HGTV Obsession

TV generally bugs me. But since the renovation, I can't stop watching HGTV, much to the chagrin of my tennis-obsessed boyfriend!

Also . . .

One thing that pretty much sucks in every way, is my studio is undergoing demolition next door, so I cannot escape the madness, even at work!!!

Boring plumbing and electrical things . . .

Not much has changed since my last post, but in every remodel, there are the details that one never sees, but will make a huge difference in the final product, such as plumbing and electricity. The rough-ins for both were completed yesterday, the inspector comes today, and the wood floors in the kitchen and drywall start after that. All I care about is decorating at this point, so all this stuff is boring to me. I keep saying to my contractor, 'Whatever you think is fine!' But I have to remember details I wished about in the old kitchen, like adding more outlets, and dimmer switches.

My most favorite thing so far has been picking out tile. I'm driving the tile guy crazy bacause I keep changing my mind, but we finally came to a decision based on my design skills and his expertise with glass tile. We decided to do white subway tile walls in the bathroom, with a mixed blue 1" glass tile boarder on the floor and top of the subway tile. The window in the kitchen will be gone, replaced with glass block and mosaic glass tile surrounding it and the backsplash around the sink and stove, with a stainless backsplash behind the stove and chimney style hood. I can't wait!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I hope the boring stuff is almost over.

Decorating is somewhat fun and time consuming.

I had about 2 days to pick out tile and a cabinet color for the kitchen and bathroom tile. I should have been thinking about this for awhile, but I didn't. Anyway, I knew what color I wanted the cabinets to be, in my head. So I went to the antique shop next to City Salvage, and found this vase to base things off of . . .


Then I was looking at the City Pages whilst drinking coffee, and happened upon a Crafty Planet ad (www.craftyplanet.com), took the vase there, and found these awesome retro fabrics, then took the fabrics to the tile store, and within 5 minutes had found the tile for my backsplash . . .



I guess Amy Butler is really huge right now -- she's like a cool Laura Ashley -- here's a design by her. . .


And in some light, this tile matches the sink


If only life were really this easy.

The Blues . . .

In trying to find a matching color for the blue sink, I am at a loss! It is the weirdest blue. I have a whole Benjamin Moore color chip book, and cannot find a color that even remotely resembles it. Oh well. I guess I'll paint the tub black instead.
Here's what it looked like at the salvage place . . .

And here's what it looks like at night at my place . . .

I called a salvage dude that has a bunch of blue sinks, and he said that there are a ton of different blue colors they used. I determined it's a Standard Sanitary Mfg Co. sink from before 1935, when American Radiator and Standard Sanitary merged and became American Standard. I did a web search for porcelain colors from then, and came up with nothing. Oh well. I need to stop obsessing about it. Now.

More about demo and things . . .

Here's the buffet about ready to leave the building . . .

Sad. I feel really bad.

Here's the demoed kitchen, down to the studs . . .

The old tile was that tiny octagon pattern.

But all was well when I received the new tub and sink . . .


So the dudes came, took the buffet, and delivered the tub and sink. All for a trade. I also decided to not do the in-floor heat, which saves a lot in electrical, and keep the old radiator instead, since the tub's the right size (5ft), and I won't have to move the toilet, so that'll save some headache, too.

Oh, BTW, here's what my living quarters look like right now . . .

Hello, Goodbye . . .

Hi. I'm Erin, and I live in a 1917 Mission style brownstone condo in Minneapolis. I've had the place for 6 years, and decided it was time to update/restore the kitchen and bath as cool-ly and cost-effectively as possible. So got some quotes, hired a contractor (friend's husband who has been contracting for 15 years, and has several friends' renovations under his belt www.openairconcepts.com), which took months, and now my place is ripped apart.

First off, let me explain why I would put myself through all this -- 6 weeks of no water, running around picking up tile, making sure my cat is safe, living with my bathroom, kitchen, and dining room in my living room -- I figure I'll be living there for awhile, and think it's an investment that will aid in the eventual re-sale of the place.

PLUS I HATED my kitchen and bath. Let's go through all of the annoying quirks my place had . . .

Here's the kitchen. Notice the plastic floor boards, the missing window frame, the cabinet door that would not close without falling off, the beautiful blue countertop and vinyl floor.

Lovely cabinets. And there were only 2 . . .

The silver paint was my idea, the only thing I could do for the poor place.

On to my lovely bathroom . . .

In this picture, it doesn't really look that bad.
First off, the plastic floorboards. Annoying. The floor tile has tiny grooves that collect people scum and will not ever become clean. I put the mirror, lights and backsplash there. The backsplash is covering a huge hole where the oldest medicing cabinet ever to have existed once lived . . .

The tub is a 28", 4 1/2 ft mini tub that gets your ass wet and that's about it. I'm a girl, I like baths. The grout was wrought with mildew, and those gross centipedes had a colony somewhere near the drain.


The one redeeming quality is this built-in. The tile next to it used to be green with gold flecks. In all the sq footage is about 1.3 centimeters.

And last but not least, the buffet in the dining room. . .

Which looks fine at first glance, but ended up being a glorified junk drawer with 8 phone books, 30 headphone sets, 760 nails, 3 hammers, 500 wine glasses, 10 rolls of tape, etc . . .

If I lived in1917, I'm sure I would have china, and a maid to cook my food, so the kitchen and buffet were probably great. But now, in 2007, who needs china? And when all my friends come over, we crowd into the kitchen. So, as sad as I am to see it go, I said good bye to the buffet today. I traded it at City Salvage (www.citysalvage.com) for an awesome blue sink and clawfoot tub.
Now, there will be a center island with stools, and a butcher block top, so I can cook and converse, and my friends can help me chop things.

In the mean time, I've had to pick out colors for the cabinets (smooth painted tops, robin's egg blue) and back splash (glass tiles in 4 colors), the bathroom wall tile (white subway tile with sky blue and black checkerboard boarder, black bullnose), and the floor tile (white 2" octagons with black accents, gray grout).

I didn't know where to start. I kind of knew I wanted painted cabinets, and that I liked a certain vintage blue/turquoise. I went to an antique shop, and bought a vase that was the color I liked, then found a retro fabric store (Crafty Planet in NE -- www.craftyplanet.com) and picked out a bunch of patterns I liked. THEN I took them to the tile place and went from there.

Pictures in the next post . . .