Friday, December 21, 2012

Bathroom Renovation: Update

 


WHEW-- what a week!  Here are some updated pictures of the progress on our bathroom renovation.








A lot has been happening, and as you can see, you're beginning to get a better picture of what the finished bathroom will look like.  The initial coats of paint are up, and the vanity has been moved into place.  Right now, we are waiting for the mirrors and new faucets that I ordered to arrive, so we can complete the plumbing and then install the light fixtures.

I found these mirrors at Pottery Barn for $249 each.... you would NOT believe how hard it was to find polished nickel mirrors.
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The faucets that came with our vanity ended up looking cheap and were chrome, so we had to find replacement ones.  I ended up choosing the same style and brand as the one I selected for our kitchen, in polished nickel.  They're made by ROHL, and were $440 each.  We ordered ours from Hughes supply in the Charlotte/Matthews area.
Rohl AC107X-2

We are also adding custom cabinetry doors to the bottom of our alcove niche, which will match the woodwork on our vanity.  I just realized that we didn't have enough storage, and adding some doors to the niche will really give us more room to store the bathroom stuff that isn't suitable for display!

We had some issues with the tile installation, which is why the shower area is left out of the pictures.  Our contractor Matt is on top of getting the tile fixed and re-installed, and i'll post more pics of that when it's finished.

For now, i'll leave you with a picture of our custom dining benches from Ballard Designs that just arrived yesterday!  Happy Holidays to everyone!
 

Friday, December 14, 2012

Luxe Design Inspiration

This room make me think of the greek key trimmed carpet that I bought for our living room.... I love the opulent fabrics and the navy and plum tones of this room. *SIGH*

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Tuesday, December 11, 2012

Style Watch

I stumbled across this today on pinterest, and fell head over heels.  So classy, retro, and fresh.

Pinned Image

Where on earth did she get that skirt?  Oh, and can we talk about the glasses? Must find.

Monday, December 10, 2012

Our Home Reno: Making Progress!

We are officially more than halfway through our bathroom renovation project!  There were plenty of interesting little surprises during the demolition phase (like the rotted floor underneath the bathtub!), but now that we have walls up and a tub in place, things are really starting to take shape. 




The marble top of our damaged vanity.  I wanted to KILL the delivery guy!


This week is going to be a really big week for the upstairs bathroom as far as aesthetic changes go:  floor tile and shower tile begin to go in tomorrow -Tuesday-, and our replacement vanity should be here by Thursday (the original one was damaged, so they sent me a new one).  I already have all of the accessories like towel rods, towel holders, and light fixtures/sconces ready to go, and I think that once they are installed it will really put the finishing touches on the room. 


Our GC, Matt :)
Our contractor, Matt (of Stirling Group in Charlotte), has been heading up this project for us and has been fantastic!  Coincidentally, he is also our neighbor in Midwood and lives only a few doors down, which is really convenient.  He has been super patient with me and my five zillion questions, and his design taste and attention to detail has surpassed even my ridiculous standards (for once! lol).  Since I don't have a General Contractor for all of the other projects going on in the house, it makes it even more apparent what a huge blessing it is to have a GC like Matt doing our bathroom.  Advice to any of you contemplating a major home improvement project: find a great GC!  Ask friends, colleagues, etc.... word of mouth is usually going to be your best bet. 





Donut rambling around our demolition kitchen
On top of our ongoing bathroom adventure, we have also made huge progress in other areas of the house!  First and foremost, our old kitchen has been demo'd and taken out.  Instead of paying the kitchen installation people to do it, I decided to take a different route.  Habitat for Humanity has something called ReStore, which is a store where they sell used items for home renovation projects.  The profits from these stores goes directly to Habitat, which they use to fund the building of homes for people in need.  I decided this was a no-brainer:  donate all of the appliances, cabinets, and countertops that came with the house to Habitat for Humanity!  Bonus.... they removed everything for the house for free, AND we get a tax write-off. 

It looks so different now without anything in it....it's almost hard to imagine what it's going to look like.  But it's a really good thing that we took the old kitchen cabinets out, because there were a lot of things going on behind it that were dangerous and not up to code.  Our new kitchen cabinets get delivered this Friday, so the installation should start next week.  I can't wait!!!!

