The233: December 2005

Looking upstairs, new study, new bath, hall

Boo!
One of the carpenters asked me if my house was haunted - seriously. Besides the bats (they’ve scared up at least 3 – which really freaks them out), they’ve seen a figure in a window, and had to turn a light switch off three times.

Executive Indecisions

The stairs have been boarded up for the last few weeks so I’m not sure what interior work has been done. It looks like they might be working on getting the roof ready for shingling, but I'm not sure. It seems that they’ll have to step up the pace if they’re going to get everything done by March 1, though.

I guess I’ll write some instead of only posting pictures…

Over the last several months, I’ve been trying to select bathroom fixtures, light fixtures, flooring, etc. I want to stay with the era of my house so that everything somewhat looks like it belongs and isn’t too obvious what’s been remodeled, etc. I had most of these items picked out by the time Susan finished the construction drawings. Fortunately, most of my contractor’s subcontractors let me select what I want and I don’t have to get items through specific suppliers.

Plumbing Fixtures
Kohler and American Standard have really good websites. Sometime during the summer, Kohler came out with a Bancroft suite of plumbing fixtures, which I thought would go well with the rest of my house, but I wanted to see the real things before finalizing my decision. http://www.us.kohler.com/onlinecatalog/newproducts_detail.jsp?section=2&aid=1232
In September, I called all the Kohler plumbing showrooms in town and none had the toilet or sink on display, but they said they might get them in soon. A month later, I called and got the same responses. I got the same responses in November. Finally, I decided to call Kohler directly, and was able to get a hold of the representative for Minnesota. She told me that the Bancroft suite was on display at a showroom in Rochester. Over Thanksgiving weekend, my sister, mom, and I drove through the snow and ice from Austin to Rochester and checked out the fixtures. I liked them – I’m not sure about my mom and sister.

I scheduled a meeting with a representative from Pipeline Supply – a supposedly wholesale place in Hopkins that my contractor told me his plumber gets his products. On December 12, I met with somebody to write up a supply list and cost estimate. It wasn’t a fun experience. She was kind of grumpy and wasn’t all that helpful. Fortunately, I already picked out what I wanted. I had even found the Bancroft suite on the Lowe’s website – listed at prices lower than on the Kohler website. The big issue at Pipeline was dealing with my walk-in shower – trying to get a faucet(s) and showerhead(s). For supposedly having the largest showroom in the Twin Cities, they didn’t really seem to have too many options. Anyway, I told her two alternatives to write up for the plumber.

A few days later, I got the price quote. What a rip off. Her quote was 15 – 20% higher than the Lowe’s prices. And then, I’ll have to pay 15% more on top of that for my contractor’s markup. I discussed it with my contractor and he said everybody complains about plumbing. He gave me the following reasons to go through Pipeline:

Plumbers don’t like it when the owner supplies the fixtures (if I purchase them at Lowe’s) because the owner might not get everything right and they might have to make more than one trip to do the job.
If something goes wrong after the fixtures are installed, they’ll fix them if they bought them (rather than the owner).

Whatever. It seems that products should be under manufacturers’ warranties and the plumber’s work should also be under warranty. I guess it’s not going to be that much more money in the big picture to pay the more expensive prices. If I had to figure out how to get the fixtures from the only Lowe’s in the area (Coon Rapids) to my house, it would be a hassle.

Light Fixtures
I haven’t completely decided on light fixtures, yet. Again, I’d like to stay with the era of the house. Susan gave me a name of a local place that makes reproductions. http://lightworkslighting.com/index.html I already knew about Rejuvenation. http://www.rejuvenation.com/

I’m leaning toward some lights by Rejuvenation. I’m still waffling on the finishes, though. I’d like to replace the track lighting in my kitchen with two ceiling lights, a light over the sink, and a pendant over the eat-in area. The original hardware on the kitchen cabinets seems to be oil-rubbed bronze, but the finish is well-worn (or to put a positive spin on it – they have a nice “patina”) and look almost like steel now. I’m trying to figure out if I should try to match the existing hardware, not match the existing hardware, or replace the existing the hardware and match everything. I’ll need a few new pieces of cabinet hardware for the new cabinetry around the stove and refrigerator, but I think I’ll be able to re-use some pieces, use knobs instead of latches for some cupboards, and just have to find a couple of pulls that look close to the other pulls – so I think I could keep the cabinetry hardware the same finish. I like the nickel finish and it is supposedly what was used in most pre-1930 kitchens, but I don’t know if I believe that. If nickel was supposedly exclusively used, why is the cabinet hardware brass?

Oh, well…maybe Future JP will be able decide what kitchen lighting to use.

As for lighting upstairs, I haven’t really picked out the ceiling lights – those will likely match the kitchen lights (except for maybe the finish). For the bathroom lights by the medicine cabinet, I need narrow lights. I want wall lights (sconces) and not an overhead light. Kohler makes a sconce (Forte, K-11365) that might work, but I’m not sure if it will look too crowded on the wall. Susan had suggested something that’s not more about 4.5 inches wide. This Forte light has about a 4.5-inch wide wall canopy and about a 5.5-inch wide shade.

The plumbing fixture finishes will be chrome so the light fixture finishes will also be chrome.

Tile
Again, to fit the era of my house, I want subway tile and small hex floor tile. The difficulty with tile is to find some that doesn’t have bevels at the edges. After countless hours on the internet and at showrooms, I found a white porcelain hex tile without any bevel at RBC Tile in Plymouth. http://www.rbctile.com/. Of course the grout joints will be a little wider than what was done in 1920s, but it’ll be close. I kind of wanted to have a small color hex border, but they don’t have any non-bevel color hex tiles.

Authentic, no-bevel subway tile was difficult to find. My main floor bathroom has subway tile, very narrow grout lines, etc. I had never really noticed in the 11 years at my house that the subway tile has a crackle finish to it. I ordered samples from http://www.subwaytile.com/ and the porcelain finish was a good match to my main floor bathroom. Unfortunately, they don’t have a lot of base and cap styles to pick from. Originally, I had planned to have subway tile on all of the walls of my bathroom. Then I figured out how expensive that would be. So, the construction plans show subway tile in the shower and bead board (which I learned is different than wainscotting) on the other bathroom walls.

Medicine Cabinet
This was easy. The Holbrook at Rejuvenation (http://www.rejuvenation.com/fixshow4786/templates/selection.phtml?iqg=f7a1ec7656e88ec398fd03be0a7804f4) almost exactly matches the original medicine cabinet in my main floor bathroom.

Shingles
I’m going with Owens Corning Oakridge PRO (I think the 40 AR Shadow). I hope I like the Teak, because that’s what I picked. http://www.owenscorning.com/around/roofing/shingles/selectedcolor.asp?ProdLineGroupListID=13

Wow, that’s a lot of writing. Maybe the roof will be done soon so I can post some more pictures. I’m looking forward to getting the house enclosed and insulated, and I’m dreading seeing my energy bill.