An addendum: Pictures! – Benjamin Moore Sail Cloth Paint and Minwax Special Walnut

So the 1439 project is over, but every day there are hits on this website from people searching for pictures and images of Benjamin Moore’s “sail cloth” (or “sailcloth”) paint color.  There are an equal number of hits from people looking for pictures of Minwax floor stain in “special walnut.” To help all of the google searchers out there, here is some information on both…

Paint: BM markets Sail Cloth as an exterior color, but I used it as an interior color and it works beautifully.  It looks a bit bland on the paint chip, but it comes up as the perfect neutral taupe.  I highly recommend it and it’s pretty much going to be my go-to color now for any future projects.  Enormous thumbs up.

Floor Stain: The vintage floors here are red oak.  (Note: if you are renovating a vintage Chicago apartment from the 1930’s and you’re not sure what kind of original wood flooring you might be working with, it’s almost certainly red oak.)  Special Walnut came up very nicely when it came time to stain the floors and I’m happy with it.  Dark, but not too dark.  Warm, without being too red.  It’s a solid choice.  Final note, we applied a satin finish.  The alternative was semi-gloss, which I was assured was also lovely, but satin won out in the end and I don’t regret it.

Here are good clean pictures of what “sail cloth” looks like up on the walls, and “special walnut” looks like down on the floors.  These pictures are a good indication of how these finishes appear in reality.

BM Sail Cloth paint color with Minwax "Special Walnut".

The same scheme in better light.

So for all of the google searchers who found their way here….I hope this helps with your decision making process.  If you want to leave a comment, please do, I’d love to hear about the various projects out there.

the news, it is good

ok y’all, I have news.

The apartment is rented.  It went to the first people (I think) who came to see it, which confirmed my general learning from this phase of the process –

* It’s not that easy to rent out an apartment on your own.

* It’s super easy for a professional company to rent it out for you, and now that I’ve seen all they’ve done I don’t even begrudge them the month’s rent it cost me to use their service.  Thanks Chicago Apartment Finders.

Thanks everyone for going on this journey with me.  Now that it’s done I feel like it might be time to make some radio again.  I’m not sure what it will be about, but I’ll think of something.  It’s been too long since I dug out the microphone and put on some headphones.  That’s it….over and out.  Peace.

crossing the finish line

So the kitchen counters went in 2 weeks ago now and I’ve just been lazy, lazy about posting a final recap here.  Somehow all the steam ran out of me.  I go over now and I look and other than the odd wipe down of a window-sill or polishing of a faucet, there’s really nothing left for me to do.  There are still a couple of things on Chris’ punch list, but even those items are so small that if they never got done it’s possible no one would notice.  (Well, one thing might get noticed – the radiator valve in the bathroom has quit valving, but given the recent 80 degree temperatures around here this week, it’s easy to think it might be months yet before anyone needs actual heat when they bathe, so I’m not particularly fussy about when it gets fixed.)

No tenant yet, but I haven’t been particularly hard-tenant-searching.  After 24 hours on Craigslist I came to my senses and set the rent at a very market-friendly rate of $1025.00/mo.  The problem with Craigslist is the sheer volume of how much is out there, so after a little while with no bites I turned it over to the Chicago Apartment Finders rental company two days ago.  They sent a nice guy out who seems very market-savvy.  He took notes and pictures and today he got a professional sponsored ad up on Craigslist and it’s also listed on their site.  I can also cross list it with other rental companies like The Apartment Guys and The Apartment People, but I’m going to wait a few days and see how it goes.

Want to see the kitchen?  This was the last piece in the puzzle.

Today I bought a plant.   Paula and I both agreed that given this apartment’s history – an apartment that was previously remarkable only for the amount of pot and cigarettes that apparently used to get smoked in it – the place needed a little tiny bit of life in it.  I’ve never lost sight of the fact that I was able to buy this place because someone else lost their home.  That’s a lot of sad karma to counteract.  Now that we’ve poured so much good energy and effort into it, I can barely remember how lost-cause it used to feel….that said, right now it has that “it’s nice, but no one lives here” vibe.  It needs some life.  So until a new person comes to live in this little apartment (and let that be soon!) a plant is just the ticket.  Don’t ask me what kind of plant this is, I forgot to check.  But it was the only thing at the nursery that felt right – it was small, it was green, it was alive, it was pretty, and it was cheap.

