End of Week 8: Paint time!!

Ending Week 8 here......this week was better than the last two weeks. Everything is wrapping up, rough work I mean. Now for the finishing work, which is more like seeing the light at the end of the tunnel.

The crew is finishing up today the last tid bits of rough work (plumbing, lighting, closing up drywall, cancelling things, touching up moldings, etc). Hot mopping (tarring the area to prevent water leakage) in the shower/bath area happened on Wednesday so we're on a roll! I went there yesterday to paint the colors we have selected for the bathroom and kitchen. Wow, I can't believe it's already here!! Paint!! Yikes.....

I realized as I was painting these colors on the wall....I have never in my life painted a wall before. Sure, artwork, canvas, things for school yes. But actually painting a wall, I have no experience in that. The Man has plenty of experience painting. Seems easy, but it's not. In fact, using a little brush for a sample wall was not a good way to go. It left a lot of streaks.....okay, much harder than it looks. Apparently, I'm supposed to do multiple coats too.

This weekend, me and the Man's big task is the completely paint the kitchen, bathroom, laundry, pantry and powder room!!! Huge task. I hope we can get it done by Monday. The Man thinks it's no problem, but I'm the newbie here so....hope the paint goes on well and doesn't clump or streak!

(Hot mop, check!)

(Hot Mop shower and bath area, check! Smells terrible, because it's tar)

(Sample paints....lots of shades of grey. Yes, I like neutral, I like greys)

(This is a bad picture, couldn't get a good shot of this in the right light. Two spectrums of grey and the last one is
black...though at this angle it looks charcoal)

(Bathroom wall of all 4 colors we are considering, light grey to black)

Paint time!!
The Lady

Week 8: Designing On The Fly

Week 8......wow, we are in Week 8 already? Today is the first day of Autumn. Summer is officially over and we have own this house for 2 months. Time flies. I'm so glad it's Autumn though. I am looking forward to cooler but sunny crisp weather.

Back to the casa......seems like I have been "designing on the fly" a lot recently, which has resulted in a few change orders (kicking myself in the butt), headaches and design that is not well planned. NEVER design on the fly. If you can help it. And never, ever design without specifying!!! What the hell, everything I learned in school and from my mentors, I have bloody thrown out the window. I am going against everything I learned!!! Ugh, I am upset at myself for this. Do you homework kids. Specify, specify, specify. Know your crap before you design it, so you don't look like a dummy in front of the GC and foreman.

The Man and I were at the house till about 8pm last night with our foreman. He was patient enough to wait and go through it with us as we "designed on a fly." Part of being a designer is "working" out the kinks with the foreman, making design and construction decisions together. What you see in AutoCAD or your drawing is different from what is on-site. Probably the number one rule of construction that I learned early on from my mentors. So naturally, sometimes designing in the field is necessary. Last night, it was necessary.

(Bathroom wall where the toilet and vanity will be going)

(The Man and the foreman working out the details of the window molding. He is having a hard time salvaging
the old stuff since it's so old.....)

(Classic example of designing on the fly. My notes on the back of sheetrock for the
foreman to build-out. Tonight it was deciding on where to put the shower "niches" for
shampoo, soaps and such. As you can see the sharpie markings on the studs, we
obviously didn't know what we were doing and kept changing our minds.....)

(Finally the bathroom is closing up! Drywall's up and lighting's in!)

(Drywall's up and the walls are closed up. Drain and shower/tub valves are in so
it's ready for hot mopping and cementing!)

(Downstairs, the laundry room's complete...almost. The old water supplies for the laundry need to be canceled.
Next step, floating cement. Oh joy. My rage from last week was about floating cement and how it's going to add
thickness to the existing floors - because our floors are warped....we'll see how it comes out)

(Aside from what the GC is working on, which is the bathroom, kitchen, laundry, the Man has his own projects,
which is getting at least one room ready for move-in soon. This is moving at snail pace. As you can see, the ceiling looks
like crap after we scrapped the popcorn ceiling off. The Man is drilling washer and glue into the existing plaster
to reinforce it, so it doesn't come crumbling down later on....)

