Day Three

June 11, 2009 9:35 A.M.

I am in pain. Real physical ouches. We came to the Cinque Terra to hike. Little did we know what were in for. Apparently they've allowed mentally unstable people assess their ease of trail ratings. Two hour long paths, paths as wide as a ruler is long, rocks jutting up from the ground every which way, and stairs. Stairs for days. We shouldn't have purchased a treadmill in prepartion for this trip. A rugged stair climber would have been more beneficial. It was like beating your calves with bricks on purpose. Just when you seriously consider falling flat on your face, you turn around to see a poddle coming up the path behind you. What a blow to the machismo! We walked this torture for six hours on only two of the paths. From Monterosso to Vernazza, stopping for lunch and water refills. Then on to Corniglia. Of course we didn't know the ferry didn't stop in this city (of course it doesn't). We see signs for Marina and walk down even more hellacious stairs only to witness the ferry sail right past.

Eventually arrive back at the top of the stairs and wait patiently for the Ecobus to take us back to our apartment and collapse. Guess what? It doesn't go to Monterosso. The train station lies at the bottom of... you guessed correct... stairs. 365 of them. One. For. Every. Day. Of. The. Year. The train ride? Yeah, it takes ten minutes. Sigh.

Dinner was at La Bella Anchor du Tortuga under the Torre Aurora watch tower. Dinner was better tonight and we even tried anchovies, which the area is known for. Desserts on the menu are not very eclectic. Ice cream or sorbet. So we found the only open gelataria. Sorry, no limoncello tonight.

Day Due (two)

June 10, 2009 9:57A.M.

It seems I lost an entire day somewhere while flying.

Breakfast at the Albergo Marina, Via Buranco, Monterosso al Mare, Cinque Terra, Italy. Our first cappucchinos with such thick tasty foam. Eggs, hard boiled, have a very different strange orangey colored yolk. Animal cracker cereal. Now we're waiting for our cheesy bacon omelets. More fresh juice for you?

Last night was an interesting experience. We finally arrived in the country of Italy 23 hours after leaving the house. Got settled then went and wandered all over the city. It was fun watching Gordon with his own camera. He took such different shots than I did. At 8:30 P.M. we found this place called Ciak that had out a beautiful display of fresh seafood. Plus it had a cute waiter in a sailor outfit. We sat at a buffet style table with a couple from Seattle and an English gentleman (Clive Evans) who is currently living near Nice. He is the chosen photographer for the Siena Palio events. Cool! Once the wine took hold the conversations just opened right up. There was politics and pesto, palios and history.

My dinner was incredibly gross. BBQ grilled mixed seafood. It said grilled fish on the menu, so I was totally expecting some bream, some salmon maybe. Oh no. Prawns, shrimp and squid with ink sacs included! Uck. At least the pesto gnocchi was heavenly. We finished with our first attempt at limoncellos and tiramisu gelato. NOW I love Italy.

Toscana con Piacere! Day One

June 8, 2009 8:40 P.M.

I am currentl flying over Price Edward Island and watching "New In Town" as I jet towards Italy.

Could life GET any better?

New in Town is this great movie with Renee Zellwegger. The minute it started with a table of women scrapbooking I knew I was in love. I teared up when Blanche gave Lucy her first album, ya know?

Sorry for the seque, I've been on this flight for three hours, plus the one hour they kept us sitting on the runway. Sitting right next to the only infants on the entire flight. There are still six more hours left. Thankfully they have Bejewled for FREE!

Somewhere ahead this vast ocean lies a city I've only ever heard about. One that holds mysteries and adventures wrapped with an ancient frame. I can't wait to touch walls that hold the stories of emperors and queens, gladiators and farmers. Walls that will still be strong long after I invade.

Rome, the very word thrills me to the very fingertips (thanks Anne Shirley). All of those movies planting visions in my head. I am finally coming to visit. Will I stay? Who knows, but I will finally experience you for myself. ROME.

No April Fool's!!

