Another day, another perspective.

In daylight, the new color looks better than it did last night. It's still a bit darker than I had been aiming for (see the slightly lighter shade in lower right, starting just above the tub deck) but it's not nearly as bad a match as I thought it was last night.

So I'm off to finish repainting the bathroom walls. If I decide I'd rather have it a little lighter, that's a relatively easy tweak and can be done when the painters do the final coat after all the work is completed.

It's a subtle difference so I'm probably overthinking this (ya think? lol). One things for sure, the new color is heads and tails better than the color I started with.

Lisa,

I'm sitting here obsessing over my master bathroom remodel (contractor removed everything this week). I went to United tile yesterday and got a sample of the Darwin Floreana tile, and Crossville Moonstruck Juno (polished). You can imagine my surprise when I searched on-line about these tiles and came across your posts and that you have selected these same two for your bathroom! I love the accent tile you have chosen as well. I am considering the crossville Yin+Yang Lotus Blossom in the Hexagon pattern (DH loves it) but I'm not sure. I do love the thought of having blue as an accent color. A favorite color.

We are doing a walk-in shower (no door) floor to ceiling tile, a double vanity with alder cabinets in medium tone with mirrors above sinks. These will be Robern medicine cabinets, and the cabinet installer has designed a matching frame design to go around the medicine cabinets so they will look more built-in.

Right now I'm getting a bit crazed by this whole thing. I'm wondering your thoughts

a. I don't know what to put on the counter. The floor and wall tile are light and everyone at the stores seem to think a darker counter gives contrast. I noticed you chose a light counter. Is that working well? I haven't found a darker counter I like with the tiles. Also I think light counters with medium wood looks nice.

b. Have you installed the juno tiles. What size did you do? We were thinking about putting this tile on the entire walls of the shower and above the Vanity, but I also like the idea of having paint color especially if it coordinates with the accent tile. I'm not sure if the juno tile would be good for so much wall space or not. I noticed from the pictures of the juno it has like a darker stripe(gray or black)? in some of the tiles. I wondered how that looks with the floor tile.

When I look at you pictures of your home I feel my style is very similar to yours.

Thanks for sharing your pictures! It looks wonderful. I love your drape material too.

Hope I can get my decisions put together soon!

I like the darker paint! I'm not sure the paler version has enough oomph to stand up to the accent tile you picked. It would be very easy for the paler version to just look white or pale grey in comparison to the strong blue in the accent tile, and then the blue accent wouldn't have the blue-green wall color to relate to.

Caren, that's kinda amazing that you picked the same tiles. I picked the Floreana Darwin tile a couple of years ago (or more) and knew that I wanted to use it but I was stuck on what tile to mix with it. My KD suggested using Crossville Juno. They compliment each other well thanks to Juno's subtle veining.

We're using 12 x 24 tiles, running horizontally in the shower in a brick or off-set pattern. Our accent tile will be a vertical band down one of the walls. Only the floor is installed (not grouted yet).

Our counter will be PentalQuartz Marfil (creamy marble mimic). Can't tell you how it's working since it's not in yet. Cabs go in tomorrow, templating is Wed, install is the following Wed.

Our cabs are a medium stained quartersawn oak cabs, same wood/stain that we used in our kitchen (completed last year, see 50 Shades of Gray, TKO version)

I just finished painting the walls in Rodda's Silver Glass, cut 25% with a wee bit more blue added.

Drapes are from PB. They are a great price for ready made.

Here are my elevations drawings done in Paint. Are you familiar with Paint? It's a great tool I use to help me visualize how something will look.

Lisa, what is the floor tile. Sorry if you already said. Is it same as shower?

Love the paint color!

Debbie, the floor tile is Century Darwin, Floreana. It's hard to see in the pics but there are blue gray and gray-green veins, subtle but there.

We're only using that tile on the bathroom floor. We thought about using it on the shower walls but our KD (and GWers) convinced us that it would be too busy.

The shower walls will be Crossville Moonstruck, Juno unpolished

The accent tile we chose is Lunada Bay Tozen in Iodine, silk finish.

The floor and shower wall tiles are reasonably priced (can't recall for sure but I think the floor tile is $14/sq ft.), however the accent tile is crazy expensive. It was a rather last minute change and idiot me didn't think to ask the price ahead of time. It was a "gasp" moment when our GC gave us the quote. Not sure what we could have done other than ditch the accent tile since I had already searched high and low and that was the best color match I could find. We found savings elsewhere to offset the cost.

Thanks, rebunky! I love that it's variable, depending on the light, but in any light, the color is great. That wasn't the case with our first paint color.

