The Lonely Little Xmas Tree

Friday, December 20. Work is done, vacation begins! Walking down Carmine Street, what do I see?

A lonely little Christmas tree, sitting at the curb. But why? Christmas isn't over - it isn't even begun. (And Orthodox Christmas is after, not before.)

Were they allergic? Was it the wrong shade of green? Was it too much of a burden to care for it? Did they give up on Christmas after all?

How cruel to reject the little tree, and deprive it of the only fun Christmas trees get to have before they turn, like all of us, to mulch.

So I decided to take it home.

Trouble was, I was on my way out to dinner.

Three hours later ... yep, it was still there. So I picked it up and carried it home ...

On the subway ...

 

... to my apartment.

Tomorrow I'll decorate it.

You spin me right round, baby, right round ...

I'll be using window air conditioners in the living room and bedroom (ideally in the tops of the windows). In order to circulate cool air through the apartment and into the galley kitchen and bathroom, I need to put a ceiling fan on my dining balcony - more-or-less right over the table.

I know, I know, every right-minded designer anathemizes ceiling fans in the dining room. You're supposed to have a chandelier. (I have a fabulous chandelier - which my cousins will recognize! - for the entry foyer.) But I really need the fan here.

So I'm looking for a ceiling fan that's not too ugly, too country, too bedroom, too tacky - something with a bit of style and decent CFM. It also needs to have a bright dimmable light (since I don't just use the table for eating). I'm open to modern or traditional styles, but not to insanely expensive.

Ideas so far --

1. I saw this one in the store with all three lights pointing down - very striking. But the bottom light hangs 31" from the ceiling, which might be striking your head.

2. This one is canvas! It comes with grey and white blades (you can switch them out - I wonder if you can wash them). You can attach whatever "light kit" you like to the bottom - like the one you see on the right.

3. This is the basic, clean, modern look, on which there are many variations:

4. And this is a fantasy. Super-cool (and surprisingly efficient), but you don't want to ask how much it costs:

What do you think?

Restarting the renovation ...

A lot's happened, in my building and in my life, since I stopped my renovation. Now I'm restarting it again, and hoping to move in by March.

In the interim, I thought more about the bathroom (and also used up all my hardware in my mother's bathroom renovation). I've evolved from modern to a more glitzy-glammy-girly look.

The wall tile, you may remember, is iridescent pale pink glass -

And the floor/side of tub tile is supposed to look like this -

I say "supposed to" because I opened one of the boxes when it arrived, and looked at a few tiles. I expected swirly Neapolitan ice cream, but I seem to have gotten a more quiet streaky vanilla. They say stone may vary - I'm hoping that it varies in a good way once we unpack all of the tiles.

Here are my sconces!



There are three of them - one for the sink, and two for the long wall opposite the tub. They've arrived already, and they're really pretty and twinkly.

I decided to go with a traditional medicine cabinet and vanity after all. I'm re-using the vanity we took out of my mother's bathroom. It's very nice solid wood, and I've bought a new sink top and very cute new handles for it.

(without the new handles)

And here's the hardware I chose, this time around  -

My mother's bathroom renovation

My mother's bathroom renovation is done! (As many of you know, my own renovation has been on hold for more than a year, but fortunately we were able to use most of my hardware and trim in my mother's bath.)

 It's ming green marble (6x12 on the bottom, 3x6 in a herringbone pattern on the top), with a carrera-and-ming pinwheel mosaic pattern on the floor.

Walk-in shower with a bench, rainshower, handshower. The two showerheads are controlled from the same valve, and can go on separately or together. The handshower slides up and down a bar (to be a body jet) and also has a little holster over the bench.

The accent tile mosaic, the medicine cabinet, the mirrored vanity (really a nightstand) and white marble vessel sink

 

The towel bar is really a grab bar.

 

The picture doesn't do the light fixture justice. It's five balls of glowing glass threads, like hamsters.

And what, I hear you asking, is that funny toilet seat? It's a Japanese-style bidet! 

If you're in the area, come visit!

The bathroom sink

Everything I want: clear glass, curvy, only 21" wide, with an overflow and towel bar!

(ignore the mirror and faucet - my mirror is this one, and my faucet will match the shower trim)

April showers ...

I need to choose plumbing and trim for my bathroom. The first part's easy: I know I want shiny chrome. It's classic modern, it's surprisingly much cheaper than newer finishes like brushed nickel, and they all show water spots equally. 