Perfect.

toiletgate

A couple of months ago my friend Kaysie re-did her bathroom, and part of that gut renovation was a new, fancy, sleek toilet.  Getting that toilet, all of it, in all of its varied new, fancy and sleek pieces, turned out to be an ordeal of such proportions that we took to calling the entire project Toiletgate.

I’ve been hinting at great drama with the toilet seat on this renovation, and the best way to sum it up is simply to share the voicemail message that I left for Kaysie about 3 weeks ago.

“TOILETGATE LIVES ON.  Call me back.”

From the very beginning of this project I was intent to save as much as I possibly could.  Refinishing, not replacing.  In the end I can sadly say that not much was able to be refinished.  Most of this job was a gut quite unlike anything that I had anticipated, and the road to hell is paved with good intentions.  One of the first things Chris and I discussed was what could be saved in the bathroom.   We both agreed that the tub was a huge save, but he said immediately that I should replace the toilet, and I said immediately that we could keep it.  Quick recap on toilet – original, still working, suits the age of the building and a great place to save a few hundred dollars.

Chris nodded his head that day and said ok, but it was clear over the next few weeks that this bothered him – every few days he would casually drop in a mention of the toilet, “so we should replace the toilet, yes?” “No.” “I think maybe the toilet should go, it’s old.” “No.” “It’s leaking.” “No.” And then I’d be all patting myself on the back for my adherence to the vintage vision, and lack of a contribution to our nation’s landfills.  Good job me.

not nice

I was pretty much the only one who had this vision, however.  Everyone else thought I was nuts, including the upstairs neighbor Yusef who came in for a visit to see what was by then an 80% completed bathroom.  I asked him to vote on the toilet debate.  Note, at this point the toilet was sitting in the middle of the living room covered in filth, where it had been deposited when the bathroom was gutted.  Yusef took one look, raised an eyebrow and said, “oh girlfriend, get rid of it.”  He had a point.  Dirty…already ripped out…sitting on a trash bag in the middle of the living room because even now that it had been disconnected from the plumbing, it still dripped water.  At that point my resolution wavered and I told Chris to throw it out.

“It’s too late.”

“Ummm….huh?”

“I’ve already closed the wall and tiled around the pipe.  If you want a new one I need to open the wall back up, re-do the pipes for a modern toilet, and re-tile.”

“Oh.”

“What do you want to do?”

“I want to say fuck.”

“Ok.”

At this point I had no choice.  Chris and I took a good look at it and decided that some bleach, elbow grease and a brand new pipe set might yet save this toilet, and I crossed my fingers we could get to the source of the leak.  Two weeks later, all those things came to pass and we had a beautiful toilet.  I returned to patting myself on the back.

handsome!

shiny!

I went back to Home Depot, my new home away from home, a veritable Cheers of home improvement, and I bought a toilet seat.  There are two standard kinds of toilet seats – one for round bowls, and one for elongated bowls.  This bowl is most definitely round, and all round toilet seats are 16.5 inches long from middle of the screw to the front of the bowl.  I’ve learned this.  I brought the toilet seat over to the apartment.  It didn’t fit.  Not even close.  Too small.  Huh.  This must be an elongated bowl.  I took the toilet seat back.  Elongated bowls are 18.5 inches long.  I bought one.  I brought it over to the apartment.  It didn’t fit.  Not even close.  Too big.  I have the Goldilocks of toilet bowls. I got out the tape measure. 17 inches.

I went to 3 more hardware stores.  Nobody in Chicago carries anything but the standard sizes.  Let the google searches begin.  I spent HOURS googling toilet seats.  Paula sat right next to me one night and googled with me.  It was insane.

“vintage toilet seats”

“american standard toilet seats old”

“non-standard toilet seat sizes”

“toilet bowl too big”

“toilet seats for antique toilets”

I just couldn’t figure it out – this is not an unusual toilet.  There are a million old apartments in Chicago with this same toilet, and I’m pretty sure they all have toilet seats.  I even called up Katie Mac and left her a message begging her to see if her toilet seat had a brand name on it.  Still, no luck.  What the hell?  Also, no one else seemed to be searching for this issue, because no one else in the entire history of the internet has even posted so much as a hint of this problem.  For days I was consumed by this issue – I could be making supper, but part of me was thinking about the Toilet Seat Issue.  I could be in the pool – half of my brain would be swimming and the other half was most decidedly working on the toilet seat.  Making the bed?  Toilet seat!   Reading?  Toilet seat!   Driving?  Toilet seat!  You get the picture.

