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A couple weeks ago we tiled the master bath with some Vermont black slate that we ordered through Dal-Tile.
First we dry-fit and laid a mortar bed for the cement backerboard. 
And then screwed it down with cement screws -
Then we used a wet saw to cut and dry-fit the tile using tile spacers -
Then mixed some more mortar and laid the tile...
(This is Anthony putting mesh tape over the joints in the backerboard.)
Next up was grouting the joints, after the tile had set up for a couple of days...
And sponging off the excess grout -
I'll post a final picture later - we still need to add another application of grout to the joints, since the slate isn't as smooth and flat as other tile.And then a hand-me-down light fixture turned into a bigger project...
Some friends gave us a pretty capiz shell chandelier, which we thought would be perfect for our living room, which has had an empty junction box since we moved in. But before we could hang the fixture, we had to paint the ceiling in the living room, so we moved all the furniture out of the room and into the dining room...
But then, since we had all the furniture out of the room, we decided we might as well finish the rest of the room, so we finished caulking all the baseboards and then painted all the windows, trim and fireplace...
So now we've decided to take one room at a time, and finish everything in the room. It's less daunting to have smaller milestones...
hello again!
the in-laws are coming down for thanksgiving, so we have a new deadline fast approaching, and little by little we're making big progress on trim work!
we made a door for the storage area under the stairs..
before:
during:
after (with primer coat, before finish paint):
so, opinions: should the panel areas be painted the gray of our walls, with the trim/baseboards to be white, or should this entire area be painted white as it is now with the primer coat?
we've also been working on baseboards and trimming out the windows!
all of the single windows are now trimmed out and in various stages of needing to be puttied/sanded/primed/caulked and painted. that's 17 windows + the small kitchen double window down, and just the 3 double windows + 1 triple window to go. sanding casings (my least favorite part):
we also filled in the gaps in the corners of the upper kitchen cabinets, and just need to match the paint of our cabinet faces to finish these out:before:
after:
and last month we scored this old salvaged door from the Historic Charleston Foundation warehouse sale for $10:
it's actually made with real beadboard, and we're going to have to add a couple boards to make it as wide as we need, so then we'll probably paint and distress it to hang on some barn door hardware at our pantry, inspired by this (from cottage living):
and we're currently contemplating ordering the doors for our bedrooms. the problem is, it'll cost us a little over $800 to get the 3 doors within the next couple days - to get them installed before Thanksgiving, or we can save a little and spend about $550 to get them in 6-8 weeks (not in time for the in-laws visit) - so therefore no point in ordering them now. anthony doesn't want to spend the extra $250 - that's the cost of another door!
see, we're very deadline-oriented people. which reminds me, i should just schedule my first ARE exam so i'll actually start studying. breaking work-related news coming soon, hopefully...
we have gotten quotes (within $750 of each other) from two different painters for the exterior of our house, which we're hoping to get started on at the end of this month. they will strip/scrape/sand as necessary (not down to bare wood), prime, caulk and paint - one coat of primer and two coats of finish. the quotes were good and both painters come highly recommended, and we're excited to get the house painted - and not worry every time it rains about our siding & trim & new windows.
our problem is deciding what color to paint the house! right now it looks like we're going for the camouflage look...
from upper left, the colors are by sherwin williams: connected gray, svelte sage, avocado (off historic preservation palette), ancient marble, and some brown color i forgot the name of (also off the historic preservation palette). the two trim colors are alabaster and classic white (the creamier color on the right). the window is painted urbane bronze on the left and the bottom right corner is also alabaster.
originally we were thinking a two tone (top half of house painted a different color from bottom half, since we have the trim band that divides the house) - connected gray on top and svelte sage on the bottom with cream trim and bronze windows. we put those samples up and it turns out to look almost exactly like our neighbor's house. so we negated those colors. so we're testing some more colors, but not sure about these either...
avocado w/ classic white (cream) trim & urbane bronze windows:
ancient marble w/ alabaster trim & windows:
(need a 2nd coat of alabaster to make it look whiter like photo above)
we tried out the ancient marble because we thought about repainting the house white, but the four houses across the street are white, and our neighbor's neighbor's house is white also, so we didn't want to go white. ancient marble is a couple shades off of white, but the white (alabaster) trim still pops against it.
the avocado comes off sherwin williams historic preservation palette, and the chip looks olive, especially against other greens, but it looks really green on the house! it's a very cool/funky color, which i like, but i worry that it might be a bit much on the entire house.
so, we're confounded. what color to paint the house? do we do a two-tone? try more samples? any thoughts/opinions/inspiration pics would be greatly appreciated!