Cabs are getting delivered as I type this. They will get installed later today.

Master bath vanity cab is installed!

You should have seen them getting it into the room! I'm glad it was them and not me moving that cab.

The cab is not as orange as it looks to me in the pic. It's the same stain color we used in the kitchen.

More close ups of the cab please. That QS is gorgeous!

I will just as soon as I can do so without being underfoot. I have 3 crews here today. It's crazy and noisy!

Oops, make that 2 crews. The tile guys are done for the day. Have to let the waterproofing treatment on the shower walls dry.

ETA: And thank you! It's our favorite wood.

I am going to follow this thread because my master bath is next on my list of home improvements. You did such a wonderful job on your kitchen, and I am excited to see how your bathroom turns out.

I also have one of those giant tubs that we never use. It takes up half of our bathroom. It was here when we bought the house. I thought I would use it all of the time, but I realized I really taking baths :)

Lily Spider, what a wonderful compliment, thank you! I needed to hear. I've been doing quite a bit of second guessing the last few days, fretting that I've surely screwed something up. I envy people who can make decisions without hesitation and never look back once a decision has been made!

We've had to completely empty the upstairs. Our builder cheaped out 22 years ago and didn't install underlayment upstairs (he did downstairs, don't ask me why he didn't upstairs). So we're adding it. Otherwise we have some weird elevation changes between bathroom and carpet. Oh, yeah, I've cussed him a time or two. Or a thousand times. That's likely more accurate. Anyhoo, now's the time to do it before we replace the 22 yr old carpet.

We rented storage units (yes, units) but we've also filled up the living room, dining room and family room. Quite a change from how they looked after we finished our remodel last year.

Here's our crammed full family room.

And how it looked last year.

hahahahahahaha, the joys and stresses of remodeling. Now I know why people prefer to move into turn-key homes.

We've moved to a nearby hotel but I'm here every day and we come back after work so DH can see what they've done. All we're really doing at the hotel is sleeping the sleep of the exhausted.

I remember getting to the frayed nerve point when we remodeled the kitchen. I survived it then, I'll survive it again. =)

It's going to look great when done. It's beautiful already with your wood cabs, floor, tiles and bath choices. Love the paint colour. Somehow the darker colour is richer looking.

You could take a poster sized picture of your tub and hang where the tub sat. ;) Just a thought.

I bet the trades people sleep like babies. It's not fair that we don't. :(

lol, yeonassky, I love the idea of a framed print of my tub on the landing! DH, though, will think me nuts. Oh, what the heck, he already does.

I bet the trades people sleep like babies. It's not fair that we don't. :(

So true! I woke up last night about 3am and couldn't get back to sleep for more than an hour. I hate that, especially when I can't sleep in to make up for it. I had to be up at 6:30 to be here in time to meet one of the subs to let him him and turn off the alarm. I also had to finish clearing out the last upstairs closet.

I just realized I forgot to eat lunch. Oops.

Caren, here's an in-progress pic of the Crossville Juno going in on the shower wall for you.

That's tile artist Luis at work. I *love* it! It's going to be such a serene place to shower.

Heads up: the plan had been to do a running bond with the tiles offset by 1/2 tile widths but that pattern has a big ol' X through it on the tile carton. They recommend doing the running bond with the tiles offset by 1/4 of a tile's width. Our GC and Luis said they've run into an issue in the past when they've laid long tiles with a 1/2 tile running bond (something about a bow in the tile? can't remember). It's not a big deal to us, we like the way it looks but I thought I'd let you know so that if your tile design is hinged on the 1/2 tile running bond, you'll be able to change it before they lay the tiles.

PS. the reason the tiles end evenly on the left side is that that where's the ribbon of glass mosaic will go.

Your choices look like they will be beautiful together. Can't wait to see the finished product, but loving the updates in the meantime! Thanks for taking us along on your journey.

You're welcome, loonar! And thank you!

I've always found it very helpful to learn about the process and about the things that crop up during a remodel so this is my way to pay back what I've learned from others.

It's really coming along! It all looks so nice too! Are you feeling better about your choices now that they're being installed? I read where you were doubting yourself, but isn't it the ID's job to make sure everything works together?

I think the reason to offset the large tile is to avoid lippage.

Does your cabinet maker have a website you could share?

Thanks, Mayflowers!

I am. My KD and ID have done a great job guiding me through the decision process but the self-doubt has nothing to do with them and their expertise. It's just a part of my wiring. Lucky me.

Whenever I express doubts, DH reminds me that he has absolute faith in my decisions because I always make good ones. Bless him, foolish man. =)

I think the issue is lippage now that you say it.