At least Autumn is here,
The Lady

Inspirations for the Master Bathroom

Enough about the construction for a second, let's talk about what inspired us to do a vintage bathroom in the first place. The Man and I did a lot of research for this bathroom (Houzz, Pinterest, Home Depot, Lowes, scouring Google). I think that bathroom was more thought-out than the kitchen (hence probably all the issues with the kitchen). We love the white/black vintage, elegance look but keeping it fresh, bright and classy. Classy is the key word here. The Man is all about classy, all about elegance, all about keeping it with the "period" of the house.

We are doing a black and white theme for the master bathroom:

- white hexagon tiles in the dry flooring area
- matte black hexagon tiles in the wet flooring area
- white subway tiles with medium grey grout for the shower/tub area
- white wainscotting on the walls in the dry area
- black painted wall above wainscotting and white subway
- black exterior base/shiny white interior clawfoot tub
- vintage shower and tub valves and faucets
- dark espresso vanity with white sink
- scones, mirror and toilet yet to be decided

Hope it turns out nice!

The Lady

Week 7: Not starting out so well either....

Week 6 was basically a nightmare. I don't really want to remember it.

Week 7 is now starting off as a nightmare and I am beyond irritated, I might just boil over and blow up!!! This whole process is now extremely infuriating, I am losing my patience. Seriously. I am beginning to think, when the hell is this going to be over?!! I am so sick of construction......and the saddest part is maybe, they are at 20% completion. Ughhhh!!! Shoot me!

What's stressing the Lady out so much this week and just pushing me over the edge is the general contractor. As I said from the beginning, designers and GCs never meet eye to eye. In fact, I think GCs are from a different planet. They just don't think on the same wavelength as interior designers do. Maddening.

I think we hired a fairly honest and decent GC. Out of the 5 we interviewed, he seemed to be the most honest and upfront. However, lesson learned. NEVER trust a GC. Never. Write things down, if he says something verbal. Bloody hell, record it on a tape recorder. I wish I did. He has been so far, pleasant and very responsive to work with. There have been a few miscommunications and now I feel like we are not on the same page. Good thing the Man and I are in this together, because the Man can talk to the GC. I don't want to speak to him right now, he's aggravating and testing my patience.

For example, the GC is now [emphasis now] telling us the height of the floor in the kitchen will be slightly (like 3"- which is NOT slightly) raised than the living room's hardwood floors. Hold up?!?! WHAT? I was flabbergasted when I heard that. Excuse me?! That is not only the first time I've heard this, it is unacceptable. Flat out, unacceptable. How can there be a grade different on the floor from the kitchen to the living?! What the hell. The kitchen flows into the living room, I can't even imagine if there was a step between those rooms!! What atrocity!!! I mean, not only is it hideous, it's flat out stupid stupid stupid......Well, here I am venting away. He's going to "minimize" the height difference but there will still be a "height difference". Yo, thanks for the heads up, bitch! [referencing Jesse Pinkman, Breaking Bad]

Let's see, what else has ticked me off this week.....more issues about the clawfoot tub and the piping. The bathroom is more of the Man's project so I have tried to detached myself from it since I have so many other things to worry about. But now the bloody GC is saying he never knew we wanted chrome piping, he thinks "engineering" the drain piping is too difficult for this job, that this wasn't really part of the scope, blah blah blah. Go cry me a river then get this done already. Jeez Lois. Oh and the lighting in the kitchen. I don't even want to write it out, but it's been a bloody nightmare.

Bad week you say? Why yes sir, give me a second helping of misery and frustration and hold the patience too while you're at it.

( I love Jesse Pinkman from BB, love his character, his quotes, his silliness on this show. This cheered me up a
little...I miss Breaking Bad)

Losing patience,
The Lady

Week 6: Another week of hell.....