I also had all of the plaster in the house repaired recently.  There were tons of cracks all over the house, especially in our living room and master bedroom.  Now that the repairs have been done, you can hardly tell.  We had the painters come in last week, and they repainted everything but our foyer and kitchen.  It is AMAZING what a difference new paint makes.  I swear the rooms look bigger and brighter.  Not all my paint choices were a hit on the first try (lol).... I had a originally picked a medium blue for our larger guest room, but it turned out to be hideous once they had it on the walls.  A few trips to Home Depot later, and I had a new light blue-ish/aqua that I ended up loving instead.  At first, I was second guessing my dark muted gray choice for our bedroom, but after mulling over it for a few days, I decided that I love it.  I think that it will look great paired with all the crisp white linens and our mirrored furniture.

Dining Room


Front Guest Room


Master


Master Fireplace


Small guest room


Living Room
(we also had a lot of carpentry work done in this room, and this built in nook was refaced)


Sunroom
I think we are finally at the point where I can visualize what the finished house is going to look like, and all the hard work is starting to pay off.  New pics to come as soon as the tile is up and kitchen cabinets are in!!

Monday, November 26, 2012

Our Bathroom Reno is under way!

It's taken me forever to post about the work that's been done on our bathroom because it's been so crazy lately. But better late than never, I guess!

Here's a first look at some of the before pics, as well as some of the demo work.

Hopefully I'll get some other pictures up this week when they do the framing and the walls!





















Tuesday, November 13, 2012

Our New Kitchen Is On It's Way!!

We placed the order for our new custom kitchen today!! So incredibly excited:)

Now, we wait.  And wait.  And wait....until around Christmas time.  (Did you know that this is the busiest time of year for remodeling kitchens??!  I know, weird.)  But it's going to be fabulous when it finally gets here.

We decided to go with Kraftmaid cabinets in Dove White, with a few glass accent doors:




(but in white)



I got to meet the local Kraftmaid rep today, and I definitely think we made the right choice in our cabinetry.... by the far the best in quality, value, options, and customer service.

The crown molding should be pretty amazing, I was adamant about that detail--- I feel like without it, you don't get the "custom" feel.

We are doing a hidden light rail underneath the cabinets (my husband talked me into it), and I think it will look nice at night when the rest of the lights are off.  It's going to be hidden behind a smaller piece of crown molding trim that will finish off the bottom of the upper cabinets.

I know I probably sound like a dork, but I am really looking forward to my pull-out spice cabinets (another item I dug my heels in over).  I am absolutely sick and tired of not being able to find any of my spices, sauces, mixes, and rubs in that abyss of an upper cabinet..... it will be heaven when everything is within reach and nice and organized.  Woohoo!
Base Filler Pull-out
Tall Pantry Pull-out

Mike Rotell from the Home Depot in Charlotte on South Blvd is my hero.  If you are re-doing your kitchen, trust me, do yourself a favor and use him!  He has been fantastic every step of the way, and thanks to him, we are getting a SUPER deal on Home Depot's Buy More Save More event.  We don't often get lucky, so i'll take it.

I'm headed back tomorrow to buy all of the appliances, so hopefully I'll be able to get and post some 3D pictures of our soon-to-be kitchen then.

Thursday, November 08, 2012

Luxe Style Spotlight: Shop Sosie

Let me introduce you to Shop Sosie: a great resource for affordable trendy fashion.  If you've already heard of it, good for you:)  But hopefully I'm not the last person to find out about this oober cute site!  I stumbled across an ad for ShopSosie when I was browsing a new fashion blog....I couldn't resist clicking (my curiosity got the best of me), and I'm glad I did.

Think H&M/Forever21 prices, with more of a Shop It To Me, higher-quality, JCrew kind of feel.  LOVE.

Some of my picks:
$35
Forever Zig Zag Long Sleeve Shift Dress in Classic
$52

$26
Darcy 3/4 Square Blouse in Mint
$41
$49

Daily Zig Zag Blouse in Nautical
$38

Love Link Bracelet
$20

Bateau neck blouse in elephant
$38
Cute, right?  They have tons of other stuff on the site, and a lot of reallllly cheap deals in their sale section.

Shop here: ShopSosie