California 2 Puerto Rico

Today was a very productive day. Jerry and I finished up cleaning up all of the extra rock from the blue stone planter boxes and stairs, we filled up a truck full of trash, carried in 200 12×24 1 inch thick marble tiles (they must weigh 15 pounds each) and helped Louis carry in the first two rough pieces of our kitchen.

Although I am excited about all of the progress we make at the house…you can’t see a lot of it as you work on it. It slowly evolves into something that is too slight on the daily level to notice. It’s only when I look back at the before pictures that I realize how much progress we have made. The kitchen, however, is not one of those slowly evolving things. Once we put in the back to two bottom pieces (two “L” shapes) the kitchen took form right in front of me.

I will have more pictures for you in a day or two…mark has my camera. Lo Siento.

Popularity: 9% [?]

I think this bookshelf/desk would look pretty cool in the guest bedroom. I wonder if it would be strong enough to use as a ladder up to the loft? Would that be weird or cool? Here is some info on this bookcase and desk combo from Crate and Barrel:

“The next generation in our popular leaning desk-shelf system - now in a sleek mahogany finish. Ladder-style design crafted of solid mahogany and engineered wood secures against the wall for maximum stability (hardware included). Sturdy open desk has two shelves and workspace for a laptop. Five-shelf bookcase works well alone or in multiples (two shown here with desk). Also available in white.”

Each bookcase is $129 and the desk set up is also $129. $387 as shown (2 shelves and 1 desk).

I think this shelf/desk combo and a couch with a pull out bed (plus the bed in the loft) would make for a pretty sweet guest room…

Popularity: 39% [?]

I am in Oklahoma City for business…and one thing I have noticed is that taxidermy is probably big business here. First, in our hotel I noticed these zebra skinned chairs. I think I am going to try to buy this from the hotel and ship it home. It would look great in Summers office.

Second: Check out the display of local kills that was on display at the local 24 hour dry cleaner.

Stuff that used to be dead in its original form (not leather or hamburgers) used as interior design is kinda creepy to me. Maybe I am just a city kid.

Popularity: 13% [?]

Gino and Kevin have been working on the mahogany window panes and here is the finished product in the guest bedroom:


They look really good! I was a little hesitant about using mahogany after seeing how expensive it is (we spent $1000 for a fairly small pile of wood), but I’m glad we did now. The mahogany looks awesome now that it’s stained and finished. All of the upstairs window panes in the house will have the mahogany finish. Que bueno!

Popularity: 15% [?]

Today Stefan ad I went to Rustic Tile in Mayaguez, to check out some tile for the wetroom/shower for our master bedroom. This is what we came up with:

We’re thinking, the light travertine for the floor (since it’s not as slick/slippery as the marble), dark brown marble for the walls and broken marble for the trim.  Bueno? Do you like it?

Popularity: 13% [?]

Stefan and I went to the Home Depot in Mayaguez and picked some paint for the interior of our house.

We went with a vintage-y, brightish green for the kitchen, a light blue for the guest bedroom and hallway, a very light green (it looks white at 1st glance) for the great room, a coffee brown for the master bedroom and a much lighter brown for the master bathroom.

Yo Pinto (I paint):

Stefan pinten, tambien (Stefan paints, also):

Popularity: 13% [?]

Today Stefan and I went to Sears and picked out our appliances for the kitchen. We went with the Kenmore Elite line in stainless steel and bought our refridgerator, stove, microwave/hood and dishwasher.

We really were trying to NOT go with stainless steel, but the only stove that Stefan wanted only came in stainless, sooooooo….Cie la vie.

I feel poor now :). Appliances are quite expensive, but Sears was having a 20% cash back deal, if you bought 3 appliances priced over $399. So we bought the stove, microwave/hood, refridgerator, dishwasher, washing machine, dryer and an airconditoner. We spent $7500, but we get $1500 cash back. So, $6000 for (fairly) top of the line appliances, isn’t too bad.

Popularity: 28% [?]

Today, Gino was going to finish up the tile work in the guest bath. Unfortunately, when the drywall was put in around the sink area, instead of moving one of the pipes…the guys just screwed the greenboard in over the pipe causing it to bubble out. If we had done regular tile instead of butt joints, Gino would have been able to lay the tile over the bow and it wouldn’t have been a big deal but since all of the tiles are “butted up tight” against one another…it would have made for a bad tile job..so Gino spent a couple of hours chipping away at the greenboard and evening out the area with grout and didn’t have time to finish. So…still no toilet for us to use and no pictures for you to see. Once it is done, I’ll post the pictures so you can see how rad the travertine looks.

We bought all of our appliances at Sears today (summer is going to post pictures later) and met with our cabinet maker to tie him down to a price and time frame. More to come….

Popularity: 36% [?]

We’ve just been advised that we should paint before we tile the bathrooms, so now Stefan and I are in another scramble to pick a color…QUICK (tile is supposed to start tomorrow)! I found this cool color visualizer from Sherwin Williams, that helps pick wall paint colors. It was VERY helpful!

The fixtures in the bathroom are Kohler “almond” color (I think, that’s what Stefan said) and the travertine is walnut colored (which I’ve paired with the colors below for comparison).

Here are 4 colors that I think would look good in the guest bathroom:

What do you think?! Help!

Popularity: 14% [?]

As I’ve said before, construction on the house is going quicker then I’ve expected. So quickly, in fact, that I realize that we need to figure out what we are going to do design wise, pronto. Since we’re already trying to pick out tile and flooring, I think we need to have a game plan when it comes to the general look we’re going for. Stefan and I picked up an amazing deign book called “Interior Design Details - 1000 New Ideas for the Home”. Here are two rooms that I really like:

“‘Neutra’ from Casa Dolce Casa is a decorators’ kit offering a collection of wall and floor tiles, both glass and porcelain, and mosaics with co-ordinated colors in matt and eggshell paints and grouting. Distressed walls in scumbled terracotta and ocher paint are anchored with big square charcoal “Carbone” floor tiles 600 x 600mm (23 1/8″ x 23 1/8″) grouted in anthracite.“

“A futon on a tiled platform has a dramatic backdrop of “Titanium” slabs, banded with “Copper” strips from Hyperion Tile’s “Metal” collection. Ceramic tiles look like Corten steel yet have all the durable qualities of ceramics. The adjoining bathroom walls are covered in small metallic porcelain tiles.“

Popularity: 9% [?]