Brooklyn Limestone

Too busy even at a snail's pace
{19 feb 2007}

I sometimes wonder how I managed to get everything done when I actually had things happening. That doesn't make much sense but the past month has been one giant game of so much to do, so little to show for it. We havent made much forward progress toward actually getting the big parts of the reno underway but we are forever running around on small tasks and errands (limestone related or not)...without much time for any rest. Of course, we are both working hard to pay for all this so that probably has a lot to do with it.

Over the past few months, we've been working with a very smart and patient architect who has done a lot in the first steps of making this dump a home. So we have a tree's worth of drawings of all kinds. They are extremely exciting for us but are extremely boring to look at if you haven't been inside the house. So Ill spare you from those.

As we get closer to making the package "final", there were a lot of finishing items that of concern to me that I wasn't describing correctly. So rather than make Mr. Architect crazy with another round of changes trying to pinpoint what I mean, I did some drawings to send to him. Not that he cares what color I paint the bathroom or what kind of towel bar we use, but I did that stuff for me. I need to keep my ideas organized.

On the backside of these drawings are some price estimates for the materials. Oh-vey. Without factoring the skilled labor, Im already in deep. Not that Im surprised - we've renovated before and I know what things cost. But I suppose its adding it all together for such a major project is overwelming. (not to mention that Im consistently picking stuff that is entirely too expensive).

Ok, enough complaining. Here is what Im thinking for our hall bathroom.

To refresh, here is what it looks like now (its okay to cover your eyes if you don't like the scary parts)



And what I have in mind for the after:


Many thanks to Kips&Dags whose gorgeous diy bathroom remodel I found (ok, stalked) on Flickr. He was nice enough to share all the details with me.
The plan is to move the clawfoot tub that is in the second floor bathroom down here. We thought we were going to have to refinish it but Mr. Architect says we might not have to. (Yippeee!).

The plan is also to add a master bath and closet area on the top floor. Its not a bathroom now so no fun before photos to mock.
The ideal after (this is back and front wall)

The color got a bit distorted...the green should be a greyish shade..not this minty color. And in the hall bath, everything is white and grey not blue. Close enough.

As you can tell, I don't have everything worked out but this is great progress as I was completely stumped on some of these "decisions" just a week ago. Any suggestions on improvements or additions are welcome. Nothing has been purchased...yet.

Also did a drawing of the millwork we will eventually add in the "music room" (that sort of strange middle room between what will be our living room and dining room). We are havingthis built out for two reasons. One, we love the leaded glass doors that are in the built in hutch on the garden floor. B/c we are adding a doorway there, we have to rip that built in out but we'd like to put those door to good use. Yes, they are cracked in two places...but thats okay.

Reason two, we need some first floor display storage for books, photos, various crap. This middle room is a bit of a mystery to us so its a good place for storage and display. We had a similar unit built in our current home and I love it.

No fun idea board to go with this one. I think we are going to have to paint it since I can't imagine matching the existing wood of the doors to new wood without going completely insane. And since it isnt original, I think painting will get it to blend in a bit better (so the focus is on the original woodwork we will have stripped after many years of inhaling lead paint chips and toxic stripper fumes).

Anyway....thats my renovation porn for the day. I still have to do this drawing for the other bathrooms. I planned to do it this weekend but you know how time gets away from you? Well, it got away again.