One step forward, one step back

I am sad to report that we will not be getting a wall oven :( I had the kitchen place make a sketch for me (ok they didnt really make it for me - i am sure they had it on file...) and our kitchen is just not a wall oven type. At least for now. Yep that's right, i am already planning my 5 year 20 year reno plan. I want to delete the wall in the kitchen which is a load bearing wall, put in a new beam and open it up to the family room. I want to then extend the kitchen into the eating area and add a great big island. Ahh dreaming is so much fun!

In the end, its fine that the kitchen is not a wall oven type - i hear they make induction ranges, so i may still be able to get my new pots!

Our ensuite is coming along nicely, interms of colours. We have picked out this week's colour options - which i think are the ones that are going to stick!

This is my inspiration picture:














Here is what we went with:

Cupboards: Ebony in the flat pannel door (its about $400 to do the upgrade, but i love the rich colour of this stain)
Floor: is a marble looking tile
Shower: We are having a few options costed out for us. They all revolve around an 8x20 rectangle tile in "white". The first is to have 3 bands of an accent tile (its mini rectangles in mother of pearl, glass and marble). The second is to have 3 bands of an all glass mosaic tile in shades of grey. The third, my budget choice is to have the 8x20 rectangle done in a brick pattern. As usual, we will wait to see how the pricing goes...
Tub deck and wall: we chose a white tile with a bit of a shiney streak running through it and for the wall, it will be the 8x20 rectangle with hopefully a band of the accent tile running through it.

Here is a picture of our selections:

Top to Bottom:
1) L: Mother of Pearl, Glass and Marble
R: Bliss Glass Mosaic (Midnight)
2)L: 8 x20 white shower wall tile
R: Counter Top Rock of Ages
3) L: Tub Deck and Skirt
R: Cupboard Birch in Ebony
4) Floor Tile

Master Bath Part II

I think I have kept anyone who is interested in suspense long enough. We got the pricing back for the master bathroom! Here is a break down….

1)Making the tub smaller and moving it to its new location $200
2)Shower with the Kalia base, custom glass on two walls and ceramic on 2 walls, moved to new location $4900
3)The Camil Tomlin Flow shower, moved to new location $2800
4)Standard shower with Klera doors, moved to new location $400
5)Double Vanity with bank of drawers $1200

We decided on….drum roll please….options 1, 2 and 5!!! YES I am getting the custom shower!!! I think the new bathroom is going to rock!! There is no way we could have redone the bathroom for $6300 after the fact so thank you builder for pricing it right!!

We are still working out the colour choices. I am not sure what route we want to go. I found a really nice white tile with a fine grey strip running through it – I was thinking that on the floor with a white tile on the tub surround, a brown/black or black coloured vanity with a white counter and then a dark charcoal colour on the walls of the shower. It sounds like a mish-mash though…

I think I should just go with this....



…hubby might object though!

I’ll keep you posted on the colour choices. If anyone has any advice, or pictures they want to share, let me know, i would love to see them for inspiration!!

The Master Bath

I am not a fan of the master bath as it designed in our new house.



My 2 main reasons:
1) too much of the floor space is taken up by a massive corner tub. Neither me nor my husband are bath people. The massive tub we have right now has only been used once, by my son when I got the bright idea he should have a bath in there. It took about 20 mins for it to fill his usual amount of water (about 3”) and of course it was cold by the time he got in it. As well, the side of the tub is too high for me to reach over. It was not a pleasant experience for either of us.
2) We cant get a double vanity in there without upgrading the shower. We had sort of already planned on upgrading the shower but I don’t want the vanity to butt up against the expensive glass wall, it kind of defeats the purpose.

I have talked to a few people on the tub situation, because I feel like if I could solve that, it would make things easier. One main question was raised like: do you really need a tub? My rebuttle: Is it going to affect resale? Which got me thinking, do you really need a tub in an ensuite if you have a tub in another bathroom? Some said yes, some said no. We kicked around the idea of having one massive luxury shower with a couple of shower heads, and body sprays. We also thought about having a stand alone tub. Unfortunately I think a stand alone tub needs to be seen – it’s a thing of beauty after all. In the end there was no place in the bathroom we could logically put it for it to be seen.

In the end I went to our builder’s supplier and talked to one of the associates there. She was helpful in coming up with a plan maximize the space in the bathroom. I was also able to pick out a couple of options for the shower.

1) a Kalia base (which is a solid surface base that looks way nicer than its acrylic counter part) 2 custom glass walls and 2 tiled walls
2) the Camel/Tomlin Flow shower


The re-design is more of a reconfigure. We went with a smaller tub and switched the shower and vanity. Check it out:



We will now wait until we get pricing to make our decision. Although I am sure that we have already exceeded our budget for this room just in these changes alone. For fun, here is my order of preference*:

1) Bathroom reconfiguration with all standard options.
2) Double vanity
3) Awesome shower
4) Upgrade the tile
5) Upgrade the vanity colour

*Note: these are today’s preferences….LOL

Keep your fingers crossed for us!