Week 6 has been a nightmare basically......You have bad weeks and good weeks, this week was a horrible week. Everything is moving way too fast, and if you don't get on the train, the shoot, you're out of luck. Basically, this week, we seemed to be working in reverse and felt more behind than we have ever felt before. Not to mention, the weather has been in the 100s, which makes it hard to function or sleep.....

Things that did and didn't get done:

Done: Demo and framing of kitchen. The new opening to the kitchen, great!! Exactly what I had envisioned.
Not done: What to do about the opening. Now that it's open, it looks so plain....molding or no molding?

Done: Completely gutted the bathroom. There are holes in the floor and ceiling.
Not done: Piping....why? Not because the crew is slacking, it's because we didn't do our homework and pick out a shower/bath valve in time.....oopsie, our bad..... (and for that we have frantically been searching for a vintage shower/bath faucet and valve. Frantically. It's crazy, we should have done this weeks ago. Negative points for the Man and I.)

Done: RCP (reflected ceiling plan) needed to be done, which again, I was delinquent on.....so I rushed and drew one out in AutoCAD.....I hate designing without putting much thought in it. The Man and I came to this decision because the lights are balance and centered. Plus we changed two recessed lights to pendants in front of the kitchen window......oopsie, again, last minute changes.
Not done: And now, we are late yet again in picking out the pendant fixtures....

Done: Wow, finding these shower and bath valves sure was a scramble!!! We literally scrambled around searching high and low for anyone who had these in stocks. Our GC asked for these several days ago and when we went to Home Depot/Lowes, we could not find anything we wanted!! Stupid move again, on our part. We should have ordered something "custom" like this ages ago. How dumb were we to think HD or Lowes would carry such a thing?! Ugh. Behind, behind, behind.
Not done: We had to expedite shipping on these suckers (sucks to be us, more $$ down the drain) and we are now waiting for it in Week 7.)

Done: All the tile has been selected except the backsplash in the kitchen........yes, we are last minute and the most wishy-washy people ever. Can't make a decision on anything....I think ultimately, we want to go with beautiful blue glass tile for the backsplash.
Not done: We haven't bought any tile!! Not one single tile....hope everything's in stock.....finger crossed (kicking myself in the bum!)

While the Man and I scramble around all week and weekend, this little guy is sound asleep ever so peacefully.....it's nice to be a hamster :)

Hoping Week 7 is better,

The Lady

All the faces of Little Puna

Sometimes, I can't believe how much this little guy makes me happy. I can be having the crappiest day and just a little peek from this guy will brighten up and dissolve any bad feelings. Wonder if this is what having children feels like....

He is seriously the love of my life. He's friendly, playful, charismatic, funny, jumpy and all the characteristics you want in a pet. I love all his little facial expressions, his moods, his habits. I love how he greets me every morning, how he excitedly jumps around when he knows I'm going to feed him and how he looks at me when I call his name. Just precious. Here are all his funny facial expressions and sleeping positions! He's so darling!! XOXO

(The "you woke me up, Lady!" face! I love how he sleeps on his side, like a human being)

(Look at those big black eyes, just adorable)

(The "you caught me hiding & eating" face.....hehehe, he's so cute, eating his cranberry and hiding in the toilet
paper roll like a ninja)

(This guy......cracks me up. Look at his pink little mouth!! SO cute. It's like he's smiling in his sleep! And he's sleeping
on his side again. Sometimes he even sleeps upside down)

(Snoozing.....Zzzz, yes, sleeping on his side again, rolled up in a ball inside his toilet paper roll)

(Now he's sleeping upright....I don't know how comfortable that is...)

(My little baby poking his head out of his little blue house....he's probably expecting goodies)

(Long time ago, when the Punas were babies, we had them in the same glass tank. They
got into a little fight and Fat Puna bit Little Puna's ear, just a little chunk of it. So now
he has this little "piercing" on his left ear......we used to not be able to tell the difference
between the two (before Fat Puna became pudgy) so we used to look for the "piercing.")