I called my sister a few weeks ago, several days into the Toilet Seat Issue.  I explained the problem.  “I just keep looking at toilet seats and none of them fit.”

“Well, why is this an issue?”

“Because they don’t fit!”

“So why don’t you just measure the toilet and buy one that does?”

“Bitch.”

“Hey!”

“ALL I HAVE DONE IN THIS WORLD LATELY IS MEASURE THAT TOILET SEAT.”

“um, ok, crazy, call me later.”

Then, finally……dawn.  A lightbulb.  I don’t have a residential toilet.  I have a COMMERCIAL toilet.  Where have I seen these toilets?  In rest stops and restaurants and gyms and stores.  This toilet may not have been commercial in 1935, but it sure as hell is commercial now, and it’s still being sold.  I googled “commercial toilet seats” – boom! 17 inches!  17 INCHES PEOPLE. And they’re available HERE! and HERE! and HERE!  A word to Chicago hardware stores – buy some of these.  We all don’t have modern toilets.

Look what arrived today:

I called Paula and told her that if this toilet seat doesn't fit I'm going to kill myself.

Love the font.

This box is fantastic.  I particularly like “toilet seat – toilet seat – toilet seat.”  Katie Mac once told me that she likes to put lots of exclamation marks in her emails and that pretty much what she does is hold her finger down on the key until she feels her point has been made emphatically enough.  LIKE THIS:

Toilet Seat - Toilet Seat - Toilet Seat!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

hey mr. postman

I’m stalking the mail woman.  Literally, kind of.  (An aside – can one “kind of literally” do something?  Is that a rape of the english language, like  “most unique”?  Find out.  Get back to me.  Thanks.)

So anyway, I’m stalking the mail woman postal carrier.  I had to leave her a note earlier today, and I realized that I don’t really know the correct lingo for postal carriers of the female persuasion.  Are they called mailwomen? female mail carriers? postal ladies? mailmen who happen to be women?  The note finally just began “Mail Carrier!”  That will get her attention.

Here’s the deal – you buy a foreclosure, you don’t necessarily get the key to the mailbox.  In fact, you probably almost definitely don’t and unless you’ve bought into a high-rise with a dedicated mail room (which I most certainly did not) then you’re stuck.  At first I thought I’d have to call a locksmith, but last week I saw the mailwoman-postal-carrier-of-the-female-persuasion come down the front pathway and into the lobby and I ran down to meet her.

I explained my problem and she assured me that I don’t need a locksmith.  In fact it’s really simple – “you just pop this lock out and buy a new one.” Believe it or not, correct! I went to Clark and Devon Hardware and bought a new lock set and it cost me all of $8.

no locksmith required

HOWEVER….you pop out the lock from INSIDE the box, and I can’t GET inside the box without a KEY.  This is where the mailwoman-postal-carrier-of-the-female-persuasion comes in.   Now I’m sitting inside this empty apartment, my laptop and real job work on hand, with an eagle eye trained on the front walkway, screwdriver and lockset at the ready.  I’ve also left a kind of beseeching note on the downstairs mailbox begging her to call me should I avert my gaze for a moment and miss her.

I still haven’t told y’all about the toilet seat (sweet jesus mary mother of god the *&%$^!# toilet seat), but other than the toilet seat, getting the mailbox lock re-keyed is practically the very last job left for me to do on this project.  Sweet hallelujah.

the home stretch

This project went so quickly to begin with, didn’t it? Ohhhh the home stretch is slow.  I’ve learned a ton on this rehab, but here’s my biggest lesson – order your kitchen cabinets and counter top early – early, early, early – like on Day ONE.  Because they will take 6 or so weeks to arrive and if you have contractors who work super fast, they will finish the majority of the work before the cabinets and counter top arrive, and then they will be twiddling their thumbs.  And – here is the lesson, pay attention – contractors who are twiddling their thumbs go on to other projects. I.e. projects that are not your project.