Ooooh one more BIG thing...Check it out!Lucy is giving away 5 spots to the Scrap Etc event!{NO April fools!}This is what her email said:We are giving away FIVE spaces to the Scrap ETC event!And we have FIVE ways you can win:1. Post a comment on the blog.2. Tell your friends to come and post a comment, and if they do, tell us that they referred you! Both of you will get a chance!3. Post this contest on your blog---and post a link in our comments!4. Post a link in the comments to anywhere else online that you have posted about this!5. Post it on your facebook or twitter status---and let us know that you did!We will draw the names Thursday morning,April 2nd!Start posting NOW!Good luck!

Time to Compare

Thought it would be interesting to put the Before and After shots in one place.

Shower:

Garden Tub:

Vanity:

Day Eleven - - Done???

Oh joy!~ Oh tiny kittens and puppies! Oh unexpected bonus checks!! The day is here. At last a project started way back in December of 2007 has come to it's 'almost' completion.

It's the first day of my Thanksgiving Break and I got to sit around waiting for contractors. YAY!! The plumber was to be out between 9 and 10. He showed up after 11. Something about car trouble. He was here to install the shower heads, the faucets, and the superflush toilet. I asked him to start with the shower because the company who put the shower glass walls together were coming out soon. He got right to work.

The glass guy was to be here between 11 and 1. He showed up after 12. He also got right down to business.

It was a long day waiting around for them to finish. But finally around 4 our project director Mike and his boss came by to take a look at the final project. The boss did a double take when he saw our bathroom. He told us it was definitely not the typical beige tile and white appliance look. In his opinion it was absolutely gorgeous. Mike too was pleased with how it turned out. He does a lot of $100,000 bathrooms with marble going all the way to the ceiling. It gets kind of boring to him. But then he comes across our design (much less than $100K) and he can't compare it. Warms the heart, doesn't it?? Or are they just trying to make us feel great about our finished project? Either way, I still love my bathroom.

The shower heads are in. Yep, that is plural! There's the big overhead main piece, and then four separate wall jets. Each one is adjustable. Ooooooooh!

The faucets tooks some finagling because of the vessel bowl placement and then the La Toscana faucets needed so much distance from the wall. At last it was all in place and we got to flush the toilet for the first time. Let me tell you: It SUCKS! Superflush it is.

Only one problem we noticed so far. The drain installed in the vessel bowls sit above the base so water stands there. We might have to get the holes enlarged so that the drain sits down into the bowl.

From here on out we need Doug to come back out and grout underneath the shower heads because they don't sit flush against the wall like they should. Hmm, didn't think of that while installing the pebbles. Our mirrors are being built by Home Depot and should be done sometime next week. We have some more painting to be done. We already did a primer base of a medium gray color. I thought that would be too dark, but everything is looking really great together.

Day Ten - - Details

Doug came out just for a few hours today. He placed the cabinets against the wall and caulked around them. He set the tub seam and then filled it with water so that it would settle with the correct weight. Then he left. We'll see him again next week.

Day Nine - - Lighting In

Not much going on for this Monday. The electrician came out and installed the new can lights. You can see three of them in the picture below. There's another one inside the shower stall.

Doug had to wait utnil all of that was done before he could get to work on finishing the floor and wall grouting. He worked diligently until 6 P.M. to finish it all up today.

Day Eight - - Grout

Here you can see Doug sealing the slate flooring. Unfortunately the stuff dries and the floor will not always retain this huge glossy shine.
I love the beautiful color variations of this floor. Doug did a fantastic job of arranging the different tile patterns across the room.


The shower stall is completely grouted. I can just imagine the amount of time he had to work with this. He had to lay down the grout and then wipe off each individual stone across the entire wall and floor. GAH! No thank you.
He tells us that we can use a high gloss sealant on these pebbles to make them shine. YAY! I like that idea because I think the grout kind of dumbs down the effect of the pebbles.

A close up of the wall with the grouting all done.

Day Seven - - Bullnose

No, I am not upset and spouting foul names about the tile guy or something.
Bullnose is a new term in my vocabulary (extensive? not so much). It is when the edges of a tile are rounded off for a curved edge instead of the flat sharp edge tile comes with.
It makes a wonderful transition up against a wall.







