the bathroom

after years of planning {literally} the bathroom project has officially started.  as some of you know, it took us months to finally receive our custom tile.  where did we order it?  American Restoration Tile.  let me say that the tile is beautiful.  it really is.  the floor is a replica of what we have now, only in different colors.  everything is handmade and hand colored.  it is just gorgeous and exactly what we were hoping it would be.  BUT, what is up with the dude who owns the place, i have no idea.  maybe he is a perfectionist, maybe he is super busy.  but what i DO know is that he totally lacks communication skills.  omg.  we ordered the tile and then we just didn't hear anything.  i would not recommend going with this place at all.  i know we'll be happy with the tile in the end but the waiting was such a pain.  anyways, this is what the tile looks like:

here's a peek at what our bathroom currently looks like, at the beginning of the project. 

this is the space where our new shower will go.  can't wait to have a new bathroom!

Ideas Abound! {outcomes to follow}

Let's just get it out of the way, it's been like eight years since I last wrote.  I know, I know.  This is a habitual problemo with me.  And I'm sorry.  I really do always want to do better but somehow I can't seem to find the time (or energy) to write in a consistent manner.  I'm sure all two of my readers are super duper upset.

Anywho, can I just say that I am really excited about some of the things happening at Irvington Bungalow?  First of all, life is just so much more interesting and fun with Ainsley.  She is definitely the bright spots in our days.  When work is sucky and the house is a total disaster (both of which are daily occurrences) at least we have this to look forward to:

That face!  OMG.

But ALSO, our bathroom project is {finally} underway.  And if a cute, babbling baby doesn't make you smile, surely a new bathroom will, right?  (I should take some of my own advice when the baby is crying and the bathroom is dusty with plaster droppings everywhere).

We finally received all of the tile about a month or so ago.  And it is beee-u-tee-ful.  Chad is in the beginning stages of demolition with full throttle remodel happening in a few weeks.  But, WAIT.  There's more.  Only I'm not going to give it all away but let's just say this: I'm totally over my kitchen.  And like the "I'm never satisfied" person that I am, I'm already complaining about when we can start the kitchen project.  Since I know it is a few years away, I've been schemin' up ways to give my nasty kitchen a face lift.  Nothing that will cost a whole lot but somethings that will give it the oomph it needs so I can stop stammering and making excuses when someone walks into it for the first time.  Think: chalkboard paint, beadboard, paint colors in white, grey/blue and a deep red or gold/yellow (or both!) for accent colors, open shelves, organization, and some spiffy adornments.  I can't give too much away because Chad reads this blog and it is all a secret until I can present a plan.  Right now, I can show some inspiration:

paint colors:

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
possible accent color, found here: 
 

another accent color, found here:



chalkboard paint, inspiration found here:

 
new cabinet hardware, found here:
 
 

So none of this is official because I can't do anything without talking to Chad yet (that's how we roll, for better or for worse!) and I'm still in the scheming planning stages.  But I'm SOOO excited to possibly get a kitchen that I don't loathe.  Wouldn't that be nice??  
ps: don't get an iPad because then you will spend all of your spare time sitting on the couch, getting ideas for which you really don't have the time/energy/money to implement.
 
pps:  most of my inspiration came from two blogs I'm recently obsessing over, found here and here.

here we go....

so here we are.  11 weeks before baby is due to enter this fine world.  the A/C officially is dead.  it went out but was temporarily fixed (leaking freon - nice and "green", i know) but two weekends ago the motor died.  or something like that.  all i know is it is HOT.  and i am miserable.  but they are almost finished installing our new HVAC system.  yeah!

meanwhile, the bathroom tile has been ordered!!!  yes.  ORDERED.  can you believe it?  should be here in 6 to 8 weeks.  leaves a tight time frame, but it is ordered and that apparently is a big step for us here at irvington bungalow.

good news around the house...

the garden and our flower beds are looking good:

the garden is a bit unruly and many things have died off but it is producing ginormous heirloom and grape tomatoes, so i'm happy.

but.  the day i had my first baby shower chad had to begin demo of the bathroom.  when i left the house, the bathroom looked like this (warning, if you are a hard-core preservationist, run away from your computer and this blog post immediately.  you will HATE us for this.. but guess what?  it's our bathroom.):

when i returned it looked like this:

yes, yes.  very, very painful to have to do this to the original tile.  but after years of deliberation we decided it had to be done.  and this has to be done now because the vent in the bathroom is being relocated since the original vent sits where the entrance to our new walk-in shower will be located.  i hated to see this go but we just felt like it is the best thing to do since we plan on being here long term.  judge us if you will. 

so the next few weeks will be a challenge on many, many levels.  thank God we can stay at our in-laws.  for rillz.  till next time.

