Home improvements

In addition to working at his new job of finding a new job, James has started two home improvement projects. The first project of renovating the downstairs bathroom is a fairly major one, since the plan is to remove the flimsy shower stall and even flimsier shower base, put in a sturdy shower pan that is actually sealed* and then tile the walls.

* It appears that the person who rehabbed our house never sealed between the shower pan and the shower stall, so that water leaks out anytime the shower is used. Sigh.

Just removing those awful sliding shower doors made an immediate, positive improvement to the bathroom by making it appear more open and light. And while we are a long way from painting the walls, we wanted to start thinking about the color. When I came home from my quick trip to Albany, I found a swatch of light blue on the wall. While James liked it - obviously, since he picked it out and put it on the wall - I did not. We went to Benjamin Moore last week and picked out 388 Cypress Grove as a possibility:

That is Cypress Grove painted over both the blue and the ugly color that was in the bathroom. Is it just me or should bathrooms NEVER be painted a color that might be found in a baby's diaper?

Anyway, although you can't tell it from the photo, Cypress Grove is a light greenish-yellow and while very pretty, I've already ruled it out. I was moving a shoe box the other day, remembered that those shoes were a lovely light biscuit color and realized THAT was the color I wanted. I held the shoe against sample after sample and found that AC-7 Adobe Beige is a great match. The Adobe Beige will be a wonderful backdrop to either a black and white toile shower curtain or a turquoise paisley shower curtain - the early frontrunners for a decorating scheme.

Meanwhile, the second and more minor project is taking place in the kitchen. We like the lighting in the kitchen, which has both recessed can lights around the perimeter and a decorative ceiling fixture in middle of the room, but we both wanted a pendant light over the sink. We like the look of a pendant light over a sink and particularly when the sink has a window over it, as ours does, and we like using it as almost a nightlight; just a little bit of light to find your way in the dark. James did all the cutting, wiring and patching a few weeks ago in preparation, then we picked out a light earlier this week and he installed it yesterday:

Gorgeous! After watching way too many episodes of The Bronson Pinchot Project and Rehab Addict, we really REALLY wanted a fixture with an Edison bulb and it looks perfect in our 1912 era house.

The same color in the downstairs bath was used on the kitchen walls. Not only do we just not care for the color but it is too close in tone to the kitchen cabinets - no contrast between the two. We think a nice sunny yellow will brighten up the room and have tentatively selected 339 Lemon Grass. James painted a white primer on the walls yesterday and today, which is already a huge improvement over the previous color, and we have swatches of Lemon Grass in three places. The jury is still out on whether we stick with the color or not, but we will definitely keep to a light yellow. Stay tuned to find out what we do next!