireplace/grill, I knew it needed some embellishment, and no one could stop me.

Here it is, in context: and up close:











My sister and her husband had repaired the concrete on their recent visit. As soon as I saw it I thought about tiling the top of it and knew just what tiles we needed to get. Home Depot, 1"x1" slate tiles in 12"x12" sheets. They are perfect matches for the stones in the structure of the grill. Plus, the uneven surface of the grill would be a real challenge if I tried to use anything larger than 1x1's. Some of the tiles have a coppery glow, and some have a slightly quartzy look, just like the stones that came from the lake and surrounding dry land areas. You can see the same stones on the lower facing of the cottage.


First I painted the iron collar that my aunt and uncle had made at a local welding shop. Then I scrubbed the concrete with a dry brush and dusted it off with a rag. Then I cut the tiles into strips 3 tiles wide and laid them out to make sure of spacing and placement. If it was mine, I would have covered the entire top. But my aunt just wanted a border around the iron collar, and I decided to please my client rather than myself. I didn't want to have to cut any tiles, so I shifted them around until the spacing was just right.

To keep things neat and clean, I used painters tape to mask the dry paint and also the concrete. Then, I spread the adhesive on the backs of the tile strips, rather than the concrete surface to minimize clean-up. (Adhesive that went outside the application area would have been extremely difficult to remove from the rough concrete.) The adhesive was a type recommended for shower floors and other areas that would be exposed to standing water, since this will definitely be exposed to the elements.

I let it set for 24 hours, even though it was very tempting to grout it later that day. It seemed dry, but I have learned the hard way that it is not good to start grouting before the adhesive is dry. My aunt chose a beige color for the grout. We bought that at Lowe's so we could get the brand they carry that has matching sanded caulk. That way it is a really good match - I hate it when the caulk is distinctly a different color from the adjacent material.




The grout is also sanded, since the grout lines are fairly wide. The sand makes it a lot stronger, and there is no concern about the sand scratching slate tiles.








The next day, I was ready to caulk the edges, but sadly, it was raining. So I had to drive back to the airport after giving my aunt instructions about where to caulk. Here is the un-caulked-but-otherwise-completed project, somewhat wet on a rainy Tuesday-after-the-Fourth-of-July morning. I will be curious to see how it stands up to the elements in the years to come.

The Disappearing Sink

As I said before, the faucet is going to have to go (too tall, splattering water everywhere), but the sink is great. It opens up the space nicely, and has a bonus shelf underneath, which was a big plus compared to a pedestal sink. Still need to finish the grout, still have some painting to do, and the floor tiles will go down last. But I am taking another day off to enjoy the sink and think about alternative faucets. Here is another before-and-after comparison. See the last post for intermediates.

Here is another view of the sink................

i've been back for a while, but

I've been so busy trying to redo the guest bathroom before anyone comes to visit, who has time to blog. Here is the horrid "Before" shot..........

It can be described with one word, but I can't decide if that word is "yuck" or "blah". Beige, beige, and brown, with a white toilet and more of that beige, brown and yellow linoleum from another distant time. My original thought about this bathroom was to embrace the beiege/brown - - -I tried to feel better about it by calling it mocha and hung up a shower curtain that was the same color. But it just wasn't working.

So I replaced the towel rods and put up some matching shelves over the toilet, changed the toilet seat to a new white one, and got a different shower curtain. I also painted it blue, which was a big help all by itself. Then hung up some blue and white towels. Eventually I want to rip out that nasty fiberglass shower insert and build one with tile, but that will have to wait a bit. Better, but still not there.

I added some hardware to the sink vanity, but that thing was still an eyesore. I thought I would look for a pedestal sink to open up a bit more space, but then I found a wall-mounted clear glass sink that would REALLY open up the space. So even though I had not planned to jump into a big-time-and-money change, the doors were closing and it was too late to jump out of the bus.