SLOWLY but surely

progress is, in fact, occurring but it is happening slowly.  wouldn't want to switch it up on all of you, now would we??

baby room -

we cleaned out the room, including the closet.  and i have been removing wall paper with the added bonus of a layer of paint!  so fun.

the closet progress.  i still need to remove the glue and then i'm officially finished removing paper in the baby room.  two more closets to go and i'm officially FINISHED!

we took an impromptu day trip to columbus, OH recently.  we went to an architectural salvage store and then out to eat in an area called german village.

we bought a coal shoot door (just like ours but in much better shape), a cold air return grate that matches our original grates we have in the house currently and a pair of sidelight windows.

close-up of the glass:

LOVE this glass!  we're going to use them (eventually) when we finish the attic space for the bedroom.

work still progresses on the duct work for the HVAC.  the tile still hasn't been ordered.  i have no idea why.  ugh.  till next time.

end of june progress report

so here we are.  the last day of june.  fifteen weeks left until our little bundle of joy is set to join us here at irvington bungalow.  and where are we in the progress of work on this old house?  read on, my friends.

bathroom - we received the tile sample for the floor. 

this is the design and basically the colors. we put white pieces of paper over the gray colored tile the tile guy suggested we use (you can see it in the top row of the whole sample).  the picture on the right shows a hex shaped tile but that is just to portray the actual shade of white that the tile will be (since the paper was a bright, stark white).

in the next couple of days we'll order the tile. so excited and a bit apprehensive as this guy has been taking FOREVER to get back to us about anything.  so annoying.  but i'm trying to be optimistic that once he has a down payment, things will move more smoothly???  maybe???  hopefully!!

air conditioner - did i mention our A/C unit went out a few weeks ago?  yes, it has been a fun challenge to add that huge project to our list completely unexpectedly.  after four quotes, we finally found a wonderful contractor who helped us out and temporarily fixed the problem for us because it turned so hot outside.  we're getting a whole new HVAC system installed within the next week.  so excited.  complete with duct work to the attic and basement which will one day be finished out for living space.

chad poured a new concrete slab where the new unit will go.  he is so proud (and so am i).  it looks great!

and that's about all that has happened since the last time i wrote.  things are moving forward, faster than they probably have up until this point.  from here on out it will be a whirlwind until the baby is due.  here is my wish list, not in the correct order:

walls painted in the whole house

floors refinished in the whole house

nursery finished (new drywall installed and paint)

guest bedroom finished (new drywall installed and paint)

wood blinds purchased and installed in the bedrooms

new HVAC

new bathroom

new plumbing

we can get this done in 15 weeks.  right???  hahahahaha...........

till next time.

weekly update

this week seemed SOOO long. here's a summary:

work sucked this week, so i'm sure that had something to do with it.  plus i haven't been sleeping well with this pregnancy and it is making for long days and short nights.  no fun.

bathroom - we're getting a 9" x 9" sample of the layout of the floor tile.  i'm excited because we picked out two of the colors and the third is a color that was a custom color for another customer that he thinks will look good with our choices. crossing our fingers!

baby room - today i am finishing stripping the wall paper from the final wall in the house, in the baby room. why i thought i was finished with the wall paper is beyond me. 

our newest nephew was born this week!  cole matthew.  and he is the most adorable thing ever.

i finally finished organizing my scrabook and card making supplies.  last year i organized them on our gorilla shelves in the breakfast nook.  but in preparation of bottles and other feeding necessities for baby, i'm thinking more storage will be necessary in the kitchen.  so i "stole" an old built-in cabinet chad brought home and took it over for my personal use.  it is now my craft storage in the basement:

i know this is kind-of weird but i work in an old building retail building that has been repurposed as several offices.  anyway, i love features of the bathroom in the lobby so i took pictures:

love the schoolhouse lights!  not sure if they're original or not but i love them either way.

and this old wood door and marble partitions.  so old-timey.  i promise i was NOT using the restroom when i took this picture.  gross.  the restroom did have the original sinks with the original hardware until about a week ago.  so i thought i should take pics of these before they are gone too (but hopefully they will remain).

 i'm off to strip paper....till next time....

updates

obviously my two-posts-per-week goal is too much for me.  i must try to aim lower.

we have indeed been working on the house.  still slowly despite the fact that baby will be here in about five months.  yikes.  we have a lot of work to do.  our two most important projects BB (before baby) are the bathroom renovation and the baby room.

