Grout love, one sample board at a time

Have you ever tried to pick paint from a 1 inch color sample? It's not always easy to envision how a whole room will look, whether the lighting helps or hurts, and if the old couch now finally needs to go to your brother-in-law. To complicate things, there can be a big difference between the sample you see and the actual paint on the wall. So, multiple samples usually get applied to the wall in an effort to narrow down the choices. Picking the right color in the room is a great feeling after a sometimes lengthy effort.

Something similar happens when picking the right grout for your tiles. The sample pictures you see are not often very accurate representations of the real color, grout manufacturers provide 3 millimeter slivers of their products to drive you mad, and unlike your ability to repaint a room that did not turn out the way you wanted, grout mistakes are not easily corrected. Paints come and go. Let's just say that you and your grout are in a long-term relationship.

We like to use an actual grout board for our clients to show which grout options are best for a particular tile choice. Lay it on the floor, open the shades, and turn on the lights. Pick from the menu or start over. Many a bathroom have been insulted by leaving this decision to others, so take some time and just feel the grout love. We do.  

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Grout. Contain your excitement. 

Things Left Behind

We've found a few  interesting items during demolition. This one brings us back to lap seat belts, making mix tapes for that special someone with the Jane Fonda leg-warmers, overhearing a grownup dictate a letter to someone not named Siri . . .

Maybe we'll leave an iPod behind the drywall for another construction crew to find in a few decades--a relic that will remind them of road trips before driverless cars and, we hope, inciting a fresh round of grumbling about the days when artists made real music . . . 

Behold, my young children! A finely preserved remnant of analog technology.

Winter is Coming

Of course we are excited about the new season of Game of Thrones. Winter is also a fantastic time to complete interior work.

Some have asked us when is the ideal time to undertake a significant renovation, and we half-jokingly say "when you are on vacation" because the noise, dust, and presence of workers in your home can be disruptive under the best of circumstances. What better time to depart the frozen tundra of the Chicago area than January or darkest February? A week of sunshine does wonders for mental health, and even more so when your kitchen is non-functional for a while.

If your busy life does not permit a week off, we highly recommend a long weekend or two away from the home while undergoing major renovations. The change in scenery and relief from the temporary disorder of your home will be much appreciated. 

Fall planning is the perfect time for a Winter transformation. Just be sure to also plan a much-needed vacation or mini-vacation to ward off construction-fatigue.  

Let's take a trip to the laundry room

I grew up in a home in which the laundry machines were hidden in the basement. The basement was joyless with bare concrete floors, exposed pipes running here and there, eerie shadows cast by a couple of bare bulbs dangling from the ceiling, and the faint scent of detergent mixed with musty boxes of who-knows-what piled in a corner. Our ping-pong table doubled as a folding table. We carried the laundry up and down two flights of stairs, lots and lots of it, and were reminded that this was "better than working in the salt mines" as if we had luckily dodged the prospect of child labor elsewhere.

We've since been convinced of the merits of bedroom-floor laundry with fewer stairs and shorter distances. We recently added second-floor laundry in a whole-home renovation that included tough porcelain floor tile, quartz countertops to withstand most anything, and plenty of storage: sage green cabinets, machines mounted on pedestals that double as drawers, and even space to mount a rod for hanging delicates. Not bad for a room that measures 8' x 6', and all behind a pocket door to preserve square feet. A friend joked "it's like doing laundry in the Hamptons," and we'll take that description over a slightly scary basement any day of the week.  

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It's better in here than in the salt mines. Or my old basement.