As well they should.  They have to make their money, of course they do.  But when you lose your great contractors it’s sort of hard to get them back.

Here’s where we currently stand – all kitchen cabinets are IN, hooray.  Stove, microwave, refrigerator – installed.  But counter tops – well crap on a cracker they take 2 weeks and we are currently at the mercy of the stone company.  Quartz is going in.  I rejected granite from an environmental purpose. I think granite is beautiful and have used it several times in the past, including in my own home, but my ecologically minded friend Carla sent me an email early on in this process that said, essentially, “excited about the rehab! I forbid you to use granite!” and after reading a lot about quartz I decided to go that route instead.  There are more environmentally friendly options, but overall it’s a good choice.  Additionally, it’s incredibly durable and can take pretty much whatever a future tenant or owner might throw at it.  Also, totally beautiful.  So there’s that.  In future projects I want to use wood and concrete.  (Future projects….I have big dreams.  Nothing before next year, but big dreams ’cause this whole rehab thing really floats my boat.)

So anyway, this post is basically an update to say nothing new.  Waiting on the counter top man.   In the meantime contractor has promised me that the following will get done this week:

• Floors finished
• Bathroom floor sealed
• Unused boxes of tiles removed
• Windows cleaned and mini-blinds hung
• Missing baseboards in kitchen installed
• Missing light switch cover installed
• Under cabinet lighting installed
• Back door lock reinforced
• Closet rods hung
• Lobby mailbox slot re-keyed (to be done by me, I am learning a lot about mailbox locks)
• Two shelves in pantry installed
• Kitchen cabinet knobs put on
• Kitchen sink and dishwasher to be hooked up after counter top has gone in

There are a few other things but I’ve run out of steam.  Out. Of. Steam.

Counter top man, hurry UP.

Sneak Peek

I spent late yesterday afternoon sitting in a corner of the apartment’s living room, where I came to work while I waited for the arrival of the appliances.   I tried to find the least dusty corner of this place, but that’s a little like trying to find the least sandy place on the beach, or the least hot corner of hell, as it currently looked like this:

The kitchen cabinets are now in, and the guys got busy getting all of their equipment cleaned up. The appliances came and I have to admit I kind of freaked out a little.  At first I was all, “oh so beautiful!” and then I was all, “this kitchen is so small, oh my god, the kitchen is so small.” Not that it wasn’t small before, but it had nothing IN it, so it was a little harder to tell.  I might have made a big mistake, maybe.  The board president here was kind enough to tell me weeks ago that the only refrigerator that works properly in these kitchens are the shallower counter-depth ones.  Well, I priced those out.  The cheapest of those begin at $1500+ and what you make up for in shallowness you get back in width.  There is no extra width to play with in this tiny space. Then I went upstairs to the neighbors, and they had a regular fridge and it looked just fine.  So I went out and chose the least deep of the regular deep fridges (which only cost $600) and maybe it’s just the shock of the new but did I mention that this kitchen is SMALL?  And that fridges eat up a lot of floor space?

Last night Paula and I went swimming and half way through I bobbed over to her in the water, and asked her to stop what she was doing and calm me down.  “Have I ruined this kitchen?  What else could I have done? I just don’t recognize the place. What if I can’t find a tenant? I don’t know what to do about the countertops.  Is that fridge too big? It’s too big.”

She asked me, “what exactly is wrong?”

“I think I feel like it’s all uncertain now.  We’re almost done and I don’t know what the next part looks like.”

“The finding a renter part?”

“It’s just, before I felt like this was all MY apartment, and now I don’t recognize the kitchen, that’s some new person’s kitchen, and someone else is going to come and live there, but we’re not done yet, and there are still tons of things left to do, and, and, it all just sort of doesn’t feel like mine anymore.”

“It’s going to be fine.” There was a pause. “I knew you’d have a freak out when the kitchen went in.”

Do you want to rent this apartment?  Fantastic beautiful one-bedroom in Edgewater Glen, heat included, thoroughly renovated, available April 1st even though it looks like there’s still a ton to do.  Disregard the current lack of countertops and the missing toilet seat.  I’m working on that, I swear.

the kitchen cabinets have arrived

All has been quiet the last week or so – the project was halted while we waited for the kitchen cabinets to arrive.