the bathroom update:

we finally received our custom color sample a few weeks ago:

it is difficult to tell on the picture but there actually is a difference between the two colors.  the smaller one is a bit more blue and the larger one is more of a green-blue color.  so we're going with the larger one.  this will be the color for the subs on bathroom walls and shower, trimmed in black tile.  now we've asked for a floor tile in the same color.  hopefully that won't take us months like these two beauties.  we ordered and received (!!!) our radiant floor heating system.  SOOOO excited about that. 

baby room update:

well, as you may remember, there are two places in the ceiling that need fixed as well as one place on the wall.  there was also a ton of junk in the room.  it was our holding area, NEVER to be viewed by persons that do not live here.  we managed to sift through and donate most of it.  thank God for amvets.  love that place.  they pick your junk up for you!!  so great as i'm not a host-a-garage-sale type of gal.  too much work.  chad filled the holes from our insulation project.  and last weekend he dremmeled (that's a word, isn't it?) a portion of our plaster ceiling away in prep for drywall. 

for some reason i removed the ENTIRE house of wallpaper except for a small portion of this bedroom.  so i must do that soon.  then chad will work on replacing some of the walls with drywall.  there was water damage or something at some point previous to our ownership.

other than that we've been working on the yard, a garden specifically.  i decided to ditch the CSA this year and focus on growing the items i know i'll eat.  and then let the local farmer's markets fill in the gaps.  i chose a spot near our future outdoor dining area.  chad poured a concrete barrier to build the bed up a bit and steer the water in the correct direction.

this is a pic of the garden today.  and i already picked my first strawberry!

till next time.  hopefully not a month from now.  no promises. 

more bathroom

well, some good news! chad talked to the tile place and we are supposed to have our color match sample by tomorrow. and he said that once we place an order it should only take about three weeks to have the tile made. for me, this is a huge relief. i had a hormonal pregnancy moment last week and i was like: you tell him we are on a DEADLINE. baby irvington bungalow can't be in a bathroom with lead paint chips floating in his/her first bath. i think that is illegal or something. :) i make fun here but seriously. this is no laughing matter!

we are ordering our wall and floor tile from American Restoration Tile. the floor tile isn't the issue, it has been the color match for the subway tiles for the walls. anyways, this is the floor tile we are going to order. the style is a replica of what we have now but the colors are different. this is just a pic from their site and are not the colors we'll be ordering. we're not having the border that is in the pic. we haven't decided on the color placement of the tile but it will have white, a gray/green/blue color and a black. very similar to what is below.

other than the tile and the plumbing supplies we have everything else already. we need to strip all the woodwork and repaint, including our built-in cabinet and a medicine cabinet we bought off of craig's list. the only other major outstanding item is the bathtub. we have a fabulous pedestal tub we also got from craig's list but it needs to be refinished. so. not sure what will happen there. probably not in time for baby but i think that will be okay.

cross your fingers we actually receive the tile tomorrow. otherwise it might be back to square one.

guest bedroom

last weekend chad's best friend and his wife came to visit. which meant we had to get the guest bedroom in working order. there is no plaster on two of the walls in our guest bedroom - only exposed lath. we bought drywall to finish off the parts with no plaster about four months ago. too bad by last weekend the drywall (some 12' long) were still sitting in the same place - blocking access to the bed. i suggested just setting the Little Giant next to the drywall so they could climb the ladder over the drywall and into the bed. chad did not think this was funny.

instead we just moved it to the side wall, cleared out the tools and the baseboards, and cleaned.
and you know what? our guests didn't complain (not to our faces anyways).

the other (*sigh*) issue about staying at our house is the fact that our bathroom still hasn't been renovated. we have to turn the toilet on and off at the valve in order to flush. poor guests. i had to leave them this note on how to use the toilet. JUST the thing you want to see after a long flight. haha!

bathroom accessories

we've finally purchased some items for the bathroom renovation project. how much do you love rejuvenation?? seriously.

we bought these lights and shades to flank the medicine cabinet.

we bought the metal shelf shown in the picture below. we're going to place it in approximately the same place as the picture too. our bathroom will be arranged very similarly to the one shown below.

we also bought coordinating towl rack and ring and some really cool arts and craft style house numbers for the garage.

pedestal tub

craigslist to the rescue again! we've been looking for an old pedestal bath tub for our bathroom remodel project. we almost bit the bullet and paid a few hundred for one at a local salvage yard. but considering how much it is going to cost to have it refinished we didn't. and good thing! chad found one on craigslist over the weekend. we bought it for $45. now we're going to transport it to st. louis for some one-of-a-kind refinishing technique. don't ask.