Someday After a [Tile]

If you didn't already know, I'm not the do-er in this project. I show up, physically, yeah, but not always mentally. I may go to the house 90% of the days I have off work, but 90% of that time, I couldn't tell you what I was doing while I was there. I must say, it's a little frustrating to spend so much of your time someplace just to turn up rather unproductive (but hmmm maybe that sounds like my life in general...?).

For instance, while I spent two whole afternoons installing and adjusting light switches and wall plates this week (intermixed of course with some singing, dancing, having soul-searching conversations with Lyle, and wandering eerily around, imaging myself in our house 100 years ago), Dad was installing tile. A lot of tile, to be more precise.

So sometimes, because I don't actually write this blog to tell you about all the imaginary conversations I've had with our house's previous occupants in my head, I have to check Dad's blog for the details of the real work being done. This was especially true during the framing, plumbing, and electrical when my perceptions of what Dad was working on would have sounded like, "Dad spent all day holding heavy boards above his head and, most likely, trying to avoided hitting his head on a nail." This was also true this month.

Fortunately for me, it's easy to find Dad's blog online. All I ever have to do is visit the Owner-Builder Book website because it's almost always the most recently updated blog page. This is fortunate for you too, if you enjoy fine details, more frequent posts, and actually learning about home renovation. (If you've lost the link, here it is again: https://www.ownerbuilderbook.com/blogs/users/Mutton-Busting.aspx)

ANYWAY....

A picture's worth a thousand words, right?

MASTER BATH FLOOR

 For the master bath, we picked varies shades of white in classic styles to keep the room both historic and easy to live with for years. The tile above has a clean white marble look to it. Here, Dad has placed a piece of waterproofing material covered with a layer of thinset. Those red stopper things help level the tiles respectively to each other. Sadly, they don't do much for leveling against the waviness of the floor (or as we say, its "character").

The tile after grouting...and with a toilet!

 The photo above could be its own blog post: THE DAY WE GOT A TOILET!!!!

I, as the one who drinks the most water, was obviously the first to use it. THANK GOODNESS....for us and our neighbors who had to avoid looking out their upstairs window in fear of seeing us peeing in the corner of our yard for the past year.

MASTER SHOWER.

 In the showers we repeated the process of waterproofing, applying thinset, "back-buttering" the tiles, and then placing the tiles them on the wall. Dad, of course, did most of the tiling on the master shower as well, but Mom and I teamed together for part of the process one evening.

For the guest room, we went a little crazier, mixing up the neutrals with some fun textures. This was the idea palette we created at the tiles store:

This week we got the guest bathroom floor set and grouted.

We'll use the large white subway tiles again for the shower walls to brighten the room up, and the reflective metal penny tiles for a fun twist on the floor. More photos to come!

After all those months of staring at 100 year-old studs and the mess of wires and piping (not to mention DIRT!) they contained, it sure is nice to see this place looking like a house. I certainly haven't given up my love for all things historic, but I have to admit, these shiny new things are pretty attractive at this point. But then again, who knows, maybe I'm just excited to stop breathing dust and old spider-remains...

When I Paint My Masterpiece

So we got sheetrock. Then what?

Well...

Mom dove right into painting. I'm telling you, the woman loves to paint. She claims that she finds the activity "meditative," which I guess is what happens when the stresses of own your own business become "normal" daily activity. But hey, I ain't complaining. My whole house got painted in less than a week, and I was only there to help one day!

Oh, but let's talk colors! So last May or June, I'm talking 2014 here, before we nailed a single nail, before we even dug a single hole, I went to what would soon become our second home (that is, Home Depot) and picked out the paint color of my dreams. I mean literally. It was this soft, pearly shade of gray that looked not unlike a little slice of heaven. It was as though someone had taken a cloud at sunset, when the sky begins its deepening, when the cool indigos and navys of the night are softened by the last remaining rays of sunlight into that mystical purplely hue, and had, with one dreamy fistful, taken that a fluffy cotton-candy chunk of that cloud to turn into a very lovely shade of Behr paint.

We each were assigned jobs at the beginning of this house task, and luckily (I mean, seriously thank goodness for us all because can you imagine ME as project manager? We'd all still be in the park gazing at the sky. Heck, we'd probably have just removed the roof and decided to live in the house's bare walls at this point), I was assigned "lead designer." Yeah, ok, I could handle that. BUT that doesn't mean that all my ideas were taken without hesitation (which is often fine because I certainly need to be reigned back in sometimes). Case in point: the paint color.

I bought the sample one day after work (along with two other options because I was already getting some negative feedback on just the 2 inch slice) and splashed a good square foot section on the wall. I also added the other two color options for good measure. Nobody, I mean, nobody liked the color. Mom thought it was pink, Todd thought it was too feminine, and Dad, well he's colorblind so he thought it was some olive green I suppose.

So one early morning, Mom, in her attempt to thwart the pink overhaul, bought a number of samples and swatches of her own and called me over on my way to work to examine the options.  This is what I saw:

What's your favorite? That brilliant, soft, purplely gray in the center?  That one that looks like the chunk of sunset cloud? Mmhmm. That's what I thought.

In the end, we decided to go with the original color I picked (aka Behr's Oyster Shell Grey) plus the one of the other color options I picked that first day (Behr's Urban Gray). It's amazing to watch the colors change throughout the day with all the abundance of natural light, especially in the downstairs. The first few days, Mom and I played "name the color," chasing the light around rooms and attempting to name the shades as they morphed. It's rather entertaining, and you know what? Everyone likes it.

I knew when I was dreaming about the inside of this house that I wanted it to be airy and bright, an ethereal surround to inspire and awaken thoughts, and I'd say at this point we're definitely on the right track. I mean, hey, who doesn't love clouds....?

The house's main color, so airy that it's barely visible without white trim.

Behr Urban Gray for the side rooms, including the band room.

The dining room in Urban Gray with gold leaf stenciling.

Kudos to Mom for allowing me to have my way with the paint colors (and trusting me even when she had her doubts!), letting me stencil the dining room with this shimmery gold leafing paint, and for doing such an amazing job painting!

Did I mention she did all the priming (55 GALLONS WORTH!!) and painting in one week? The woman is a legend....