Since one thing always leads to another, I decided to put tile on the wall behind the sink to show it off. I wanted small glass tiles, and went back to my old favorite, naturalstoneoutlet.com, to see what they might have. I decided to go with the iridescent coral glass mosaic tiles that come in 13 x 13 inch sheets, on sale for $7 a sheet. I was going to put in a link to the picture of the actual one I chose, but I guess I must have bought the last of it, because it is no longer listed on the website. (Sorry) They are whitish, with pink, yellow, blue and peachy iridescence like mother-of-pearl. Colorful, but neutral, so I like them a lot.

Blacksburg's best plumber, Rick Littreal, ripped out the old sink for me, and redid the plumbing so that it would be fresh and shiny and new, since it is going to be highly visible.
Here is a view of the space minus the ugly old vanity, and after he reworked the plumbing. I cut a piece of concrete board that was left over from my subfloor I put down in the powder room, then slapped up the tile as soon as it arrived. For the first time, I used an adhesive-grout-in-one product, thinking it would save me some time, and would be helpful since the tiles are so thin (making it difficult to keep that adhesive from coming through the joints). But it was really not any easier because I had to go back and put a second application of the "grout" because the first layer shrank so much and left little holes everywhere. But here it is after some of it was up.......... You can see a bit of the new medicine cabinet, too. Since the old medicine cabinet has a light incorporated into it, I replaced the light fixture, too. In addition, I replaced the ceiling fan with a new quieter one that has a light, so now there is plenty of illumination in the space, which helps out since there is no window. Yet. Someday.

After the tile was up, Rick came back and put the sink it. It was tricky because of the location of the plumbing, so we decided to place it a bit lower than standard. I thought this would be okay because the faucet I chose was 13 inches tall (the one pictured at the link is only 6 inches). But..............it turned out that the faucet was all wrong for this sink, because the water splatters all over the opposite side of the basin portion. Not good. Cool-looking but not practical. So I am in search of a new faucet, and will return that one as soon as I find a new one. The website where I bought the sink and faucet is moderndanish.com, and they seem to be willing to let me return it. We will see how that works out. They have one I want for another bathroom, too, so I hope they will be reasonable.

I haven't taken a picture of the room with the sink up yet, but will do it tomorrow.

Takin' the weekend off.

Travel Time

I am taking a break from renovation, and all the rest of my usual routine, to go visit my daughter-in-law and grandchildren in Japan for a week. You might be wondering why I did not say I will be visiting my son, and so here is the reason. There is a lot to say about that, but that is all I will say for now. My grandson is now 4 1\2 years old, and my granddaughter is his adopted sister who is 13. She is a great kid, and they are all very devoted to each other. I have only known her for the last 4 years, but enjoy spending time with her when I visit. She speaks great English, but my grandson does not yet. I have learned a little Japanese, but don't make much progress because when I am there I need to speak English with him as much as possible so he is exposed to a native speaker.　 I am in Haneda airport in Tokyo right now, at an　internet cafe waiting for my connecting flight.

So, no pictures of renovations today. Instead I will just report that my prospective carpenter came to the house yesterday to take a look at two projects. I really like the guy, and he seems like he will be easy to work with. And he got it right away when I explained what I want done. 　The two projects we discussed are the pocket door for the powder room/half-bath that is nearly complete except that it still has no door (minor problem for a bathroom), and the shower in the guest bedroom bath.　　He has a guy who works with him who can probably do the pocket door in June. 　The sooner the better, but June will work just fine.

The shower will be something he won't be able to get to before July or August, but that is fine, too. There is no burning need to get that done soon; it is just something on the list that my husband is now saying he wants to be able to check off. So here is the plan:

1. remove all the old fixtures in the bathroom.

2. take up the linoleum.

3. lay the new floor tile (whatever that is - - - need to pick something out).

4. he will then rebuild the shower pan and walls, move the shower drain to the center, and install a window above the shower on one wall.

5. he will lay the tile on the floor of the shower. maybe. or maybe i will.

