One man's ceiling.....

we started the hardwood floors today. I think they look kind of blondish with a gray cast. They don't look as warm in real-life as they seem to look here. Of course, we can fix a lot of that with stain. L thinks they are pretty close to the color we want already.

I think this is a nice touch around the heat register:

We discovered while walking the naked floorboards in stocking feet, there is a very slight dip in the floor. L thinks that when the joists were set in place, this one was set a little lower than the others. It does show up on the level, but I don't think there's much we can do about it now. I don't know how much sanding it would take to level them out. We certainly can't rip up otherwise fine ceiling and floor to fix something that is probably less than 0.25 inch. So, we drop a pencil, it might roll a bit.

One thing we are having a slight disagreement on, is the direction of flooring as you move out of bedroom into alcove outside the bathroom, and the closet to the right. He thinks that the flooring should change direction as you enter alcove, to give the illusion of length, as in a hallway. The area in question is about 6 x 8 feet. There is simply a square opening from bedroom into alcove, and actual doors into closet and bedroom which of course has tile flooring.

I think that to keep the boards the same direction gives the Master Suite a sense of continuity, that one area flows into another. It seems choppy to me to change direction for such a small area, especially since there is no door at this spot. What do you think?

Now, back to the bathroom for a little bit. We definitely need a second coat in the bathroom. L thinks it might be too dark, but I think it's OK. It reminds me of the trip to eye doctor for new glasses. "Is the chart better WITH it (pause, click) or WITHOUT it?" It dries darker than I expected but I kind of like it. I think any change would be pretty subtle. It just seems dark because so much else in the room is WHITE WHITE WHITE. The paint is only halfway down wall because there will be white wainscoting at this point.

Now, I was really on the fence. I thought it might be a tad dark but the bathtub is still wrapped up in cardboard and it's white white. It does meld well with the floor tile, I think. The shower curtain, as yet undecided/unpurchased, can add some brightness to room and can dress the room either up or down. If we get a shower curtain with tan in it, I think it will all pull together.

But, then I saw this:

Period. Done. Over. I cannot believe the PERFECT match with the dominant color in the vanity countertop. I was not a fan of this countertop but decided to pick my battles ("I get the kitchen. I get the kitchen. I get the kitchen.") I surrender. It's perfect. Sigh. Where's my cigarette?

Miscellania

I really need to get back on top of this. Here's a pile of stuff, as they say on DWTS, "in no particular order":

Testing out the paint colors on the Garage. I was ready to tear this puppy down, but the paint helps. A lot. The whole door is done now, just need to take a pix of it in daylight.

The bathroom vanity - haven't seen it out of the box yet, but it's sitting up there waiting. L picked it up from overstock.com, with the Baltic Brown countertop. Pix taken in the dark with a flash or flashlight aren't all that helpful.




The vanity itself is a kind of cherry-mahogany finish fairly plain, in keeping with the general Craftsman mood in the house. This is a photo of a photo. It was overstock .com and there's no online pix I can, uh, borrow.

We bought the ceramic tiles Friday, trying to use samples in the store to approximate the vanity.

It's not a great pix, but it gives us an idea. The tiles are generic enough that we can change colors without it being an issue. We also picked up 7-8 boxes of white subway tile. No pix of that. I think we should get some sort of trim tile, L's angling for black because of the dark countertop, but I think that's too severe. It will feel better to get a good look at the countertop in natural light. I can only do that on the weekends now.

A window into your soul.

OMG, even *I* know that's awful.

The windows and doors were delivered, and last week Craig came back and installed them all. Windows, unless they're stained glass are simply not that interesting. However, I did think it was interesting when Mom said that the house looks like an ark.
It certainly does in this pix. Here's the front of the ark.
So, the siding guy can't start til the doors and windows are done. L decides to test the paint colors on the old Garage. Now, I was ready to tear this bugger down, but it cleans up pretty good for as old as it is.

Wish I could look that much better with a quart of paint (grin).