Month: April 2016

Picking Tile Sounded Fun At First

Oh god. Tile. There are so. many. kinds. of. tile. I’m really feeling Yellow Brick Home’s post about indecision.

Early on in our pinteresting, we found some really sweet large hexagonal tiles in a rich cobalt blue. Of course, they’re $35 a square foot. So, that’s right out. And where would we even put them?

We’ve got a lot of different places to pick tile for:

  • Half bathroom: We’ve got plain walls here and all-white fixtures so we can choose something fun and bold here.
  • Pantry: This can be plain and neutral. It’s just the pantry, we’re not showing off. Or we could just go with the same tile that’s in the half bathroom, since they’re next to each other.
  • Kitchen backsplash: This is a small space, so we could pick something kind of expensive per square foot and not break the bank. Or we could pick plain subways and put them in a neat pattern and just let it hide behind all the other stuff going on in the kitchen. It doesn’t need to be a focal point.
  • Full bathroom, floor and tub surround: This is the hard one, since there’s a lot going on in this room and a lot of surfaces to tile. There’s a brick wall on one side, the vanity cabinet is wood veneer, the rest of the fixtures are white, and we’ll need to choose a few bits of marble or other stone for some other spots. The goal here is to keep it subtle and mostly neutral since there’s a lot of other stuff going on.
  • Full bathroom, shower: Do we pick one kind of tile for the whole shower, or do we do one thing on the floor and another on the walls? Either way it needs to be reasonable when seen next to the other tile in the rest of the bathroom.

Back Door Man

The back door needs to be replaced. M is lobbying for real wood; I’m lobbying for fiberglass. She wants character; I want something low-maintenance with good insulation that doesn’t warp in humid weather. So, we’re going door shopping this weekend. Therma-Tru or salvaged antique? Stay Tuned to Money Pit and find out!

Tonight, on Haunted Money Pit: The Structural Engineer Visits

Last week I met with the contractor, structural engineer, and architect all at once. Structural Engineer Dan B looked in at the joists and pronounced them quite sturdy and not in need of any modifications. So, that’s good. The oddities that had been seen in initial demo were, it turns out, related to something else entirely.

Then we went into the downstairs neighbor’s unit and we got slightly less-good news. There are three places where we need to put posts made of quadruple 2x4s so that our unit can transfer its weight all the way down into the basement and foundation and ground, rather than, say, directly into her living room. These spots are all inside of already existing walls, but we do have to open her walls up to get to them, then close them back up and paint them again. Downstairs neighbor is, fortunately, OK with this disruption.

Next time on Haunted Money Pit: Choosing appliances, paint, kitchen sink and faucet, tile, and molding. PLUS: Is decision fatigue a real thing? Eh, I don’t really care anymore, let’s just assume it is.

Setbacks and Spending

Setback: The joists in the 2nd floor – that picture right below this – don’t do quite what we’d thought they would. This means that we’ll need to open up the ceiling more, both so that the structural engineer and architect can see exactly what is going on there, and so that we can put in recessed lighting that’s up to code. It’ll cost a little more of course, but “wiring up to code” is important and that ceiling was pretty nasty anyway.

Spending: Placed order for all the bathroom goodies: Vanity, sink, faucets, tub, shower. Delivery to be scheduled for next month.