Somebody Pinch Me!

The two most-anticipated jobs were done yesterday- the granite people installed the countertops, and Eddy tiled the shower. I hurried home from work, eager to see how both had turned out. The shower had until now been only a figment of my imagination, and the last time I saw the granite countertop sample was weeks ago.

After talking over the design with Eddy & Walter the night before, I felt a lot more comfortable that it was going to look how I wanted it. But it was still a pretty big deal for me to be able to let go, to let it happen without me being there supervising or calling and checking in every five minutes. I really trust Eddy and Walter and the quality of their work, and that definitely helps. I would also like to think that I'm learning to let go of my normal tendency (compulsion?) to Supervise, Monitor and Control. I realized this when I couldn't remember whether I had told them I wanted the center accent tile to be oriented diamond or square. I thought to myself, "well, I trust their judgement and I'm sure it will look fine either way." This may not sound like a big deal, but trust me- for me it is! I knew that things would probably come up that required them to make judgement calls or possibly alter the plan a little bit, and I trusted that they'd do a good job.

Well guess what- THEY DID!! And then some!!













I am so BEYOND thrilled with the shower! It's one of those rare instances where the reality turns out just as good as the picture in your head, if not better! Everything is perfectly lined up: the corners of the diamond with the stripe around the middle, the stripe with the soap niche, the top of the diamond with the window, the diamond centered on the wall. One thing I didn't have in my drawing was the row of small tiles around the top of the shower- Eddy must have thought of that himself. I think it's a great idea and looks fabulous. Also in my design, I had the niche reversed- with the small tiles lining the back and the larger tiles cut to line the indented sides. I guess Eddy must have thought that putting the small tiles lining the indented part would make it match more with the window recess, and plus the stripe hits right at the lower edge of the niche so keeping the same tiles there would make it flow better. I think he's right on the money with both of those ideas.


I was already thrilled, but there was even more to discover! I tore myself away from gazing at the shower and walked into the kitchen, where I was greeted with this:




Holy Transformation! How on earth does that tiny kitchen look BIGGER with all those cabinets in it? And how did they manage to even fit all those cabinets in that tiny kitchen, let alone make it look good? And the granite color is perfect! It blends with both the richer, more gold-toned tile in the kitchen and with the lighter tile in the rest of the house, just like I hoped it would.


I talked with Zoltan this morning about the rest of the jobs that are left. There really aren't many- I can't believe it's almost done!

There's a little more granite to install in the kitchen. They're putting in a granite table, sticking out from the wall, with a round pedestal support. This is the spot where it's going, and you can see the slab leaning against the wall:


That reminds me... I have to tell him whether I want table height or bar height. For some reason, I always pictured bar height in my head. What do you think- would that work?

There's also a little more grouting to do, and the tiling of the bottom of the shower.


I was trying to decide between three options for the shower floor: 1) use the larger main tiles; 2) use the small tiles; or 3) small tiles on the lip of the shower base and around the perimiter of the bottom, and fill the middle with the main tiles. I didn't think Zoltan would go for option 2, because they'd already used so many of the small tiles and they'd have to buy even more of them to do that. I figured if I really wanted them on the bottom, I'd pay for the extra few sheets that we'd need. But when I spoke with him this morning, he said Eddy & Walter were already out buying the extra sheets! Bonus! It turns out that I'm getting a mixture of option 1 and 2. They're doing the bottom with the small tiles and the lip with the main tiles. I was a little upset when I first heard this because I was thinking that the lip would look really great with the small tiles. But I was assured that it looks good with the other tiles, I adjusted the picture in my head a little, and I think I'm cool with it. This is another BIG deal for me- I have always had a very hard time adjusting to Changes To The Plan. Once I get an idea set in my head, any changes to it can feel disastrous. But this time, it was no big deal. So I'm one step further on the road to emotional maturity, and I can't wait to see my finished shower!


Also today, they may be installing the new vanity. I am so glad I found this one, it is totally perfect. Still in the box, but here's the photo on the outside:



And here's the space it has to fit in (where the hammer is laying is where the toilet is going to be):



It's 20.5" wide, which is a little bigger than the old one at 18". In such a tiny space those couple of inches could mean a lot. Cross your fingers that it all fits!


Also as part of my assignment last night, I brought home a shower faucet, a bathroom faucet, and some associated hardware doodads (TP holder, towel bar, etc).


I agonized a bit over these decisions. Not only because I agonize over ALL decisions, but because I was having a hard time balancing saving money vs getting something really nice. On one hand, if I'm going to spend extra money, I'd definitely rather spend more on the main house where I'm actually going to be living rather than in the guest house. But on the other hand, I don't want to take away from the niceness of things I put a lot of thought and effort into, like the countertops and the shower, by putting in cheapy fixtures.

It turned out, though, that I actually rather liked the construction-grade brushed nickel fixtures and hardware. There were faucets that I thought were only marginally better-looking that were $100 more expensive. So I think it's going to end up looking good, and I saved a good bit of money. I know that some of the lower-end brushed nickel finishes are bad with fingerprints and water stains, so I'll just have to wait and see on that.


As I write this, the shower floor is being finished, the granite table is being installed, the ceiling fan is being hung, and they may even be installing the bathroom stuff. The pile of tiles outside the house has gone from this


to this



and by tomorrow, all the major work should be complete and we should be talking about punchlist items. I can't believe it!


Today's assignment: a medicine cabinet. I looked at them at Lowe's and Home Depot yesterday and couldn't find one I liked. Actually I found two espresso-finished ones that I really liked, but they weren't the same espresso as the vanity cabinet. Bah. Then I tried to find one that was an untrimmed plain mirror front, but all of those had molded plastic insides that looked like utter crap. I thought about just putting a mirror instead of a medicine cabinet, but with a bathroom so tiny, it needs all the storage space it can get. I did find one of those over-the-toilet storage pieces, which was great, but it also had an espresso finish that didn't match the vanity. I promised Zoltan I'd have a medicine cabinet by tomorrow, so it looks like I have my work cut out for me today!