Here's the cab maker's website, Cutting Edge Custom Cabinets

They also have a houzz profile, Cutting Edge on Houzz

They have great installers, not sure I mentioned that before. Three brothers do the work and they take great care, are polite and professional, too.

Time for another update.

Here is a sneak peak of my laundry room cabs.

Sink side

The tall cab has a 6" wide section the full height of the cab for broom, mop, Dust Buster storage (outlet near cab floor will allow us to keep it plugged in), etc on the right side and lots of shelves on the left side. We're going to have loads and loads of storage!

W/D and freezer side

We made the upper cabs on this side 30" deep, same depth as the freezer and W/D (MOL). Finally, we'll have a place to store the laundry baskets, sweater drying racks and other large, bulky items.

The open section below the left cab is removable so that when (hopefully a long time from now) our W/D dies, we have room to install taller front load machines.

I will say that the deeper cabs do make the space feel smaller but we've already gotten used to them and we'll be very glad of the storage they provide.

The floor tile - a luxury vinyl tile - is coming today (was backordered) and will get laid next week. The original plan was that my W/D and freezer would be installed on Monday but that's not going to happen. Dang it. We've piles of dirty laundry so I guess I'll take the time to sit in the hotel laundry room to do some of it.

Mayflowers, I've been torturing myself about my choices again. Ugh, I hate it when I do this to myself.

We went to the fabricator's on Wednesday to review and approve the lay-out for the laundry room and master bath. The laundry room counter is a remnant of the honed Steel Gray from our kitchen. The master bath counter is PentalQuartz Marfil. I had been fretting about the pattern - would it be too busy? - but as soon as I saw it, that worry went away. It's a very subtle pattern.

But.

The color is off from the sample I've been carrying around for ages. Yes, I know Quartz can vary from batch to batch and it's my own fault for not going out to Pental to look at the slabs but all that would have done was give me warning that the current lot isn't an exact match. It's warmer and creamier, which isn't a bad thing but since the slightly taupe-y beige was the color I was working with for other choices, it was an unpleasant surprise. And of course, I exaggerated the difference in my mind, which gave me a sleepless night.

So yesterday I went back to Crowley's, armed with tiles and Kohler shower pan chip to look at them with our slabs (one for counter, one for tub deck, that was a splurge). Yes, the slabs are creamier, but I think it all still works. I also stopped at CFM and compared my sample against their sample, which is also a bit creamer than my sample. And that's the sample I used when choosing tiles with my KD. And our floor tiles came in a bit warmer than my sample tile. Sooooo.... I've mostly talked myself off the ledge. Mostly.

DH isn't worried one bit. He likes the slabs. I wish I had his peace of mind.

On other fronts, they're almost done installing the new underlayment, correcting uneven floors and squeaky floors as they go. The amazing finish carpenter has finished wrapping the beam and the posts for the "window" on the landing. It looks so good!

Painters are prepping the trim for painting. We're nearing the finish line. Carpet install goes in 2 weeks from today. Yay!

So much happening! We're a week away from moving back in - yay! We're looking forward to being back home again.

Here are my sneak peeks for today.

Laundry room as of yesterday, mid-day. The vinyl tile was going down, counters were in and backsplash installed as well.

Master bath, just as they were finishing counter install.

They installed the backsplash for the master bath vanity yesterday and grouted it and the laundry room backsplash today. They finish up the tile work tomorrow, more painting tomorrow and then into next week with finish electrical and plumbing Mon-Wed. The housekeepers come on Thurs, carpet goes in on Friday.

We can see the finish line!!

For the first time in 4 1/2 yrs, our home will be complete: no missing molding, no missing carpet, no holes in drywall. That's going to be wonderful (and also seem rather weird, lol).

So happy for you!

Well, do you love it all??

Looks good! How exciting for you. Getting to move back home and having all of your projects complete!

We need at least a sneak peak of the bathroom backsplash with the Lunada bay!

Rebunky, I was going to say that your wish is my command but then I discovered that in the craziness of the last couple of days, I did not snap any pics of the backsplash! But I do have a pre-grout pic of the shower showing the Lunada Bay tile. LOVE it!

The counter and tub deck looks really good with the floors and my fears about it being too peachy or off with the shower pan and shower walls were unfounded (thank goodness!)

My laundry room is gorgeous, too. It's almost too fancy to be a laundry room, lol. I love all the storage we'll have.The remodel is progressing very well, thank goodness, because other stuff is going on.

