Hall Bath

I may not have picked the tile, but I know for sure that the walls in the hall bath will be this 1x6 wood paneling. We have some of the wood for this project, hopefully all of it. I love the farmhouse feel of the horizontal planks. So, that will for sure be the walls of the kid's bath! Now if only I could figure out the tile! And the sink...and the light fixtures...and the........

Mirrors

Simply some mirrors that I have seen and kinda like. Boring!

Love this HUGE mirror. Possibly for the master bath...








































A pretty wood, round mirror. Maybe for the office/guest room...






































A very pretty delicate mirror. Maybe buy two for the hall bath with sconces in between and around?






































Have no idea for where, but love this one:

Tile! Part 2

As you can tell, my taste in tile is pretty simple. Something in the white/gray family and the more it looks like marble the better. :)

Not really, but yeah. Really.

Here's a pic from a showroom I visited. I though it was neat to see what a shower would look like if I did the entire thing in the subway-style marble 2x4s:


I would by no means do the accent strip. Nothing against accent strips. Except that I don't like them.I liked it how the shower looked but I'm not sure. It might be a bit busy for my taste. I think I may lean towards using a bigger tile. Something like this:

This bad boy may look like marble but it's not. It's porcelain. (The best for bathroom floors! If it chips it's ok because it is solid all the way through. Not coated. And basicially it doesn't chip ever. And with 3 stinky farm kids with boots and spurs...probably not spurs. Or boots. But definitely stinky kids then the tougher the bathroom the better.)

Anyway. It's big. 18x18 and very pretty. There was this one with big taupe-y veins. Or this one...

This one had much less variation in color but what was showing was mainly gray. I think this would be great on the bathroom floors and possibly just take it on up into the showers too.

Next up. Some options for around the master tub. The master will be a bit different than the other two baths. For one thing, the wood floors are gonna go straight into there as well. It's not a big master at all, but I'm searching for some ways to make a bit more dramatic. I want the other two baths to be white, bright, clean, and pretty. But I want this bath to feel more private and romantic. We are keeping the built-ins because the mama's bathroom is where all the junk gets stored. Band-aids, heating pads, medicines, everything like that will be in here so the cabinets will be nice. I will definitely get a new sink and counter-top though. The tub will stay because it will be the only tub in the house. And though a clawfoot is out of the question, I thought we could add some big slate tile around the tub for flair.

A big 12x24 slate. I love, love, love it! It's big and when hung on the horizontal I think it would be very  big statement!

This bamboo looking tile is similar and a super great price but a little more on the trendy side. I wish I could pull off trendy. However, I can't and I think I would get tired of it after awhile.

Here is one of the options I thought about for the laundry room. The fur-down (or whatever the heck that thing is called...the wall above the cabinets) is gonna have corrugated tin on it. Cute, right!? And I figure a laundry room can be a bit industrial. So what about stainless steel backsplash with a few glass tiles thrown in for prettiness?

It's an option.

And countertops. Man, countertops. I am at a loss. I hate the look of granite. I know, I know. I'm crazy. But I just don't like it that much. And for how expensive it is, I feel like I should at least like it, if not loooooooove it. But I don't. Everyone I tell that to says, "Well you just haven't seen the right granite." Because apparently I am crazy to even say that I don't like it. Everyone also says that I would be crazy to put marble in the kitchen because it will stain, crack, chip, and just spontaneously combust from the way they talk. So, I won't do that.

But what's left?

Butcher block...which is going on the island but I don't want miles and miles of it. Which is how much countertop we have.

So, quartz? Even more expensive than granite. Formica. Uh, heck no. Even with how good they've made it look these days it still feels like a piece of cereal box when you touch it.

So, I'm thinking maybe concrete?

I still want to see some concrete countertops in person because I've only seen them in pictures. And they look awesome in pictures. But I am a tactile person and have to touch something before I like it. 

The picture above is the sample of granite that "looks like concrete". It's $60 a square foot (which is actually one of the cheaper granites I've seen) but still just looks like gray granite to me. :)

Any ideas?

