One Quick Update
You may wonder wtf we have been up to lately if you aren't one of our in-person friends. We spent three weeks in Japan, a trip many years in the making and long planned for the last three weeks. Yeah, the delays from the roofers kind of messed with that but we made it work. I pre-wrote a few posts that either posted properly or... not. Oh, well. You get a bunch of updates now.
But first, a quick turn through the house to get you caught up a little.
The front stairs handrail is back in place and looks great:
This is literally the strongest this handrail has ever been; it's always been kind of wobbly and insecure, but now it is rock solid. It's great.
They tightened up the original metal joints in the curve and every baluster is firmly attached down now.
The back staircase is underway. All the stair treads and risers have been installed and it looks like they are about to do the upper nosing at the landing.
And oh hey, all the tile is done. It looks amazing. AMAZING. Let's review:
This is the tile that was installed in the back entry, in the pantries, and shown here in the laundry closet upstairs. A larger format of the same tile is in the kitchen. Most of those are covered with protective paper but they look good.
This is the wall tile behind the sink in the pantry. It's pretty subtle. I may have to have them install more of this in the other pantries, since I've got a lot more (since it was being discontinued so I got an amazing price and I definitely didn't want to run out but didn't know the size of the opening yet and then they gave me an extra box).
The really beautiful tiles are in the back bathroom. These are cut marble tiles, which we used on another project at my firm. I love how they add movement to the space while still being subtle and a little soft.
Here's the overall effect with the penny tiles on the floor. While we were away I answered a bunch of questions on the shower enclosures so those are being fabricated now, too. The back bathroom has a hidden channel holding the glass shower enclosure so it looks like the glass is just sitting there. It's an easy detail if you keep it in mind from the beginning, almost impossible if you want to retrofit it in. Also you just can't do it if your space is really tight and every inch counts, because it involves extra layers of drywall.
The middle bathroom is less subtle, and my favourite:
I made the poor tile installers cut every piece of tile in half lengthwise to make the stripes. I also made them lay out installation from the ceiling. You know what? It looks amazing. Clean and perfect. I love this bathroom. We will put up a simple wooden shelf and I will revive my old orchid shower (which got killed by the water at the rental place that is about 75% chlorine).
Loving the tile floor in the Accordion Room, too:
This will be a totally Victorian bathroom with the clawfoot tub. I'm working on designing custom accordion toile wallpaper for it because that's how we roll in this town.
This is the frame for the mirror for the Accordion Room. It's integrated into the chair rail (not really a chair rail, but it's also not a wainscoating because it's just drywall below). Wallpaper will be above, paint below.
The last tile is the stove wall in the kitchen.
This picture looks terrible because I was shaking from jet lag (woo hoo crossing the International Date Line is lots of fun, especially when you only get minimal sleep on the plane because of heavy turbulence), but you'll get more detail in a future post. The tile is a mostly matte off-white glaze on a white body clay from Fireclay Tile, so it was made locally. The tile has a somewhat complicated pattern to add texture, but I went with matching grout because I wanted it very, very subtle. I may have gone too subtle but I like how it reads as the tile pattern close up but becomes a softly textured wall from across the room. At the right time of day this is going to be a stunning wall.
And now I am going to go get some sleep. More posts to come with better photos.
posted by ayse on 06/02/17