A friend recently filed for divorce and her soon-to-be-ex is going off the deep end. It was so bad during their mediation appt on Thurs that the mediator asked if she feared for her safety and suggested that she not be alone with him. (He hasn't been violent, only emotionally and verbally abusive but we're all watching for signs of escalation.) DH and I got her and her 3 kids (5 and under) a room at the same hotel as us for Thurs night and I slept over at her house last night. She has other family/friends coming every day until their court appt on Friday at which time we all hope that he'll be court ordered to move out. It would also be great if the court ordered him to do therapy because the man seriously needs meds and therapy - it's painful and sad to see how much he's changed from the man he was - but that's a long shot.

So if I'm not on GW much in the coming days, you all will know why. It breaks my heart to see such heartache but she's a really strong person and a fantastic mom so I know she and the kids will come through it okay. It's just going to suck in the meantime. Would appreciate it if you all would send up prayers and good thoughts and karmic goodwill on her behalf. Thanks!

Rebunky, IIRC, you're also planning to use glass tiles for your bathroom. Make sure you use a skilled tile person. The glass tile isn't easy to cut. Our tile guy did a really good job but installing tile to the window trim above the tub deck was tricky.

The tub deck wasn't quite level (apparently it's not as critical to get a tub deck dead on level as it is for a kitchen counter) so there was a 3/16" difference in the height of the wall below the window trim from one end of the 5' wide window to the other. Not a big deal when working with larger tiles but tricky with 1" glass tiles when you're trying to shave a fraction of an inch off.

Our GC, tile guy, DH and I put our heads together and opted to use the remaining 1/2" x 4" tiles (also Lunada Bay, also Tozen, color Mist) from the laundry room backsplash to fill in the small space between top row of 1" tiles and window trim. We were able to find enough tiles that blended well enough with our bathroom tile even though we used different colors in these rooms. Luis sanded the long edge of the tiles to get them to fit under the trim at the end where the tub deck was slightly higher. DH and I checked it out last night and were happy to see that our solution looks good.

We would have preferred to use 1/2" x 1" tiles in the same color but that pattern is a special order so it would have meant delaying the project for several weeks and we decided it wasn't worth the delay.

We also weren't able to do the wrap around tile pattern as I had planned because there wasn't enough room for a full row of tile to get the tub deck backsplash to meet the counter backsplash. No biggie. That's remodeling. You plan as well as you can and then plan on adjusting when real life happens. =)

Lisa_a - I have a friend married to the same guy. Such a terrible situation for everyone. I will send up prayers and good thoughts because I know how you feel.

On a more positive note, I am loving that tile!

Even though I haven't commented yet, I've been following along. It's going to be wonderful. I know that the same skills you brought to your amazing new kitchen is going to give you just the laundry room and master bath you envisioned. Great job, Lisa.

Sending good vibes to your friend.

Sorry about your friend and sending prayers for her family and you. What a good friend you are!

I am squeeling with delight over that tile! I can't wait to see it all finished. Yes, it's so true that we always seem to hit snags in the plan, but sounds like you solved it. Oh yes, I am for sure having our really good tile guy do our bathroom with that Lunada bay tile. Thanks for the heads up on it being difficult to cut.

Your laundry room sounds stunning. My husband is always telling people to make their laundry rooms a beautiful, bright, and enjoyable space since we spend a lot of time in there.

I will envy you having every last nook and cranny done in the entire house. Yes, that will feel soooo good!

Thank you, everyone!

I'm sorry to hear your friend is in a similar situation, Lily Spider. Thank you for the good thoughts for her.

Hi, funky! Thank you for your vote of confidence. I'm feeling calmer about everything. I knew I would - learned that while doing our kitchen remodel - so the angst isn't as bad this time but it's still hard to deal with while I'm in the thick of it.

Thanks for the good vibes for my friend. Every bit helps.

Thanks, rebunky. It's easy to be a good friend to her. She's a wonderful person and we adore her kids. They're our surrogate grandkids since I very much doubt my boys will give us any, other than a step-grandson who will be a teenager by the time DS2 and his girlfriend marry. Don't get me wrong, I'll love my step-grandson but grandparenting a teenager is a whole different ballgame. I won't be able to fool him that the carved quartz egg in my garden is a dinosaur egg. =)

I'm going to love my new laundry room but I still wish it had a window. No way to get one, short of rearranging the downstairs and that's just never going to happen, lol.

Yes! (mostly). I love it! I can't believe it's my house! DH and I have both joked that we're going to need to up our game because our home has got class.