Tile!

I've been on the hunt for tile...and what a hunt it is! I was telling my cousin on the phone today, planning a house is so fun and easy until you are REALLY planning a house. It is still super fun, but NOT easy. For me, when I dream about a house I think, "Oh, I'll do this and this and this." But now that I really have to make a decision I worry that I might pick the wrong thing! I am SO indecisive!

We need tile for:
1. Hall bath and guest bath floors
2. Hall bath and guest bath shower walls
3. Hall bath and guest bath shower floors
4. Master bath around the tub
5. The kitchen backsplash
6. The laundry room backsplash

And that's it! So simple right? Uh, no.

Here's a few of the things I've seen that I've liked. Feel free to weigh in! :)


A pretty "linen-y" looking porcelain tile. It's big (12x24). Would be pretty for either around the master tub, on the bathroom floors or in the showers. And man. The price is right!




Oh my gosh. I love these little marble tiles. They are in the style of subway tile but smaller. And so pretty. I actually like the one below a bit better than this one. It's almost twice as much but has much less brown in it. 




Pretty marble brick-style tiles. Would be pretty anywhere we need tile but especially as a backsplash or shower walls.




I love this. It reminds of the rocks I've seen on the Oregon coast (only flat!). This will for sure be the shower floors. Oh! Decision two! Check! :)



I'm pretty sure I've ruled out subway tile. It's inexpensive and I like it, I just seem to like other styles more. We'll see. I took this pic because I liked how they did the floor baseboard with tile.




Love this tile. It's a 12x12 marble and only 3.50 a square foot. My momma has it in her shower and on her bathroom floor and it looks great. I was thinking possibly doing the same. Bathroom floors and shower walls and even taking it up onto the ceiling in the shower.
Backsplashes have me stumped. I know for sure I want to do brick on the kitchen backsplash and paint it white. Just like this:Oh my gosh. That was decision #3. See!? This blog is really helping me figure this all out! :)I love the brick backsplash. This company doesn't have a retailer here in Oklahoma so I think we will have to just get regular brick tiles and paint them white? But that will be in the kitchen. 
For the laundry room I can't decide if I should do the same brick, or do something completely different. I could bring in some color with the backsplash, but that really isn't my taste. 
Stay tuned for more tile! 

Floors!

The floors. Aaaah. These bad boys had me stressed out to the max. I mean, picking out a style of flooring is by no means on the same plane as say, saving a life, or world peace or something. I get that. But man...this was one of those big time decisions that would make my heart start palpitating irregularly when I thought about it. I knew exactly what I wanted. I wanted something that was kinda dark, not too dark and a little bit farmhouse-y worn looking. I hate the look of some of those hand-scraped styles that appear like someone took their finger nails and dug 5 trenches down the plank. I guess you could say, I knew more what I didn't want. :) But maybe something like this would be nice:


I was really hoping we could get real wood and not laminate. The rumor that laminate echoes had me worried since we were doing SO much space. The house is 2650 square feet and we are covering all but about 50 square feet of that in this wood. You can see why it was such a big decision! To buy ALL of that wood and have it installed is gonna be big bucks and what if I don't like it??? Yikes. I can't think about it. I'll start to sweat.
On St. Patty's Day my parents came up so we could go pick it out. We went to Floor Trader first and found two that we really liked. They were SIX DOLLARS A SQUARE FOOT. That didn't even count the glue or the installation. Yowza. Now Brad was the one that was sweating. :) He kept saying, "let's just take a look at the laminates...just to see." That's his way of saying, "Heck no. We can't afford that. Try again!" 
Next we went to Lumbar Liquidators, had a great sales gal and within minutes had picked out a manufactured wood floor that we loved. The best part was it was 1/2 the price. Only $3 a square foot which was cheaper than most of the laminates at the first place! 
Here's a pic of the 3 finalists...

We picked the one on the far right.

I love it so much. We took it to the house last week-end to see it in there and it made me love it even more!