6. I will tile the walls, for sure.

The bathroom currently has no windows, but there is a window in the adjacent walk-in closet. So putting a window up high in the bathroom will allow some natural light to come in from the closet. At first we thought we might change the footprint of the closet and bathroom to make it so the bathroom extended to that exterior wall, but then a lot of the plumbing would need to be moved around and that would get crazy expensive. We are willing to go the distance for the new master bath, but not for this guest bath. I think we can work within the space we have and make it a nice bathroom. Just removing that abominable fiberglass shower insert will allow the shower to be about 6 inches longer and a couple inches wider. I am also now searching for the right base for the sink. A pedestal sink would be good since that would make it feel roomier in there, but I hate to lose the storage capacity. However, there is a fairly ample walk-in closet in the bedroom, and there is an additional closet just outside the bedroom. So that can be the storage spot for extra toilet paper, etc. I would like to find something that is somewhat open, but has maybe one drawer and an open shelf. Then I would use the square white porcelain vessel sink I already have.

Lots to think about. Damn, I am tired. Stayed up all night before I went to the airport at 6:00 am for my flight to Atlanta and connection to Tokyo. That was a total of about 17 hours of flying, plus another 45 minutes to the airport, 1/2 hour wait, and a heartstopping connection time in Atlanta of about 25 minutes. In Tokyo I took a bus from one airport to another (1 hour trip), and have been waiting here for another 2 hours. So that is about 22 hours so far. Only 2 hours until I board the last flight, which will be about 3 hours. Finally, I will get a cab at the airport in Okinawa, and if I am lucky and the guy knows how to get where I am going, it will be about 30-45 minutes. So let's call it 28 hours of travel for the entire trip. But, hey, no whining. It is worth it.

My Laundry Room, The Butterfly

The laundry room has undergone a metamorphosis . . . . what was just an empty room is now a functional space for sewing or other craftwork. I had Diane Hailey from the local Closet Concepts design an installation that includes floor-to-almost-ceiling linen closet, fold-out ironing board, drawers, shelves, and work countertop/laundry folding area. Here is what it looked like before the installation:

Basically just an empty box with a pathetic folding table opposite the washer and dryer. If not for the excellent tile job, this room would have been a total negative. But now.......it's a wow. Check it:

The cabinetry is a pretty close match to the walls, which enhances the "built-in" look, and the countertop is a good match for the accent tiles in the floor and wall. Actually, I wonder if I ever posted a picture of the finished tile? In case I have not, here is one:

The room is now really making that utility tub look particularly sucky. I may have to replace that someday. In the meantime, i am looking forward to filling up the shelves and drawers and hanging some artwork.

Drilling Down

I am so proud of myself . . . . . I mounted the towel bar and toilet paper holder in the half-bath all by myself today, and they both look very cool. Here is the towel bar, which is particularly cool with this half-circle shape.

You can see the mirror in this picture also, and a bit of the spots where the light fixtures will go on each side of the mirror.

Those lights should be in soon, but I will be on vacation for 10 days, leaving in just 3 days, so that will be something I deal with when I get back. I will have a bunch of lights to install, so will set up a date for that with the electrician.

Tne next big thing is coming up tomorrow morning when I get cabinets installed in the laundry room. This is going to create a laundry-folding/sewing desk area, storage drawers, built-in ironing board, and floor-to-ceiling linen closet. Can't wait!

Good News! I am an ideal candidate for remodeling!

Here is a fun test to see if you have what it takes to emhandle the stress of a big renovation project. The good news (for me) is that I passed - Yay!

Here is the analysis of me:

"Others see you as fresh, lively, charming, amusing, practical, and always interesting; someone who's constantly in the center of attention, but sufficiently well balanced not to let it go to their head. They also see you as kind, considerate, and understanding; someone who'll always cheer them up and help them out. Conclusion: You are an ideal candidate for remodeling. You are flexible, patient, can roll with the punches and remain upbeat."

Well, I don't know about all that. But I think I can agree that I am flexible, patient, can roll with the punches and remain upbeat. I also agree that you need to be all those things when renovating, and you better have it in proportion to the size of the project.

