Saturday and Sunday Sundries

Over the weekend, the contractors were off, so not a ton was accomplished on that end. The shower floor and tresses were fixed on Friday and the new subfloor and plumbing vaulves were put in so that we can use the fixtures that we picked out for the shower and tub.

Here's the new floor. The house smells a million times better already and doesn't give me raging headaches every time I enter any more. Yay for mold removal!

Here's the new shower vaulve:

Here's the new tub faucet. It matches the sink faucets that we picked out, here's hoping we can take photos of them installed, soon.

My father came over and replaced a toilet. The one in the guest bath rocked every time anyone sat on it. Apparently the floor under it wasn't very level . It also used to have a leak that sprayed violently every time it was flushed. For some reason, when we went to fix that, it was miraculously fine. I'm guessing one of the contractors made the mistake of trying to use it and fixed it out of shame (or necessity, who wants to go down a flight of stairs every time he has to use the restroom?) Here's the old toilet. It's waiting patiently for Jerry to carry it down the stairs.

Here is the brand-spanking-new toilet that is level, doesn't rock, and doesn't spit at people. Those are qualities I really look for in a toilet. We decided to get a new one instead of fixing the old for a variety of reasons: The parts to fix were $45+ and the cost of a new toilet was $98. Seemed like it was worth the extra money for something that was new. Also, the toilet we replaced was about 20 years old, which means that it was lower to the ground and didn't have the same tank efficiency. Wow, I hope that's the most I ever write about toilets again in my life, but probably not since there is still one more to install in the master bath when it's done.

In other random renovation news, here's a shot of the backsplash we picked out for the kitchen. Can't wait to see it with the dark granite (Uba Tuba - not to be confused with Mambo Jambo, the name I originally thought it was) and it is light enough to work with the existing floor, plus the browns will go with the paint colors... or so two non-interior designers let loose in Lowe's hope...

Speaking of paints, here are the colors we've selected. The blue (top, lightest one) will be going in the three bedrooms and master bath. The gray (middle, medium one) will be going in the living room, dining room, loft, and upstairs hallway. The guest bath will be one of those two colors, not sure which yet. I'm leaning towards gray since there is pinkish tile on the floor and I don't think the blue will really go with that. Finally, the brown (middle, medium one) will be in the kitchen, bonus room, half bath and laundry room.
For you paint nuts, here are the color names (from valspar, the paint brand our painter gets a discount with)

Lighthouse Shadows (blue)

Granite Dust (gray)

Cincinattian Hotel Carl Tan (brown).

That's it for now. Here's hoping for lots of progress to report this week because I'm sure you don't want to read about my adventures with the sprinkler timer and watering the sod.