Hamster Mama,

The Lady

Where did summer go?!

I cannot believe that it is already September......where did summer go? Seriously?! Sigh........

Time moves so quickly as an adult. As a kid, I used to love summer. Summer seemed endless. Literally. Months and months of free time to do whatever I wanted to do. I love the heat, I love the sunny blue skies, I love the ocean and the pool. I really miss summer as a kid.

As an adult, summer is no different than any other season. In fact, it kind of sucks. You see all these people who have great jobs and have the summer off, or friends that take amazing summer vacations. Shoot. The Man and I worked all summer. I guess we got to go to Cozumel at the beginning of summer.....I guess we were lucky to do that all before this new house drama.

Where did summer go. Now, as an adult, I am slowly disliking summer. Ever year it seems worse. Hot, hot, hot. Hot is miserable. Hot makes me cranky. Hot gives me headaches. Hot = can't sleep. Hot = Punas can't sleep.....Yuck. I'm done with summer!! I can't wait for the autumn crisp, cool weather. Sunny days but chilly 70 degrees. I have no patience for 90+ degree weather anymore.

I can just feel it. I am jaded. Adulthood brings responsibilities. Five, six years ago, I would have never said these words. Summer was great in my twenties. Beach on the weekends, staying up late bonfiring, going to watch favorite bands play at cool venues, eat whatever the heck I wanted, and not even worry about sunblock because heck, I'm young. Wow I am sounding super cynical today. Guess age jades you. Like a lot..... Anyway, autumn please come quickly.

(The beautiful and stunning Kapalua Bay in Maui, HI last October. Just gorgeous. I miss summers like this.
Lazy, watching the sunset on the beach, doing nothing, enjoying life....)

Jaded,

The Lady 

Week 5: Clawfoot Tub, Exposed!

The Man and I were very worried about this clawfoot tub that we started to demo last week. First of all, all we could see was about 10% of the tub and couldn't determine if the rest of the tub was a piece of crap or if it was in mint condition. Finally, the demo crew broke through to the tub and relocated it out of the bathroom. It is in fantastic condition. Yes, it looks dingy and dirty and rusty. But with a little bit of TLC, this tub will look wonderful!! I can't wait to see it restored!! The Man and I want a nice shiny glossy white tub, with a semi-gloss black exterior base. Perfect!!

(Our beautiful clawfoot tub that needs a little love)

(Don't you love the guacamole colored carpet?!)

(This foot worried the Man and I to death! Turns out, it was not broken!! It just
slides on and off!! Phew!!)

(Rusty drain pipes that need to be changed out. We're thinking nice chrome ones!)

Exciting things are happening,

The Lady

Week 5: Progression with Demo

Week 5 is starting off with good progress. Demolition is going very well, it's really, really nice to see the house "clean" and empty. "Clean" because all the old junk is gone and it's literally down to studs and plaster. I love seeing a house like this. The whole house is dusty and dirty though, so technically, it's not clean. People might get freaked out seeing a house in this condition, all exposed studs and piping, but it makes me happy. Progression is important. No freaky surprises yet from demo (fingers crossed), so that's a good thing. Here's some pictures of our house in the demolition phase currently! Exciting!!

(Looking at the bathroom floor, subflooring exposed, trash bags full of rubble)

(Exposed concrete subfloor and wood lathing)

(Back in the day, before the drywall days, they used to use wood lathing and plaster for walls. Because it's plaster
which is essentially like concrete, the crew's having a hard time with demo)

(Window in the bathroom staying as is)

(Our backyard is a dumpster yard! LOL)

(Yeah not the loveliest sight but this pile of trash makes me happy! Goodbye old stuff!)

(Panoramic of the kitchen)

Out with the old,
The Lady