Well, they arrived this morning (and arrived and arrived and arrived):

On a different note, how cute is this?

exciting day

The last time I saw the bathtub, it looked like this:

grubby

Ok, not exactly like that, because that picture was taken a couple of weeks ago.  But I promise you, it hasn’t looked any BETTER than this in the last two weeks, and it’s actually looked worse.

Today I went over to drop off the dining room sconces which had finally been delivered, and George was there, working on his own.  We unpacked the lights and while we were opening the boxes he asked me if I’d seen the bathtub. Not in the last two days, no…..

“Is it ok?”

“Go see…”

All I could think was, oh my god.  The toilet has had a slight leak, the tub has been full of filthy construction dust, who knows what might have happened.  WELL, something did happen, something amazing, something I’d forgotten Chris had mentioned that he was going to get a sub-contractor to come in and do.  Reglaze the enamel.  This pretty much took my breath away, it was so unexpected:

80 year old bathtub!

I had no idea it could look like this.  I originally decided to leave it in because A) there was nothing wrong with it, B) ajax with bleach can work wonders, and C) it’s cast iron and I know enough about cast iron to know that removing a tub of that size from a bathroom this small is MAJOR work.  But this….well, I had no idea.

In other wonderful news of the day, the kitchen floor is in and now I’m thrilled that the tile didn’t work out.  Though if you would like 6 boxes of cheap tile let me know, ’cause now it’s just sitting there in the dining room, unloved and unwanted.  I’m still not over what that kitchen floor did to my budget**, but I’m super happy with the result:

new wood floors in kitchen

The camera is playing a little trick here, the floors aren’t quite this dark, but they’ve come up looking well.  Chris applied the same stain (Minwax Special Walnut, satin finish) that he’s applied to the rest of the floors, the only difference is that the rest of the floors aren’t finished yet and they’ve been under pink protective paper for two weeks now, so I haven’t seen them.  I’m curious to see how much of a difference there will be between the new oak floors in the kitchen and the old oak floors throughout the rest of the apartment.

Let’s go out with the sconces – hooray, they’re in, the lighting is done!

Let there...

be...

...light!

______________________

** On a side note, it’s interesting to see what this particular budget overrun has done to my state of mind – up until now everything was well budgeted, about what I expected, no nasty expenses, etc.  It was all coming in slightly higher than I anticipated, but overall, no problem.  However, there’s something psychological somehow about all new wood floors that were never in the budget and never intended that slid me directly from “I can afford this, look how WELL it’s going!” right into “Oh my god, we’re going to be eating ramen noodles for the REST OF OUR LIVES.”

Picture Post

Ceiling Fan in Bedroom

Ceiling Fan in Living Room, dilemma over

Dining Room Light

I chose it by playing this game: “This is the Last Lighting Store on Earth and you aren’t leaving here until you pick one.” Game worked.

A close up shot.

The wood floor that I never intended to put into the kitchen....

...is going in.

sigh.

On a different note....

...the pedestal sink....

...has gone in! Oh Frabjous Day!

Ignore the water valves.

I love how the bathroom is progressing.

little knob

me

dusty!

a little surprise

So all along this project has been nothing but smooth.  I’ve said on numerous occasions, “and there have been no ugly surprises!” HA  HA  HA.

HA.

As of this morning we’ve had one ugly surprise – though in the grand scheme of ugly suprises, it isn’t terrible.  But it’s a $1000 ugly surprise and I’ll just throw out now that if anyone needs a babysitter or odd job girl then I’m the one to call, ’cause this wasn’t in the budget.

ANYWAY – the contractors laid down concrete-board about a week ago and the kitchen tile has been sitting in boxes ready to go since then.  The concrete-board (or whatever it’s called, I’m not sure, but that’s basically what it looks like) is serving as the new sub-floor over the beat to hell old wooden floors that were unearthed when Chris and the crew ripped out the old tile.  This morning Chris called and he asked me to come watch him bounce up and down in the kitchen doorway.  (Actually, this isn’t what he said, but that’s what he did.)  For the record, this was the first time he’s said “we have a problem,” that wasn’t followed with “and that’s why you can’t put in a pedestal sink.”

