This week things started getting a bit sticky. Literally! It’s been very hot here in TN, and throw in the 70% humidity and you feel like you need to grow some gills to breathe. But as our remodel progresses so do the decisions that need to be made. Before I left on vacation the electrician accidentally poked a hole into the drywall going into the powder room. So now the powder room drywall, and wallpaper have to be stripped and repaired. This weeks hiccup number 1 to fix.
Along with that little mishap, we had a few other major decisions and re-decisions that needed to be made
1) The doors we picked out in week three:
Bathroom doors
I personally have opted for stained doors. The room will be predominately white, and sparkly so stained doors will ground the space. But the first reaction to this idea “absolutely not, we want them painted!” Which was perfectly OK. I can ground with other items….however, as we approach and pass week six, Mr. and Mrs. S cannot decide if they do in fact like the idea of painted doors, and they are now thinking that staining them is a good idea. The problem with this indecision is that it takes three to four weeks to mill a door. An additional week when they are customized with frosted glass. So remember this when you are about to remodel: Always have as many selections and decisions made UP FRONT, before the project starts, so construction is not delayed, and costs don’t escalate for days lost.
2) Also in week six, all tile products and tile designs were finalized. We started out with this:
Original idea and layout for tile
This is an example of my chicken scratch (shown above) that I typically do in the beginning stages of the project. This is to help give a direction for tile layout and selection, but also helps give the client an idea of overall design direction. I used to do very elaborate designs in the very beginning but found it to be counter productive. A design will typically morph into something bigger or change due to budget or availability of the product, so elaborate designs are saved until ALL decisions are made.
Tile I chose for the bathroom:
Marble
Tile, hiccup number 2: Tile was all in stock when Ritchie checked quantities three weeks ago…….when Ritchie placed his tile order on Friday the 12″ tile was backordered until August. To prevent further delays and force the entire project to stop, Ritchie wanted me to determine the solution. Did I mention that being an interior designer is all about being fast on your feet and solution oriented?? Well the company makes 12″ x 24″ tiles and those happened to be in stock. The problem? Well each and every piece has a beveled edge:
Beveled edge
So if we cut the tile in half…one edge is straight while the other three sides are beveled. In order for us to move forward the edge will have to be cut and beveled, each.and.every.piece! Yup, so this is going to slow us down and add to the labor cost. But if we were to wait until August to buy the material when it is available we would make up that cost in construction delays. It is what it is.
SO, you are all wondering, why didn’t we order the material three weeks ago? Too many things were undecided. Mrs S was still determining her vanity cabinet style, the marble slabs were not selected, the bathroom floor blue print was still not completed and the shower layout has changed three times. I have been on jobs that have done it both ways, (ordered ahead of time and at the time it is needed) and neither one is perfect. If you order the product up front you may: 1) end up with too much, 2) the design concept gets tweaked and requires something different, 3) not have enough by the time you start installing at which point the dye lot could change and the material looks distinctly different, 4) And the biggest of all issues, storage, where do you put all the product? But as with anything, when you wait to avoid the above issues, you get hit with a whole other set of issues….nothings perfect!
At any rate, the design has been tweaked to accommodate the available material and tile will start going down next week.
3) Drywall sanding and finishing
Drywall
Along with the items listed above, the drywall was taped, sanded and smoothed out for paint. If you’ll notice, the drywall has a funny gold color now. Ritchie always paints his drywall a dark color to ensure absolutely NO imperfections are visible. He is a perfectionist when it comes to walls, and he insists that his drywall guys SEE everything. So far no hiccups with the drywall…but it’s still the beginning of the week! 
There you have it, week six in a nutshell. If you have been tuning in each week you’ll notice that we are heading into our second month swiftly and we are still doing major construction. This is important to know for all you first time remodelers. At this stage of the project homeowners are starting to get jaded, they question their decisions, and start getting frustrated because they still aren’t seeing results. Remodels are expensive, dirty and you have strange people coming and going out of your house. Six weeks is a long time, and although we are approaching the home stretch, we are not out of the woods yet! Trust your decisions, grab your second wind with gusto, and hang in there!
If you missed week one, click here.
If you missed week two, Click here
If you missed week three, click here
If you missed week four and five, click here
Have questions? See something that you want more clarification on? Send me your comments and let us know your thoughts. We will post questions and answers here on the blog.
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About Amanda Gates
I’m sure the heat and humidity doesn’t help when there is already these type of situations going on, Amanda! I love the tile you chose ~ that border tile pattern is just lovely.
Should not the electrician have paid for his boo boo?
I know I learned with the building of this yurt that NOTHING and I mean NOTHING went as planned. Even when the kitchen guy had the PLANS he didn’t put the cabinets in where they were supposed to be and so the kitchen is bigger than it planned and the living/dining area smaller.