My sister is talented.

Just sayin'.  

I mean.

Look at the beautiful pottery she makes!

Hotel Président, Yamassoukro, Ivory Coast

Last night on the way to Abidjan from Séguela, our my colleagues and I stayed at the Hotel Président in Ivory Coast's capital, Yamoussoukro. It was awesome.

The hotel was built by the government of the Felix Houphouët-Boigny, the first president of the Ivory Coast in the 1970s, presumably to cater to politicians and diplomats. When you walk through its front doors it feels as though you are stepping back in time. Everything is perfectly preserved. Eero Saarinen tables abound, as do those spectacular dome vanity lights.  The bathrooms are lined with orange and brown tiles and have Lucite cigarette holders next to the bidets.

Hallway update!

The progression of the hallway.

Among the renovations that we are doing at the house, we are adding a powder room and closet to the parlor floor.  To do so, we needed doors. We could have bought some at Home Depot, but I wanted to use whatever material we could from the house, and was afraid that anything less 95" doors that matched the kitchen entrance (left) would look a little dinky next to their giant counterpart.  I hatched a plan to take the living room doors off of their hinges, trim them down to 28" and hang them in the powder room and closet.  My father - who would be doing the work - was skeptical. Doors so big required him to make custom frames, add extra strong hinges,  and to shave roughly 4 inches off of each of the doors, which were already in rough shape. Nevertheless, he did it, and they look fantastic -they look like they have always been a part of the house. Please forgive the pictures! The mots recent ones I took last night in the dark because I was too excited to wait, and the older ones were taken on my phone when we first bought the house.

The living room doors before being removed, repaired and rehung. 

Recent purchases, rambling about the house

SHOPPING LIST

3 toilets

A bathtub

2 individual bathroom sinks, one for the powder room, one for the ¾ bath

A double vanity with two sinks for the main bathroom.

Faucets for each of the bathroom sinks

A shower base kit to put under the tiles in the ¾ bath

Two sets of shower heads / faucets

Tiles for everything

Door knobs

Kitchen cabinets

Cabinet hardware

Appliances

Kitchen counter – island

A kitchen sink

Kitchen faucets

A kitchen counter – alcove

Lighting for everything

Windows

Hardwood flooring

Hot water tank

Not on this list but we bought it anyway: the awesome 'eat' sign from Olde Good things. Total impulse purchase but so worth it. Don't look too closely at the price. We bargained for it.

TO DO LIST:

Figure out what to do about the facade.

Figure out what to do about the fence.

Check in on the renovation.

Take more pictures.

Get ready for out vacation next week!

Get the new hot water tank installed.

Remind electricians to put dimmers on the light switches.

Remind the contractor to do what I told him to do. Again.

We've had a pretty busy month - I must say there are way more details to think about that I had anticipated.  Also, some of my guesstimate budgets were way off - I had no idea what things like faucets, lighting and hardware cost -some of our faucets cost more than our sinks! And doorknobs! My parents were more serious about the doorknobs than they were about anything else in the house.  My mom was all "Oh honey, doorknobs are crazy. Their CRAZY." My dad told me, "You can't just get anything. There's NOTHING WORSE than entering a house with a flimsy doorknob. You have to go and try them all out before you chose." 

Who knew?

In the end we have decided to save on things like tiles, decor, and low traffic areas like the extra bathroom. For hardwood floors, despite our desire to get beautiful five inch planks, we are going with more classic, affordable 3 inch planks. We're splurging on appliances, faucets in high traffic areas like the kitchen and main bathroom.  As much as I would love crystal door knobs, I think we're going to have to settle for something more basic like oil rubbed bronze from a good quality name brand.

For lighting, Dave and I totally lucked out and found some great deals at the Design Within Reach outlet.  I was worried going there that the lights would be discounted from $3000 to $2800, as the sales on their website are really uninspiring. Instead, we got 5 lamps worth ~$2000 for $250! Sure they have some dings and scratches, but I am fairly certain that no one will ever notice them.  

We got 2 of these Titan 3 lights in black - originally $735 each for $75 each!! 3 of these FL/Y pendants in, originally $249 for $19!!! Finally, we got this barn light, originally $315 for $50! Pardon the exclamation points, but I am clearly pretty psyched.

More pictures will come soon, I promise. The truth is that they are just not that exciting. They are mainly of drywall old flooring, and the rooms are so dusty that they come out looking grainy.  But I am working on it.