The hardest part is that the flooring is one of the last things to go in so I'm gonna have to wait SO long to see it, but I know it will be worth it!

First decision MADE! Yes!

Lights!

So, I mentioned that I found lots o' lights at Lowe's that I liked. I was very impressed with their selection and their prices were super reasonable. Maybe their manager will read this blog and give me a kickback...doubtful. But I'll still probably be buying some of these.

I saw a light very similar to this one in a catalog. I LOVE the shape and size of this glass orb...Can't figure out a single place in the house I could put it though. :(







































I love this pretty, delicately detailed milk glass flushmount. I'm thinking this would look pretty in the entry though I was hoping for something a little more dramatic there. So maybe the hallway? Or the office overhead?







































Oh my gosh this is one of my most favorite lights ever. Seriously, ever. And only 45 dollars! I will definitely have some of these. Maybe over the kitchen sink? Or the task area? I LOVE them.












































I'm not crazy about this simple black chandelier, but I thought it would be a nice back-up for over the dining room table if I couldn't find anything better (read: something we could afford!) $69 is super affordable but you'd have to count the 6 shades you'd need to buy.





































This one might be hard t see, but it is that square, clear glass flushmount in the middle. I liked the detail on the glass and the uncommon shape. It definitely has a vintage feel too it and I'm pretty sure it was like $20. A definite maybe.







































We are installing like 12 sconces throughout the house. (2 in the office, 2 in the living room, 2 in the dining room, 2 in the entry and maybe some in the hall and master bath) I have scoured the internet for these and all I've found have been either ugly, boring, or SO FREAKIN' EXPENSIVE. I hate every "bathroom" sconce I've seen so I'll probably go with the same thing in the bathrooms as I use in the other rooms. We'll see. I did like this pretty white scrolly one:







































It may be too victorian, or it may look pretty in some of the rooms? Also, see this next bad girl for $17? Love him. I tend to be a more plain jane when it comes to sconces and this is by far the cheapest plain gal I've found. (By like $100). I love that I could use an old globe on her and maybe even turn her upside down for a different look all together...










































This was another one I found photo-worthy, though I think I was more in love with the price than the actual light. SIX BUCKS? Are you kidding? I'm not sure I even really like it though I could see it looking pretty cute in the bathrooms I have planned!

See that cute little yellowish gal in the middle? I love her. She is only $14 and she so reminds me of the lights my ma has in her little bath. I think these might look cute in the hall bath if I had three (light, mirror, light, mirror, light). They look old and unique.

Ok. Last sconce. There are two in this pic that I really like. They are the same, but one has one arm, and one has two arms. See them? Around $35 and they come with that pretty linen shade. I could definitely see these in the living room.





































There were also some super cute pendants. I loved this shiny metal one...maybe over the office desk in front of the window?

And what about this one? Though I can't decide if it is farmhouse chic or nautical chic. Why can I confuse those?







































And lastly the vanities. I will admit that these are my least favorite kind of light fixture and I will do everything in my power to avoid them if I can. I would much rather have pendants or sconces or even chandeliers in the bath, but I looked just in case...



Here's a 3 or 4 arm that isn't terrible. I think I would have to change the glass though...


































But I think the fewer the arms the better, so what about that two arm down there? It has one light on, one light off (which is hopefully not what it's supposed to look like!) :)





































Productive right? Now I can continue to look without fear because now I know there are some affordable alternatives that I could definitely live with!

A faucet.

Last Monday Des, Genevieve and I spent 2 hours in Lowe's. That's right 2 hours. G. slept in the wrap the entire trip and Des could NOT have been happier helping me look at sinks, tubs, paint colors and appliances. The refrigerators were by far his favorite as he kept opening and closing each one saying, "Eat food? In fridge? Where's the food, mama? In here? Nope. Here? Noooooo."

Anyway. It was highly productive. I was on a roll and probably could have stayed all day, but my boy got fidgety...and hungry, of course. I was able to price lots of things and see things in person which I find essential. I've spent many, many less productive hours browsing the internet.

