The Fixer Upper House and Garden

The Living Room

Originally we had big plans for changing the function of the living room, including building columned half-walls that would separate the main, narrow section from a small attached sunroom. This would have created a lovely office for moi...but after we decided to install a storm drain in the yard...well...the lovely office for moi got flushed away.

And this is OK, because the phoenix rises out of ashes...and the dough rises out of quickened yeast ... and May flowers spring from April rains ... Anyway, looking on the bright side: after we refinished the floors, painted the walls and cleaned up the fireplace, the living room emerged as the go-to place for curling up, catlike, in a comfy chair with the Sunday paper, and reading it all, even the Auto section and the circulars from Macy's and Target. It's a great place to go to play board games, or visit with a friend, or chat on the phone. And the room's spaciousness deceives visitors into thinking the house is a bit bigger than it really is.

The living room is only partially furnished at this moment in time due to fund compromisation (I just made up that word). You can see how nicely the floors turned out:

The fireplace bricks are the exact same color and texture as chocolate chip cookie dough before you dump in the bag of chocolate chips:

 

Did I mention how nicely the floors turned out?

Get out your sunglasses! The walls were really really white

And this:

Set In Stone

I bought my tile today: several hundred ceramic, porcelain and marble polygons from four retailers. Some people buy everything from one store. I'm not one of these people. This is partly because I needed different materials and designs for several rooms. It's also because not one store had everything I wanted for the price I needed. For example, I priced my job at several "stone and tile" stores that could have accomodated my entire job---from the hand-made fireplace tiles (pictured here) to the kitchen counters to the cheapo-porcelain 12x12s for the mudroom. But there was always a problem: at one store, the sales staff was snooty. At another, quality was great but prices were high. Another dealer offered reasonable prices but boring material.

I never said I was easy to please. And for what this stuff costs, you shouldn't be either.

So I shopped around a lot. Husband and budget necessitated that I seek the best prices, but I also shopped for quality material and interesting designs. And for the record I will say that when I was on the fence, I leaned in favor of sales people who were helpful and interested in my job.

I liked Beeta, who runs the desk at Stone Habitat in Mundelein. Her store has a great selection of marble and granite; she was helpful; she negotiated; and the price was right. I bought my kitchen counters (Santa Cecelia granite and Soapstone), fireplace hearth (Soapstone), and master bathroom counter and tiles (Italian carerra marble) from Stone Habitat. The installer, Joe, came to the house to measure before I made my decision. In fact, Stone Habitat and Expo were the only ones who sent installers to take accurate field measurements for the quote (Expo wanted to charge $200 for this service, but I wouldn't pay it). Stone Habitat sells stone and only stone...so I bought my marble and granite there and for ceramic I went elsewhere...

For ideas and selection of ceramic tiles, you can't beat Expo. Its tile department is expansive, brightly lit, and with moderate to higher prices. (I was surprised how bad the lighting was in many tile stores.) Getting someone to help you is a challenge--some of sales reps at my local Expo seem like they've been working the prison night shift for too many years. But a young rep named Katherine was a great help to me. I did the kids' bathroom at Expo: white ceramic subways with glass mosaic accent tiles the color of a Fresca bottle that's been in the ocean for 30 years; 2x2 octagonal white ceramic floor tiles, and Corian "whitecap" counter tops. Worth noting about Expo: its installation quote was outrageous; Donald Trump must buy his tile there. I bought the material, but not the labor. Also worth noting: they're having a tile sale--20% off. This helped a lot. Worth worrying about: I suspect delays.

I got my mud-room flooring at a heavily advertised chain called Century Tile. Originally, I planned on using brick-colored Marmoleum, but I went with 12x12 porcelain tiles that look like natural slate, per my decorator Jean's suggestion. These "NK-17" tiles are very durable (comes in handy with 2 dogs) and cost less than $4 a square foot. They'll be ready for pick-up tomorrow.

Because I shopped around and negotiated everything, I was able to splurge on the fireplace surround in the family room. I'm going with the handmade tiles pictured above from Motawi (www.motawi.com), which I bought at The Fine Line Tile Gallery in Chicago. They're expensive, and the installation is, too. But it's worth it.

Floored!

Yesterday was one of those dreary, wet and muggy days that make me wonder why anyone would chose to live where I'm living. I went to the gutterless house in the morning, fearful the melting icicles and slush had seeped into the new basement overnight...they had not! The house was drier than the Arizona desert, and just as dusty. The floor guys were already at work sawing and buzzing, and they made great progress. Here are some shots of the house as of today, Wednesday:

One view:

View from another angle:

And another view:

The Shoe Dilemma

Thank goodness the holidays are behind us, the vacation is over and tomorrow we return to our blessed routine. Call me boring, I don't care. I love a good routine.

I also love a good domestic dilemma, and I face a small but important one for the mudrooom: should we have built-in shoe cubbies...or should we store our shoes in baskets?

Miguel's drawing at left shows one wall of the mudroom. I could have the carpenter build partitions for shoes beneath the "lockers" and bench, which will look tidy but fit only about 3 pairs of shoes each. Alternatively, each shelf area could hold a wicker basket that would hold several pairs of shoes, depending on how big the kids'  feet get...

