Floor Remodel

I was visiting a friends house and she had just finished remodeling. She had chosen the prettiest gray ceramic tiles for her floor. The modern plank kind. And I thought it looked so pretty and light. 

We have hardwood floors in our house and after the new pretty bathroom, I think the rest of the house looks dark and dreary. The living room is north facing and usually full of children.

Here are the only pics I have of my living room. Which proves two points: 1. It's too dark to photograph properly and 2. It's never clean. Because no one photographs a dirty living room.

Remember your living room before you had kids?

Here's the fireplace in the daylight:

Here's a better shot of the wood floors with all the other colors I have going on in there. The green wall is now painted captivating teal, I think.

Here's the new color...Look! Christmas in June!

Here's our giant bookcase and the front door, with the wood floors. They are pretty worn and scratched, especially by the door. And they no longer have any protective sheen. 

So, yeah, I want to paint my hardwood floors. It solves so many of my problems! It will lighten up the space and protect the floors from further damage. Not to mention the part of our bedroom that's missing some floor due to a ceiling leak. The floor was damaged and removed, but the sub-floor is still perfect. Hopefully, we can kind of fake some planking and then paint over it.

Here are some pretty options:

Cream Floors!

Gray! (Tumblr told me that it's gray in the US and grey in the UK. That sounded good to me!)

Gray on gray faux carpet!

Gloss White!

Black! (Although it will not exactly solve my lighting issues).

Change color for different rooms! My room could be yellow; the boys' room, olive!

And my favorite room, with matte white floors. I demanded my husband build me that bed. And we keep it sort of neutral. Maybe I only like it because it looks so clean and I know my room will never be that clean. We have too small a house for that kind of minimalism.

Let me know when uber-crammed closets and plastic dressers come back in style. Because I'll have so many pics of that, at least.

Gray and Yellow

My absolute favorite thing about my new bathroom. The barn light! In bright yellow!

I also like my $9 shower curtain. A hand grommeted drop cloth.

Here are the details of my little bathroom redo:

Since the floor is 25 square feet, I went a little crazy on the materials. Marble basket weave! I wanted to keep it in the '20s but also make it fresh and new. That tile we found at Mission Tile, our neighborhood tile place. It was thicker than the home depot basket weave and just a little bit more per square foot.

With the small space situation, I used the beveled subway tile all the way to the ceiling to make the room look bigger.  And I added two niches in the shower so I wouldn't need to add any storage in the form of shower caddies or whatnot.

Because the subway tile is raised in the middle, I found some marble to use as the shelf part of the niche. They are 6 x 12 inch marble tiles from home depot. I swear I spent an hour in the tile aisle trying to find exactly the product I needed for each situation in my bathroom.

And we have a window in the shower! I've always liked it, my alternative being no window in the bathroom, I guess. But I hate the privacy options available when you order a window.

So I went for window film. not martha had a lot of information and I found some favorites, but the shipping from England was $45! I ended up using mesh by dc fix from wall pops. We decided not to do the top window, but I haven't showered in there yet, so we'll see...

In this pic you can really see the bevels in the tile. And you get the view from the bathers perspective. It's like a Frida Kahlo painting!

Now you can see why I had to remove the door. It bumps your legs while you pee, so one cannot photograph the room while the door is open. 

We had to refinish the door because, like, five years ago, I stripped the paint off the bottom quarter of the door. Which meant I had to spend three days stripping the seven layers off the rest of the door. Also? That stuff burns.

Here's another shot of the Lowe's vanity I refinished with Annie Sloan Chalk Paint. I am now a believer and would pretty much do whatever Annie Sloan wants me to do. That stuff works wonders! I even got my mom to refinish her bathroom vanity with it. Here I used French Linen and clear and dark wax mixed.

Because it took me so long to find all the random pieces of tile for the space, I have to show you how it came out! I used a cove base to make it easy to clean. And for the transition between tiles, I found a mosaic border that I was able to cut into long strips of little bricks. I can't find it online, but it was four rows of offset marble tiles. 

Here's a photo of the whole room again. Door removed. It doesn't really feel like it's a room in my house yet. I'm sure the boys will take care of that really soon.

The Great Pink Lady Apple Debacle

Hi!

I purchased your delightful beverage from The Market on Holly in Pasadena, CA on June 6th. I bought it for two reasons: 1. I'm on antibiotics and needed the boost and 2. my super sassy friend had me try the ginger lemon and it was delicious.

I left the cold bottle in my car for an hour, while I got my therapy on, which might not be the best idea, but it was overcast and June-gloomie and the temperature was around 65 so I thought it would be okay.

On my drive to work, I take the 2 and it's always backed up, I thought to open the beverage and have a sip as I listened to my favorite morning show and dodged the cheaters who think they can just get over at the last minute instead of waiting back there like everyone else. But the bubbly probiotic tea had other ideas. She exploded like a diet coke full of mentos all over me as I was driving. And it was a bummer because the slightly fermented smell had me worried that I now smelled like the floor of a dive bar. (Which I am not entirely against! Especially if said smell leads to my guts being full of happy bacteria!) But now I had to go into work late, (traffic!) and smelling ever so slightly like hard cider, (Pink Lady Apple!).

Luckily, I am reminiscent of Amelia Bedelia and people don't even blink when I tell them a story like this. (You should hear the one about me trying to fix my toilet which led to me using the neighbor's bathroom for a few days!)

So, anyway, I got to work and I finished my beverage. It was delicious and I am grateful for your product. There's only so much yogurt a girl can eat! We can't all be Jamie Lee Curtis! I just thought to tell you in case the exploding is not normal and you wanted to check it out.

Thank you so much!

-Courtney

Hi Courtney!

Your email has been the most entertaining thing that has come across my inbox in a long while! ;)  However, I'm so sorry that you have encountered this explosion especially in LA traffic.  Sounds harrowing... the 'explosiveness' is due to the reaction of the natural fruit sugars that interact with the yeast found in our raw(unpasteurized) kombucha.  This interaction is particularly activated in a heated environment or changes in temperature. So when it was left in your car...it became extra reactive and decided to explode on you.   Although extremely unpleasant, it is not abnormal.  Thank you for letting us know and please keep sending feedback on the product! And a big THANK YOU for supporting a local brand committed to making a premium kombucha the old-fashioned way with top quality ingredients.

If you ever need anything please email or call us at (424) 888-3054.

Cheers!

Tubstep: Slappin' da basement

The bathroom is coming along! Slow and steady wins the race!

We finally got our basement toilet working properly and, of course, uncovered some amazing new problems! But, I think we always kind of knew there would be something...lurking...

Today the tile goes in and I had to compromise a little, which bums me out, but that's what happens with design! I just didn't think I would be making decisions while sitting at my desk. As usual, google came through for me...

The finish date is supposed to be Friday, but that's with no more surprises...

And then I'll be able to sleep in my own bed again.

Post Traumatic Bath Syndrome

This is my bathroom before the remodel.

This is my bathroom this morning...

You can compare by using the light fixture as your starting point. 

It's gonna be amazing when it's finished...I say as I cry into my coffee because I have no toilet.