I found the test when I was reading a juicy article in the New York Times called "Building Rage" about how some people lose it when dealing with contractors. "Much has been written about contractors from hell, but comparatively little attention is paid to the homeowner from hell, who can make contractors crazy."

I think one of the things that helps me is that I work hard at finding people I feel comfortable working with - when I know we are communicating well, I have more confidence that I will be happy with the results. So far I have found an electrician, plumber, and landscaper I really like, and they are very easy to work with. There is a designer who came and measured everything last week and is working on drawings of the exterior for some upgrades and new siding. I know what genereal contractor I want to use when we undertake a big project like the kitchen or moving walls around in the master bedroom. Now I just need a carpenter who can do smaller jobs, like changing the closet doors or building a shower pan. I talked to a guy who will be coming by in a couple days to see the shower and doors and give me a bid. He seemed nice on the phone, and is currently working on a full kitchen installation in another house, so I think he knows what he is doing. Can't wait to have him come by the house.

Lighting Spree

I went on an overnight light-fixture feeding frenzy ordering the lighting for the entryway and stairwell.

Here is a picture of how the entryway looked when the previous owners lived here, and also how it looked empty:

...................and here it is now, except that i moved that big ship to a different room. It is much more spacious with out the boat parked there.

You can see the old paper-shade-dangley-light fixture that came with the house. I kinda like paper shades, but we have way too many of them here, and I think the new fixture will be better.

Here is what I picked out for the entryway:

I chose this one because the black lines of the metal remind me of the painting hanging in the space. It is an original oil painting that we bought for our 8th wedding anniversary from an artist in Dayton, Ohio. I love it because it is reminiscent of Byzantine or Eastern Orthodox religious icon, but it is a totally modern take on the classical theme of angels. They look both watchful and melancholy with those big eyes that also remind me of those cheezy big-eye-kid paintings from the 60's. The other reason I like this fixture is that it is complementary to the one i have chosen for the stairwell to replace the even bigger paper-shade pendant there:

The Devil is in the Details

I have ordered new light fixtures, toilet paper holder and towel bar, and am searching for someone to install a pocket door so I can finish up the bathroom renovation. In the meantime, I will trim off the bottom of the old door so I can rehang it. I bought a new circular saw at Lowe's - - - a Black & Decker battery-powered one. The rechargeable battery can be used in a bunch of other Black & Decker tools, including a weed-whacker I bought at the same time.

Speaking of weed-whacking, I am going to need to bust a move outside in the gardens. After sitting empy for a year, the plants here are pretty overgrown and somwhat weedy to boot. So while I wait for the stuff to finish up the last details of the bathroom, I will try to make a dent in the garden. This weekend I transplanted a bunch of the perennials, and weeded out some that were spreading out everywhere they shouldn't be. Some of them were moving from the garden spaces into the driveway, and all the tallest stuff had moved to the fronts of the beds. Today was rainy, so I bought some flats of impatiens, ajuga, and petunias that i will put out tomorrow. It is dark out now, so i will have to wait until then anyway to take a couple pictures.

I want to plant some tomatoes and herbs in a sunny spot in the backyard, but i will get someone to cut down one of the trees first. It is right in the way of the view out the back windows, way too close to the house. There wouldn't be much left if we tried to prune it back, so I am thinking it will just be better to cut it down. I will call my landscaping guy and have him tell me what he thinks we should do.

I also have some carrot seeds that i bought in Japan. The Japanese carrots (and NO that is not me in the Japanese carrot video) are so wonderful - short and very fat compared to the ones we get here, and SO delicious. They are so fat you can actually make musical instruments with them, for crying out loud. I am not sure if they will grow in this climate, but it will be fun to give it a try. I am hoping the rabbits I have seen out in the backyard won't eat the tops off - - - might have to frame them up and cover them.

One of the Costs of Unfinished Renovation Projects

Still haven't put up the new toilet paper holder or towel bar, so the roll of toilet paper was just sitting on the vanity top. This is the second day in a row I have come home to find that my little cat Sharky has gotten the brand new roll of toilet paper and absolutely shredded it.

I didn't put out another one today.