I did find many things I liked (mainly lighting), but of all the hundreds of faucets they had, I only liked one. And here she is:







































But man, I really like it. Like, this is probably gonna be my new kitchen faucet. How exciting!

What I look like these days...

Remodeling a house isn't pretty...and I certainly don't even make an attempt to make it so!

Or wait, is a 1980s Chieftain hat over unshowered hair and filthy stained clothes pretty? Oh, no? I didn't think so.

But at least my beautiful little bundled helper helps balance out all the icky. She IS pretty. And that's the truth.

The 360

Here is the view if you are standing right in the middle of the front yard in the middle of winter.

Looking straight North towards the house. My parents house is to the left and town is to the right.

Then turning counter clockwise you will see the driveway. It is a big U-shaped drive with two entries. The big square portion goes into the garage and is perfect for a basketball hoop. My sister had one there growing up but then Uncle Ronnie backed into with his car and knocked it over! Brad's very first farm chore ever was pulling it out of the ground with the tractor...

That's the gray barn in the middle and then Mom and Dad's house.

There is a huge space of yard and then a line of pine trees between our house and my parents. I would love to put an orchard in here.

Here's the first of two entries. I can't decide if I like these or not.

The fence that runs between the entries. That is the road that runs in front of the house.

The second entry...

*What do you think about painting the fence black? Or just taking it out?

Then that is looking to the East...towards town. Just beyond that white pipe fence is the blackberry patch.

























And then we are back - FULL CIRCLE!

Last week-end

We made major progress on our last trip to Seminole. The kids and I had to pick Brad up at school on Friday afternoon so we could rush straight to the house. We had a 4:30 appointment with Contractor #1 and somehow managed to drop the kids off at my parent's house and make it just in the nick of time!

After 2 thorough hours with C#1, we walked next door with our heads spinning but seeing the beautiful sunset helped. We ate yummy dinner and headed to bed. Saturday morning started early as we had to run to the office to make copies of our to-do lists for the 2 contractor meetings we had that day! Of the 6 contractors we called, we heard back from 4 and scheduled meetings with 3. The 2nd appointment with Contractor #2 was at 10 a.m. He was equally as thorough but a little less intense. It took about 2 hours too. We had just enough time to have some lunch, get a good game of basketball in and almost fall asleep on the couch when it was time for Contractor #3. He arrived early, at 2 p.m. and we spent the afternoon showing him all we wanted to do to the house. He was the only Seminole guy and it showed. He was the most laid back of them all. I'm not sure he even asked one question and I know he didn't take any notes! :)

The difference between the three contractors was like a story of Goldilocks. Small, medium, large...cold, warm, hot...soft, firm, hard. We liked them all, but they were just so different. #1 talked a lot about rules and guidelines and regulations. He seemed concerned about every little thing, freaked Brad out about termites, carpenter ants, mold, foundations, the roof, and the cellar. There were times I thought he wouldn't even take the job because it was too extensive. #2 was still very professional, the same age as me, and seemed to know his stuff, but he was so much less concerned about things. He took some notes, asked lots of questions and seemed nice. #3 we know from other work he has done on the farm. He basically walked through, nodded a few times and said he could start in a couple of weeks. I gave them each a very detailed list of every job that we could think of that we wanted done and we are so anxious to see what bids they come up with!

When the last contractor left, we made a fun trip to the local hardware store to get some supplies for the next day. Brad had big plans for Sunday and he got so much done! While the miss and I measured every square inch of the house (to know how much we need of everything) he got busy ripping out the recessed ceiling. Talk about immediate gratification! Removing those yellow plastic panels and that dark gridwork has changed the entire house!




Of course the horrid flourescent lighting will come down, but you can really get a good glimpse at the cabinets and the space between them and the ceiling...





Brad also took down a lot more paneling, took out an ENTIRE tree that was growing into the side of the roofline, AND started scraping off the popcorn ceiling. He got the boys bedroom completely scraped before he had to quit so we could head home.



So, he did a lot more work than me this trip. But don't feel bad for him...I'm pretty sure he was having a good time!