Uncensored look at life at the new house

I've been asked to provide more pictures of the house. The thing is: they just don't do the place justice.  Here is what the new apartment looks like with my parents camping out in it. Apologies for the grainy iPhone pics. One major improvement that is particularly visible to me in these pictures is the white! Every picture that I took in this place before we painted came out looking yellow. What a difference paint makes.

Eating Pauline's meat balls! Amazing.

I know the sheet curtain looks kind of ghetto, but look at Lulu and the hardwood floors!

It's a Kitchen!

Dear Friends,

Join us in welcoming our new kitchen to the world!  It still needs some finishing touches (paint, shelves, a hood, etc.) so we will follow up with more pictures later, but couldn't wait to show you our new bundle of joy.

Cement tiles

So many rooms to tile! So many tiles to chose from.  I have been dreaming about cement tiles these days...

Perhaps these for the front hall?

These:

These:

Or these:

For the upstairs bathroom maybe something like this:

This:

Or this:

Or these:

Thoughts?

Daily Dishonesty

I first saw these on Miss Moss today - they are from Lauren Hom's Daily Dishonesty project - and they are just too great not to share.

Montrealers aren't supposed to love anything Toronto, but...

Montreal vs. Toronto beef, be damned. I love this place.  The apartment is owned by Nikole Herriott, part owner of Herriot Grace, a Vancouver Island / Toronto based company that sells beautiful hand made wood objects, mainly spoons, rolling pins and cutting boards.  

Herriott Grace also made an adorable documentary that reminds me a bit of my dad (well not totally but I really love good father-daughter relationships). Here is the trailer:

Herriott Grace Trailer from John Cullen on Vimeo.

The images above are from My Scandinavian Home.

Tundra

Is it wrong to chose a paint color because of its name?  

The second that I read that it was named Tundra I was in love with the color. I have had planting on the brain lately and the word Tundra brings back many planting memories for me.  Every once in a white I get nostalgic about about the 8 summers that I spent in the bush, sleeping in a tent, seeing moose on my way to work. When mornings in May and June felt like the dead of winter we use to joke about working in the tundra.  Of course we were not even close to being that far north, but it certainly felt like we were. Somehow so far removed, the bugs, the backache, sleepless nights, trucks stuck in mud holes, and the sometimes incessant rain (I'm looking at you Swan River) seem to fade away, even seem pleasant.

So Tundra it is.

Tundra painted walls from Material Girl's Blog

In Praise of Paper Lanterns

So now that our electrician has begun working, we have to start thinking about lighting.  Our lighting plan includes a mix of: sconces in the bathroom, kitchen and in some halls; pot-lights in the kitchen and some halls; pendants in the kitchen and chandeliers in the living room, dining room and main entrance. More lighting options will follow, but today I want to talk paper lanterns.

As always, we are looking for interesting lighting that is easy on the wallet. Paper lanterns are some of my favorites and their value just can't be beat. These lights range from $2 - $40 -unless you go designer- but why would you do that?.

from Remodelista

from Remodelista

from A Happy Habitat

Julianne Moore's parlor floor. From Apartment Therapy

3/4 bath inspiration - fun white bathrooms, bargains and Ikea sinks

In line with my remarks yesterday about keeping our finishes simple, I thought I would show you some bathrooms of the style we are looking at, and the products that we would use for these looks.

This is possibly my favorite use of white tiles. Yellow Grout! This could be really fun in a powder room or family bathroom.  Also, this cute little Ikea Ann sink is a bargain at $79.99. Image from Ideas to Steal.

Subway tiles like this can be found at Home Depot for $2 a square foot! Image from Ideas to Steal.

Here's another one from the Design Files with a very similar style.  The glass shower door is also great.

This bathroom is from Mark and Raina's farmhouse makeover on Apartment Therapy. This is an Ikea Lillangen sink and cabinet.  Both for $349!

 Here an ikea double sink was put on a bright green table.  I am not sure which sink - maybe this one?  Or two of these Talleviken sinks could also do the trick. Of course we probably couldn't afford marble, but maybe we could fake the look with Corian or Quartz.

This is not an Ikea sink, and I am not sure we could fake it, but I love the mirror and the rim of black tiles around the top. Image from Ideas to Steal.

Finally, while this may not be the most exciting bathroom - it is very similar in layout to what we will be doing with our 3/4 bath. It also shows how far a dog and some plants can go towards punching up a room. From Rock and Rock Problems.