Or in this case used as a transition from the carpet of the bedroom over the threshold into the bathroom.









Here you can see the bullnose being used as the edges of the tub surround.

Day Six - - Floors Down

Another day dawns bright and early. Stumble out of bed to move the Jeep so that Doug can park there and use the garage. Just a side note? It's FREEZING outside!


Doug arrives right at 7:30 A.M. and gets to work.





I get to spend the day delivering the dog to the vet to have his back end, umm, well emptied. Don't ask. Then I hauled my cookies all the way over to the Mall to shop for an AC adaptor for a new IPOD dock. All that work and it doesn't even work.














Had to be home before noon so that the roof guy, Justin, could come and do his inspection. To give you an idea at how shoddy our roofers originally built our home, here is one picture Justin took today. EGAD!

By 5:30 P.M. Doug finishes up with the rest of the wall and tub surround. And he got started on the slate flooring by putting down this gray crack suppressor. Yay! Hopefully these tiles won't crack and form a line across the room.

Here are the three built in shelves for the shower stall.

What do you think so far?

Day Five - - Walls Up

It was a tough three days to get through. I got so excited watching all of the changes develop last week. Waiting those three days with nothing happening was rough on the anticipation scale.

Well, was I in for a surprise today. Doug returned bright and early (7:30 A.M.). So on a day off I can't even sleep in. Little price for such a great job. He worked all day to get the shower stall walls up. Poor guy had to pick through the pebble sheets to find ones that didn't have big have stones on it.

He got that all up by around 2 and then started in on the RainForest Green marble tile. This is going to run up along the walls around the entire room. He was cutting and hanging that until 5:30. Amazing how much he can get done in such a short time. The one time I did a tile floor it was an agonizing three days for just a straightforward rectangular room.

I digress. Doug will be back tomorrow to do the rest of the rainforest. Then maybe start on the slate??

Master Bath - - Day Four

Cabinets have arrived. We saw this funky design in a showroom and really liked its creative twist on the doors and shelving. So we asked the fine folk at Home Depot if they could possibly create something similar? The answer..."Yes, of course. What kind of wood would you like?" I love Home Depot.


The doors are in a jigsaw cut design so that they are the old boring straight cut doors. There are two shelves inside that roll out on sliders. The top one is so cool because it has an insert cut out of it to make way for the piping underneath the sink. Clever use of space, I say.


I am so enamored with the oak hardwood finish of these that I would glady marry both of these vanities.


Want to see my loves? Since you asked, Okay:

We're also starting to see the pebble trims coming. There will be a two inch strip across the room of this pebble.

Remember the TileGuy, Doug? Well, he attempted to put up the first sheet of river rock for the shower walls. Too bad the tile mud couldn't hold up the weight. It slid right down the wall. Lovely. He has to come back with something stronger on Monday.

Master Bath - - Day Three

Huge difference coming home today! Insulation replace, walls were up, some sort of plastic sheeting to prevent leakage, and then black sealant. Ooh, big diff??

The shower floor is in!! Never mind the extra foot of space added on the front and back areas from the original. Can you see the polished river rock? Can you see the texture of each individual stone adding to the overall earthy effect? Can you imagine the sensation of soft smoothly rounded rocks gently massaging the undersoles? Yeah? Yeah. I know. I can't wait, either!

Also, more materials were delivered today. We have special ordered two vessel bowls for our vanities.

We chose this style because of its natural material exterior. The green granite inner material goes great with the rainforest marble.

This is one of the vessels.

and here's the second one. Sigh. I can hear your brain from here. I totally agree with you. It looks like a bedpan, right? Alas, we can only return the vessel if it is defective. Please find something defective with this one, or I am going to be washing my face in a urinal shaped sink. Any help is appreciated! Thanks.

Master Bath - - Day Two

There wasn't much going on when I arrived home today. A lot of discussion about placement for the decorative Rain Forest Tile. Where and how to place a strip of flat tile so that the glass shower doors could be installed. Also going through the Mongolian Spring slate tile and picking out color juxtapositions. Fun times.