Basically there are two configuration options: 

1. I can have a thermostatic valve (controls hotness/coldness) all by its lonesome, and then separate volume controls for each waterspout (overhead shower, handshower, tub), or
2. I can have one valve that does it all, with two concentric spinners (sort of like focus and aperature on a manual camera). One dial will set the temperature. The other dial will choose where the water comes from (tub only, overhead only, overhead + handshower, or handshower only), and sort-of control the volume (e.g. if you turn it only partway to the option, you get less water).  

(Quick vocabulary lesson: the valve is behind the wall, and looks like a utilitarian brass thing. The trim is the pretty lever and backing plate you actually see and touch. You choose a manufacturer and get their proprietary valve, and then you can choose from a wardrobe of trims for that valve.)

The plumbing store originally sold me on Option # 1 - lots of valves.  On the upside, you get  more control, I suppose (plus the possibility of locating the tub's volume control where it can easily be turned with one toe.) On the downside, the wallspace will be cluttered with bath hardware; it's not so big a tub, or a bathroom, to begin with. And more valves = gobs more money. The first two sets I priced (a Jaclo and a Hansgrohe) were astronomical. Then I found a few Kohler sets I loved for a reasonable price. 

This one's called "Stillness" -

And this one's called "Stance" -

And these two variations are "Purist" -

Either of these could be the tub faucet:

Then I read further on the internet, and discovered Option # 2 - the Hansgrohe "Thermobalance III" valve that does it all. 

I'm thinking either the "Metris" trim -

 

or the "Talis" style -

The tub faucet would be this one:

The Hansgrohe handshower (which I'd probably choose even if I otherwise went for Kohler, because it's nicer) will be mounted on a bar to keep the hose neater -

And for the overhead shower - with either system - I'm thinking of the well-reviewed, cool, and cheap American Standard (Hansgrohe has one just like it for 5x the price) -

Opinions, anyone? I like the Hansgrohe concept, but I think I like the Kohler trims better.

Ordering cabinets!

Here's the final kitchen layout -

Doors and tile here, handles and knobs here. The fridge, dishwasher, and long drawers will get handles; everything else gets knobs.

I really love the way it turned out - particularly the false double doors on the fridge (my contractor's idea). He's also doing something fancy with the crown molding that I don't quite understand.

OMG, OMG ...

My 70%-off Liebherr fridge has two new friends!

Namely a Thermador range

and a Miele dishwasher

(note the cute silverware tray at the top)

And no, I haven't won the lottery. I just got very lucky at Karl's Appliance "backroom bargains" (now that I've safely got mine, I don't mind sharing the tip) - each of them is open-box, never installed or assembled, hugely discounted, with the full manufacturer's warranty. The Thermador has an infinitesimal scratch on it (a picture's worth a thousand words, but a scratch, apparently, is worth more than a thousand dollars). I can't even find the scratch on the Miele (maybe someone just changed their mind about it).

But every fairy tale has its wicked witch, and mine is Where To Put The Microwave. My kitchen design (as you may recall) provided for a microwave over the stove. But since the Thermador burns hot enough to smelt iron (almost), the manual explicitly forbids putting a microwave over it and strongly recommends a hood so that the cabinets don't catch fire. (I therefore bought a hood -

- the least obtrusive, least pretentious one I could find, since there's little point having a big metal "chimney" extend up to what everyone knows is the upstairs neighbor's flat.)

Not that I was thrilled with the microwave-over-the-stove idea anyway - I'm only 5'0", and I foresaw a baptism in hot soup some unlucky day. But where else to put it? Not on my very-limited counterspace, where it would look like an afterthought. Not in a top cabinet (because it would mean making the top cabinets deeper, and losing many of the shelves I can reach). Not a micro-drawer (because it would swallow half my drawer space). The best I can think of so far is a small microwave that hangs over the countertop, to the right of the sink.

My contractor and I are tearing our hair out over this. Clever solutions welcome. Kitchen plan here.

Decisions, decisions!

We should have permits to start work very soon (would've been yesterday, but we just discovered that my building is in a district recently calendared by the Landmarks Preservation Commission, which adds another level of red tape). My cabinets are being ordered, my bathtub is already on its way.

And today I settled the last few major details. (I went to Hardware Designs in Fairfield, NJ near Route 46 - about which I cannot say enough; it was like walking into the three-dimensional reality of all my internet searches. They have everything,  go there if you can.) I saw my toilet in person and liked it. I picked cabinet hardware:

And I found the perfect bathroom floor.  It's called "Alba Chiaro" (and may also be called "Persian Green" - depending where you buy it) -