They finished the carpet install today - yay! We started moving furniture back upstairs last night - yay, yay! DS2 sleeps there tonight and DH and I tomorrow night (decided to wait for the stairs to be carpeted before dragging our king size mattress upstairs. Didn't want it getting caught and ripping on the carpet tack strips). Yay, yay, yay!

The cleaning people come through on Thursday (the dust has layers of dust on top of it) but we decided not to wait until the cleaning was done to move back in. We're so tired of hotel life.

There are a few things left to do, mostly cab things (big surprise, lol) but our check list for our GC is fairly minimal.

I'll take pics once the unpacking is done but fair warning, it will take me some time to get it all done. DH thought his big crunch projects were over but yesterday he found out that instead of having 6 weeks to meet a deadline, he has 3. Poor guy. So I'll be doing as much of the moving in as possible because he doesn't need any more demands on his time than necessary.

PS I'd post a teaser pic but my danged phone isn't talking to Dropbox and I can't figure out how to get my pics downloaded to my computer. Curses, foiled by my Smart Phone. Again.

Hi Lisa,

I was wondering how you are doing. I am sure I'm not the only one. Any sneak peak photos yet? I sure hope everything is ok. I haven't seen you posting for awhile, but I know you are busy dealing with stuff. Just give us a quick update whenever you can. :-)

Rebunky, i was also wondering how things were going :)

I'm glad rebunky bumped this because I never saw your reply. I wonder if it didn't show as no one replied, and I check the forum a few times a day. Can't wait to see photos!

Life took an unexpected turn....

I'm in Wisconsin at the bedside of my favorite aunt who is dying. It was very unexpected and my heart is breaking for my aunt, my cousin, her children and myself.

I plan to stay as long as my cousin needs my help and support so reveal pics will have to wait until later.

In the meantime, here's a pic of my cousin and her dog playing catch in the snow yesterday morning.

Thanks, everyone, for checking up on me.

I am so sorry to read this news. My thoughts and prayers are with you and your family.

Oh Lisa, I'm so very sorry to hear about your auntie. You and your family will be in my prayers. :-(

I've been following along. Your family & friends are in my prayers also.

Sorry to hear about your aunt, Lisa. I'm sure your family is grateful that you're there helping them get through this hard time. See you soon, we hope.

Thank you, everyone.

My aunt died yesterday evening. I'm so very sad that my cousin is now an orphan like me (doesn't matter how old one is, when your parents are gone, you're an orphan). I am glad that I came to WI to be with her. She's an only child and closer to being the sister I never had than a cousin (I begged my parents to trade my younger brother for a sister but they didn't oblige). I'm going to miss my aunt so very much.

I'm so sorry for you and your sisters' (cousins no matter) loss. I'm so glad you could be there. Your aunt was obviously an amazing person. Not physically possible, but in my heart I am hugging and crying with you right now.

My condolences to you and to your cousin on your loss. I lost my crotchety old Aunt who I loved dearly in October and it was tough.

So very sorry for your( and your family's) loss. :(

Also sorry to hear about your friend and her soon to be ex. That's a very tough situation. :(

Hugs to you Lisa and to your cousin. I hope you find comfort in your memories of all the time you shared with your Aunt. It's never ever easy to say goodbye. :(((

For mgnohio in response to his/her houzz message request to see the tile we used in our bathroom.

These are in progress pics taken last March.

I still intend to get finished photos of my bathroom and laundry room posted but life has thrown us several curve balls lately and 2017 isn't starting out any better.

My DH is recovering from multiple pulmonary embolisms so this month has been full of hospital stays, ER visits and doctor visits. He's recovering but it scared the crap out of both of us. The lesson here is that if you experience a sharp calf pain that lasts more than a few days and you don't know the cause of the pain, even if it doesn't present with the classic DVT symptoms (his didn't nor did he have any risk factors for developing DVT), insist on an ultrasound of the calf. If we had done that, we could have taken immediate steps to prevent this serious medical issue from becoming something far worse. We are so thankful that it didn't take his life.

Lisa, my thoughts are with you. My DH had the same thing a couple years ago and we went through the same sort of thing. Scared the crap out of us as well. Shortly after the embolisms he was hit with plural effusions. The doctors don't know why my DH is still with me..... I say it's because he's too ornery not to be. :) Does your DH cycle? I understand that the embolisms is more common in cyclists, or heredity also plays a role. For my DH, it could be either or a combo of both.

Sorry to hear about your DH's health issues. Hope he is much better now.

Sorry to hear this! Hope he's on the road to recovery and that the rest of the year bodes well for you.

Wow! It loks great ( what we can see of it).

Thank you for the advice. It's always hard to figure out when to go to a doctor.