Living in it . . .

Well, we've been living with this gorgeous space now for a few months. It's so easy to clean (even though I don't clean as much as I should). My favorite things so far? Breakfast bar (I'm sitting at it now) Dishwasher ( my boyfriend always does the dishes) Blue sink (it's perfect in every way) all the tile -- tile is so cool. Huge kitchen sink with no divider -- great idea. It's 10" deep and 36" wide. Stainless steel countertops -- so industrial, sleek, modern, and recyclable. The butcher block island with recycling center -- awesome. The clutter is down to nothing now. We have to separate our recycling here -- the recycling guys are absolute nazis about it. It's so fun cooking now, and I love being in my bathroom. I never want to move. I also love the fact that I picked everything out, and it's my taste. Usually, you live with some other yahoo's taste, and if you're lucky, you can change the wallpaper or the vinyl flooring.

Negatives? Hmmmm. Not crazy about the faucet in the kitchen. It keeps falling apart, and the water pressure isn't as awesome as I'd hoped. The cabinet paint is chipping where the screws from the pulls hit it. Shoulda picked different pulls. Still love the cabinets. And, this is impossible in my place, cause there is no space for it, but I wish I had a pantry. Right now all our dry goods are stored under on a lazy suzan, and all the stuff falls off when you're spinning it around. I should organize it better, I guess.

Things I did right: Hired a great contractor. I know this is a do-it-yourself site, but now in the future I'm confident I'll be able to do some of the stuff myself. Jake Nau sincerely cared about the project, and works with really talented people. They are all true artisans, which are really hard to find these days. Also, I'm so glad I went to the salvage place. Nowadays, we live in a throw-away society, and it's really hard for me to believe this is the right way to live. There is no way the Earth can sustain all the abuse we subject it to every second of every day. My parents save everything -- my mom's cat sleeps on my old baby blankets. We need to adopt the idea of reduce reuse recycle now. So instead of buying a tub and sink from home depot, manufactured in China, shipped across the world to replace my old tub and sink produced in China and shipped across the world, I found perfectly good used tub and sink, manufactured here like 100 years ago, that have a million times more character, for virtually free.

Things I should have thought about more: Even though I love how everything turned out, I wish I would have done more research about materials well in advance. There were these gorgeous recycled glass tiles I wanted so bad, but the lead time was 6 weeks, which would have delayed the project.

I don't know how to add links, but I'm going to add some copy and paste links that were instrumental in the completion of Sayer-ville.

First, my contractor:
http://www.openairconcepts.com/

The salvage place:
http://www.citysalvage.com/

The tile place:
http://www.katelotile.com/wall.html

The recycled glass tile place:
http://www.bedrockindustries.com/

Also, thanks to the last few people who e-mailed me and commented about the project; positivity is hard to find on the internet!

I'll be adding more pics, and now I'm decorating my bedroom (when I come up with the cash). So, I'll be talking more about decorating and what I've been learning in Interior Design school.

That is all.

YEAH!!!!

The cleaning people came Tuesday, and it's finally done. Here are pics, and I'll have fancier ones later.
Here's a mural I painted on the wall next to the kitchen of my animals . . .

Here's a backdrop I did for a school of an old building . . .


And finally . . .

To Anonymous

Here is a comment by a coward who won't say who they are:

"Oh my God. There is a place in hell for people like you. Why don't you buy a place that was built in the 1950's and make it retro? Why would you do that to that beautiful condo? You have now become the worst "previous owner" ever. Anyone who buys your condo after you will curse you over and over and over again."

I would just like to say I know I am 'horrible' for removing the hutch. It wasn't beautiful, it was falling apart. It would have cost about $5,000 to restore. And I would like to see you live with 2 cabinets in your tiny kitchen for 6 years. Also, why do you care what anyone else does to their place? If someone wants a hutch in thier place, they'll buy a place with one intact. They won't buy a place with a georgeous modern kitchen and then curse the previous owner over and over and over again. Plus, I plan on being here for a very long time, so just take your dumb opinion and go to hell where you belong.

Painter Woes

The painting started Monday. All that has to be donne is the woodwork in the bathroom and kitchen. I was afraid to do it myself. I can do walls, but have never done woodwork and didn't want to screw it up. Well, the company my contractor hired is pissing me off. You'd think it would be an in and out job, nothing too complicated, just some stain and white paint, right? Monday they called in sick. Tuesday they taped every last little screw in the wall and put paper all over the floors -- I was so happy to get rid of the flipping construction paper just a week ago I almost screamed when I saw my beautiful bathroom covered in it again. I work from home sometimes, and noticed the guy looking busy, but not actually doing anything. He managed to prime 3 drawers in 8 hours Wednesday. Thursday they painted the wrong color on the woodwork and had to come fix it until 7:30 at night. And right now, as I'm sitting here, the painter hasn't touched the bathroom and has been talking on the phone for 2 hours. I told my contractor if they don't finish today I'll do it myself this weekend. AHHHHHH!!!!

SOOOO Close!!

OK, here are some pics of the (almost) finished kitchen and bath. The painters have to stain the wood in the kitchen, and paint the built-in in the bathroom.






Here's the bathroom . . .




Here's a pic of the table I made out of the bathroom tile . . .

I Love it sooo much it's not even funny. I actually had so much fun (in retrospect) doing the decorating I am going to school to be an Interior Designer. I'll post more pics after it's all done. So happy!!!

ALMOST!! Bathroom tile . . .

Well, Thursday the bathroom will be done, check out this tile job (pics are a little washed out, it's way more blue than this). . . designed it myself, installed by tile guy extrordinaire Sean,



I went with the same floor tile original to the place, except for the black flourettes . . .

Remember this?


Here is the new hood in the kitchen . The countertops should be done in 2 weeks . . .

And the bathtub

And the claws

ALMOST . . .

CABINETS!!

A lot happened this week. The kitchen went from this . . . (for some reason the pics are getting cut off)

To this . . .

Here's a pic of the new glass block window . . .

And the recycling center/butcher block/breakfast bar that has 4 compartments for garbage, glass, paper and plastic. . .

The hardwood floors . . .

And the spice shelves next to the stove and hood . . .


So, we couldn't be happier, so far. On another note, I took these pics of the morning glories in my garden . . .



We're off to Austin City LIMITS TO SEE BOB DYLAN THIS WEEKEND!!! When we get back the floors will be finished, and the bathroom will be closer to being ready to tile.