Another plan, favored by Husband, is to limit each child to storing 2 pairs of "in-season" shoes in the mudroom, with the "off-season" shoes kept "off-site, such as in the basement or bedrooms. I'm not sure how the kids would decide which "2 shoes" to keep in circulation, but I can imagine some interesting getting-ready scenarios. For example:

Me: "Time for church!"

T: "I can't find my church shoes!"

Me: "Check the mudroom!"

T: "I'm past my 2-shoe limit!"

OR....

Me: "It's summer at last! Let's go to the beach!"

M: "Anyone know where my Crocs are?"

Me: "Check the mudroom!"

M: "But it's off-season!"

OR....

Me: "C, it's time for Irish Dance class!"

C: "Where are my hard shoes?"

Me: "Don't you keep them in the mudroom?"

C: "Dad won't let me!"

......................... 

Now that I think about it...dumping multiple shoes in baskets is probably the best idea!

                                                

Kitchen Counter: Dramatic Turn Of Events

Friends and readers may recall my obsession for finding the perfect kitchen counter. Over the past year I explored counters of every variety and material, and I was set to splurge on soapstone until a grey morning in October when I realized it was too dark for the new kitchen. At that moment--literally--my new friends George and Linda stopped by and suggested that I look at their counter, Sensa Perlado honed marble. I did, and for many weeks I was determined to go with this lovely cream and tan stone, which Husband and Miguel agreed would lighten up the kitchen and look swell with the cabinets.

Then reality set in.

One night last week, the darling and effervescent 10-year-old C did the dishes in the borrowed house and helped get the lunches ready for the next day. She whistled and sang and chatted and did a fine job on the chores save one thing: She forgot to wipe the counter. In the morning, raspberry jelly, chocolate frosting, orange juice and a chili-covered spoon were congealed to the Formica. Fortunately, the cleanup was a snap, and no one was worse for the wear, including the white Formica. Had the counter been marble, it would have had to be refinished.

I'll save honed marble for the empty nester years.

This brought me back to the beginning, much to Husband's dismay. An active participant in the counter hunt six months ago, he now was willing to agree to anything ... anything...so long as I made a decision.

"You've got to pull the trigger on this," he said.

"Please stop talking about counters," the children added.

By last week I had eliminated soapstone, marble, wood, tile and counters made of recycled paper, as well as Corian, Silestone, Ceasarstone and all other solid surfaces. Where did this leave me? It left me with granite. 

I don't like granite because it's overused, but I've realized there's a reason for this: It's durable, affordable and nature-made. If you can overcome an aversion to speckles, it's not even too ugly. So I went back to Stone Habitat in Mundelein (www.stonehabitat.com), which has the best prices in my area, and I picked out a light-colored, speckly granite in cream, grey, tan, brown and black that's called either Santa Cecelia or Venetian Gold, depending on the slab. (I later changed my mind ... again ... and went with Costa Esmerelda!) It looks good with the cabinet door sample, it coordinates well with the fireplace tiles and the best part: it costs less than soapstone and honed marble. To mix it up, I'm using soapstone for the butler's pantry and on the raised hearth in the family room ... and I'm still coming in under-budget.

In fact, the only things that are coming in under budget are those that I'm pricing out myself.

Nooks and Cronies

The stucco is up; the kitchen nook looks great...but the brick is ugly.

From the side:

From the back:

In the kitchen:

One of these things is not like the other. Unless you're colorblind or reading this blog on a b&w computer, you'll notice the new bricks don't match the old bricks. We knew the pallette we picked out wasn't going to be a perfect match, but this isn't even close: There's more orange here than in a pumpkin patch. At GC's suggestion, we've hired NawKaw (www.nawkaw.com) to stain the new bricks to match the old ones (cha ching!). A nice young man from Naukaw came by this ffffrrrrreeeeezzzing morning to get started, but it was too cold to get much done. I'll report more on this as the events unfold.

Upgrade Vs. Uptick

What is it they say about the renovation budget? That you should be prepared to spend 10% more than you initially planned? Or is it 20%? Could it be 30%? 50%? So much comes up when the walls are in shreds that it's hard for me to remember where the budget once began and ended (rest assured that Husband has not forgotten where the budget ends!) Today's dilemma is the location of two enormous down drafts in the eating area of the kitchen.

Roger-the-HVAC-guy installed these after exploring other options, none of which worked, with the end result being that there are two enormous hvac returns flanking the kitchen table in what is otherwise a most peaceful, elegantbuthomey space. Miguel, our architect, doesn't like the look of these enormous hvac returns, and so he's suggesting that we relocate the north return so that the two drafts flank a small stained glass window, creating a desk-niche area. It's a clever idea, and we could use a little desk/niche area to organize those never-ending school notices, forms and bills. But one cannot relocate a roughed-in HVAC return without incurring some rough expenses. And therein lies the renovator's challenge: When is an upgrade worth the uptick?

Below is Miguel's drawing for the desk/niche area. I have to examine this more closely when I'm in the house later today.