So I go over and Chris bounces up and down in the kitchen doorway and all we hear is squeak squeak squeak.  And the board is moving a little, tiny, smidgeon of a bit.  He explains to me that this is caused by a weak supporting something-or-other under the sub-sub-floor and it’s not a big deal but it’s an old structural beam issue that can’t be fixed (OH! that’s why the floors aren’t totally level) and if they tile over it then the grout will crack on a regular basis and the tile in that section will continually pop and “I can’t warranty that.” I don’t blame him, I wouldn’t warranty it either.  So it came down to “what should we do?” Answer, lay down hardwood floors.  Hardwood floors will squeak but they won’t pop or crack.  The floors in the entire place are red oak and even though they were probably put in sometime in the 1930’s you can still buy identical boards.  How much will new boards cost for the entire kitchen? $750 approximately.  Add in a few other things needed for the job, and add in the clearance sale tile that can’t be returned and I just blew out my kitchen floor budget.

OUT.  Blew it OUT.

HA.

HA.

HA.

painting complete

Yesterday I went over to the condo and the painting had begun.  Chris and George had painted all of the edging around the baseboards and the crown molding, but hadn’t yet filled in the rest of the walls.  Here is how the conversation went:

“Chris, do you think it’s too dark?  Are these colors too dark?” I chose the Benjamin Moore color “sail cloth” for the walls, which can best be described as sort of a light gray taupe.

“No, it’s good.”

“Does that sail cloth color really match the sample?”

“Yes.  It’s good.  I like it.”

“It’s just…it’s dark, is it too dark?” Oh my god.

They’d also started painting the Meditation color above the bookshelves.  This is sort of an olive green color, and it looked really, really dark and muddy. Granted, it was only partly done.

“Chris, did I choose bad colors?  Are these colors going to work?”

“I like – it’ll be fine.”

This is how the conversation went when I came home to Paula:

“THE PAINT IS A DISASTER.”

“It can’t be, those were nice colors.”

“THE SAIL CLOTH COLOR LOOKS LIKE DIRT. I PAINTED THE WALLS DIRT.”

“I’m sure it’s fine.”

“MAYBE IT’S NOT FINE!”

“Um….oh dear….how is the meditation color?”

“MEDITATION LOOKS LIKE POO.”

“I thought it was olive green.”

“IT’S POO.  I MADE THIS APARTMENT LOOK LIKE DIRT AND POO.”

“It can’t be that bad…..”

“LIKE DIRT AND POO, PAULA.  DIRT AND POO!”

So that was yesterday.  Today I bought a ceiling fan for the living room – Ohhhhh, allow me to digress….between comments here and comments on Facebook, it became clear, pretty quickly, that a ceiling fan was the way to go.  So ceiling fan it is!  ANYWAY, we had to bring the ceiling fan over to the apartment.  The conversation in the car went like this:

“You know, we don’t have to do this today.  Maybe it’s getting too dark.  We could go tomorrow.”

“The paint will be fine.”

“Tomorrow would be good.  There’ll be more light.  Let’s go tomorrow.”

“The paint will be fine.”

“Oh god.”

Flash forward ten minutes and it looked like this – PRETTY FANTASTIC.   Such a huge relief.  Paula played documentary photographer:

front door/hallway

hallway looking into dining room

corner of living room

other view of living room

meditation color, accent wall above bookshelves

another angle

and another angle

subway tile has been grouted, with exception of interior window tile

that shelf isn't really for toilet paper

border tile

left over tile spacers

travertine floor has gone in

bathroom color - Benjamin Moore "pale smoke" - success!

little hallway, the pink on the floor is the protective paper

VASTLY RELIEVED

moving along

No great news to report, as I’ve had my head in my work for a few days – though Paula and I did go over on Wednesday night and it looked great.  Still very much a working site, but exciting stuff going on.  The bathroom wall was fully tiled, though no grout yet and the travertine for the floor looked like it was going in next.  All walls had been primed and all the trim work sprayed with the white semi-gloss.  Chris called two nights ago from the counter at the paint store, so paint has been purchased, I’m anxious to see it up.  No other news to report yet, other than lots of lighting purchases going on – yesterday evening I finally found sconces and placed an order for two.  They won’t arrive for a couple of weeks though….now I’m wrestling with the Ceiling Fan Conundrum – I already placed one in the bedroom, should there be another one in the living room?

