Articles by Jenia

Building Blocks for Adults – Ikea Kitchen

We have been plugging away at putting together our 18 building blocks of fun, i.e. our Ikea kitchen cabinets. (More on why we chose Ikea here). And by we I mean Sergey and friends. And by fun I mean until it starts being a total pain and is fun no longer (a fair share of time). Here’s Kirill -he’s actually been an all around super helper:

And Chris and Tricia dropped by Sunday:

And our dear friend Peter, just off the plane from London where he spent the last two years.… Read the rest

Construction Days 33 – 34

Good news! the right bathroom wall is all fixed up and looking straight:

more good news: our crew owned up to the mistake and we didn’t have any problems when we asked them to redo the wall. that made me feel a whole lot better on Tuesday.

The bathroom is slowly but surely coming together. I can’t wait to see the subway tile with all the grout lines.

My excited face, no really:

Actually, this was just for the scale sake – I am just under 5’6″.… Read the rest

A week of DIY renovation

So as I mentioned before our contractors had told us previously that they planned on taking a vacation week, which would be this week. No, they did not inform us at the outset. But they were quite clever in presenting it: “so we will be taking a vacation third week of july, and we thought that you guys could use that time to assemble the kitchen cabinets.”

yep, they are totally on to us – even though we are only doing less than 10% of the actual work, we are struggling to keep up.… Read the rest

Adventures in Tub Land

Thank you for all the feedback on our tile options. According to my informal email and blog polls most respondents fall either vehemently against tile to the ceiling, or totally and absolutely for it. Hmmmmm. See previous post for the update on tally and our decision.

Now that tile choices have been thoroughly discussed, I might as well cover how the tub itself has sent us on a wild goose chase for parts and fittings.… Read the rest

Subway tile inspiration and choice

Ok, so so far the feedback on the blog/conversations is that we should just go with wainscoting with subway tile and then paint up top. But  I thought I would also do a round up of inspiration pictures to help visualize the two options:

Subway all the way to the ceiling:

Sources: Bryn Alexandra; Young House Love; Horrigan O’Malley Architects; CoCoCozy

And here are some inspiration shots with wainscoting:

Sources: Signature Hardware; Lauren Bradshaw via Design Sponge; Sarah Richardson; Brooklyn Limestone

Well is this helpful?… Read the rest

Construstion Days 29-31: Clawfoot is in!

Clawfoot tub has arriveth in its final resting spot. With tub feet on and all.

It was a glorious site to behold when we got home on Friday night. Because this week our contractors are on vacation. I don’t think I could have gone on for another week without a shower.

**Full disclosure: Our very kind friends actually invited us to stay at their very nice, not dusty, clean, with running water apartment for 10 days while they went on vacation.… Read the rest

Construction days 27-28 – a sneak peak

A sneak peak into something awesome! Ta-da: Our upstairs bathroom floor.

Beautiful, huh? We are still so far away, and its moving sooooooo slowly. but at least we like where we are going with this. Here’s the floor with additional layer of thinset before the tile was put down:

There is some progress in the small half bath downstairs too. We got a ceiling frame and noise maker vent fan was installed.… Read the rest

Masonry update

While construction continues 9-5 weekdays, we also hire out additional jobs on weekends. we could do a lot of these ourselves, but we simply don’t have the time. we found someone who is particularly good with masonry, so here’s what he accomplished over the course of two weekends:

*The VIB 2010 was actually Sergey’s doing. Someone, sometime in the future I am sure will wonder, but the house will know)

That is actually a 4-feet deep trough (below ground level)by the back wall of the house.… Read the rest

Construction Days 25-26

We have visible progress! More of it! Yay. We already mentioned that heated floors were on the agenda, but here they are all set into the upstairs bathroom floor (also notice the sink hook up, there and waiting):

And our bathroom floor all covered up and ready for more thin set and tiles – a highly exciting prospect that gets us one step closer to functional bath, since as of right now we are still shower-less and sink-less.… Read the rest