Archive for January, 2003

January 29th

lisa January 29th, 2003

Our upstairs bathroom is nearly done. We finished the shower stall a few weeks ago, which was great because we?d been showering at Mark?s parents? house for more than a month. The new shower is set up exactly the way we want it: it will be white tile with a built-in corner bench. We bought a fantastic showerhead system with a big main showerhead and an adjustable removable hand-held showerhead on a bar. We bought a nice chrome shower caddy and a great fan/overhead light/nightlight, and I found some nice sconces for the mirrored wall. Then we?ll have a custom cabinet with a curved shelf area and plenty of storage, and the floor will have radiant under-floor heating and black and white mosaic tile. We?re leaving the nice wainscoting and painting it gloss white, and the walls will be a shade of periwinkle blue. It?s going to be a fantastic bathroom and it will be cutomized just for us ? such a thrill.

Next will be the walls downstairs. There was some major work going on this week as the guys worked on the transition area between the living and dining room. There were pocket doors there, but they didn?t work and the whole support structure needed to be redone, so we took out the pocket doors and are leaving the area wide open. There?s a nice solid support beam there now and it looks great. The fireplace looks bad, because after we took off the nice wooden mantlepiece we discovered that the brick underneath needs to be completely redone. Mark is pushing to replace the fireplace with a woodstove, and I?ve agreed to do it as long as I still have a mantle around it and it?s not sticking out into the room. I?ve seen some that look pretty nice, like this one. But we won?t be able to afford to do that for a while ? not until we re-finance this summer.

Speaking of re-financing. We?ve figured out how much we need to have the house appraised for in order to re-finance and pay off the home equity line, and we have quite a bit of work to do before I think we?ll get it reappraised. Like put up walls downstairs. And rebuild the porch. And have a kitchen of some kind. Mark?s been aquiring cabinetmaking tools for a while and he?s pretty much ready to start building the cabinets, once we find a decent source for rough wood (so that it?s cheaper). We have all the appliances, just need to build the cabinets and I know that?s going to take a long time and a lot of work.