FYI: this is the ceiling fan in question:

Hampton Bay Stratford Ceiling Fan

A smaller version of this same fan is already in the bedroom.  The living room is a harder call, though.  Personally I don’t like ceiling fans much, but I know lots of people love them, and they are very helpful in summer for cooling things off and helpful in winter for pushing warm air downwards….and we actually have a ceiling fan in every room of the condo we live in….so I get it…I get it.  But not only do I not like them very much, they are also more expensive than a standard fixture.  I’m vaguely curious what most renters think – is a ceiling fan, or lack thereof, a deciding factor in renting a unit?

That’s it, over and out – back to my regular job for the rest of the day.  I’ll fixate on the Ceiling Fan Conundrum over the weekend.

OHHH, I almost forgot….I nixed the wallpaper, we are painting instead.  (Wallpaper Haters! I heard from you, but calm down! It would have been beautiful, I promise.)  Sadly, I’ll paper something else.  Time, money and the depressing voice of reason won out.  Very sad!

_____

update: nope, no central air conditioning.  But there are such things as standing fans, window fans and window a/c units.  But does a ceiling fan, or lack thereof, make any difference when you consider wanting to buy or rent something?

tile begins

Not much to report yet – tiling has begun, but right now it looks as odd as all tile does before it looks the way it’s supposed to – no grout yet and the wall is full of those little spacer things.  The floor isn’t in yet, but the subway tile is now half way down – and there’s a new worker on the job named Joseph, so it was nice to meet him.  He and Chris are tiling together.  Here’s a sneak peek –

no grout yet, but it will be white

temporary boards to help line the tile up

quick shot of the medicine cabinet

Coming up in the next week – the painting and remainder of tile going in, and hopefully the lighting fixtures as well.  I’m having a hard time deciding on the living room light and the dining room light and wall sconces.  Other than that all light fixtures have been purchased and are currently stacked in one of the closets, awaiting installation.  Did have a hiccup with the light over the medicine cabinet.  Bought a gorgeous one and it hangs too low – the bottom of the light hits the top of the medicine cabinet.  Back to the drawing board on that.

more about the paint

8am, we went back to the condo.  Chris was already there.  This weekend he broke out the industrial paint sprayer and got busy.  Things are taking shape.

Bookshelf shelves....getting sprayed.

Bye bye yellow living room - you were kind of cheerful but you look better with white primer

All doors are currently in bedroom, out of the way

All baseboards and crown moldings have been sprayed white semi-gloss

At the conclusion of our 8am visit I made a final decision on the paint colors.

• All closet interiors: a white of contractor’s choice.
• Bathroom: Benjamin Moore “Pale Smoke”.
• All other walls: Benjamin Moore “Sail Cloth.” This is actually an exterior color, so it will need to be mixed with interior paint.  I never would have picked it normally, except a man we know recently painted his entire apartment this color in preparation for putting it on the market and it turned out beautifully.  Very neutral and clean.

Re: the “pale smoke” – this wasn’t one of the colors we carefully painted on the walls yesterday.  I had high hopes for Benjamin Moore’s “crystalline” but wow, girlfriend, you are green green minty green and you might be kind of pretty, but it’s hard to tell and I’m not taking that risk. So after a cup of coffee and some time with Chris’ paint deck I threw a dart at “pale smoke.” (I sent an email to P once I’d made up my mind: “Pale Smoke – a new color! I just chose it! Flying by the seat of my pants! Way to take a risk! Never seen it before!”)

NOW….there’s one other major decision to make and I’m really wrestling with it, because this is an apartment for rental and I don’t want to get ridiculous about the budget, and yada yada yada, everyone has personal tastes, I know….but what I really want to do is put wallpaper above the bookshelves in the dining room.  Just a splash of visual something as you walk in the front door.  Every time I look at it I think “wallpaper.” I’ve never wallpapered anything and I have no idea how much it costs, though I need only a tiny amount.  I’m going to take a trip to Thybony one evening this week and look through some sample books.  Of course, the way my luck is running I’ll find the perfect print and it will turn out to be back ordered, or on a 6-week delivery schedule or who knows what else, but pretty much the overall theme of this renovation has pretty much been “we can certainly get that for you but NOT RIGHT NOW.”

I am thinking creatively and positively however, and we took careful measurements:

This is how the pro's do it.