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Finally, I finished the bathroom renovation. Well, it’s more like finally I uploaded pictures of the finished bathroom renovation because honestly, it’s been completed for a while now. All in all, I’m happy with how it turned out.

Here’s a shot of the vanity I built. I’m very happy with how it turned out considering we had no other options.


Here is my wife’s addition. We call this her Pinterest piece. She uploaded it on there and gets giddy with every repin.

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[Here am I giving the camera my best model look sitting on a gorgeous Eames Le Chaise]

I thought the modern movement of the 50′s and 60′s was to make great design affordable.  Fast forward fifty years, a lowly architectural intern (me) would like to furnish his home with the aforementioned great design.  The copyrights for these designs are typically held by either Herman Miller or Knoll.  Alas, because I am not a hedge fund manager, there is a good chance I will never be able to drop $3,000-$5,000 on a single chair let alone multiple pieces of furniture.  I mean, seriously, how much does it cost to manufacture an Eames shell chair?  I understand there is a mark up beyond that but c’mon!

Now, I am aware of the heavily inflated prices of these beautiful pieces of art – let’s face it, that’s what they are but the real shock came from my wife (not in the design field).  She knows one of my favorite chairs (I have so many) is the Barcelona chair by Mies van der Rohe.  Back in September 2012, two months before my birthday, we were in Chicago for a weekend trip when we walked by a fancy lobby stocked with Barcelona chairs.  After she dragged me away, she thought that one of those chairs would be a great birthday present for me…that is until she found out that they start at $5,000!

I told you that story so I could tell you this one.  A while back, I stumbled upon a link of several replica chairs sold online at none other than Kmart.  The chairs are manufactured by a company named Baxton Studio.  Baxton Studio (a division of Wholesale Interiors) sells replica designer furniture by the likes of Eames, Le Corbusier, Eero Saarinen, Marcel Breuer, Bertoia, etc.  I’m not sure how they are able to get around selling these replicas unless the designs are changed ever so slightly that they are not “copies” although they look pretty accurate to me.

[Eames DSR Eiffel Side Chair - $155]

[Le Corbusier LC2 - $485]

[Le Corbusier LC4 Chaise Lounge - $566]

[Marcel Breuer Wassily Chair - $283]

[Eero Saarinen Side Table - $218  and Tulip Chair - $168]

 

It’s clear that at these prices the quality of craftsmanship and the materials are far lower than their pricey counterparts and I understand the importance of staying true to the design by sticking with the real McCoy, but the above options seem tempting.  I can also appreciate the amount of time that went into designing the originals and the hard work and effort into designing them is why they’ve stood the test of time, hence the mark up in price.  As a designer, I would be angry to find someone ripping off my designs and profiting from them.  However, how much do you markup the price before your product becomes out of reach to the general population – the people that some of the products were originally designed for?  Don’t get me started on the irony of naming a store Design Within Reach and then selling a chair for $5,000.

Oh well, I supposed I’ll keep searching on Craigslist and scouring antique stores to hope to one day get mine.

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Holy S***! Who knew it would take this long to update a bathroom that’s smaller than most people’s linen closets!  Well, here we are.  Finally, we started getting the tile in the shower up just before Christmas.  We decided to go with a classic subway tile and a glass mosaic banding that would intersect the storage nook we built in.

 

I’ve come to the realization that one must come up with creative solutions when working on home improvement projects.  Here we are trying to set the soap dish.  We spread mastic on the back of it, propped it up with a level (which is supported by a brick in the tub), leveled it, and finally, duct-taped it to the wall.

 

The floor tile is 12″x24″ porcelain tile with a light grey linen texture.  We found these at Hood’s for a pretty good price and we only needed 12-13 tiles to cover the whole floor.

 

 

 

 

 

Of course we had to leave our mark on the side of the tub before the hardibacker went on.  I wonder when is the next time this will be uncovered again?

 

I am thoroughly disappointed with Moen and their Kingsly shower faucet.  This gap doesn’t even come close to how they represented their product on their website.  I complained on twitter, using their @MOEN handle, and have been in contact with them regarding my issue.  They are sending me a spacer that is supposed to close the gap but I am still angry that I am not getting the product I thought I was.  I purchased the Kingsley line so that ALL of my fixtures in the bathroom would match.  I have no idea what this spacer ring will look like or if it will even solve my problem.

 

As everything started coming together, I needed to finish up the vanity before the plumber came back to hook it up.  I found the heaviest books we had in the house to hold the sink down until the adhesive could set.

I will include a few more pictures in a final post while we wrap everything up.

 

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I honestly thought this would only be a 2 part story (and one week job) but alas, here we are, in the second week of construction (or deconstruction as I like to call it) and only the second part to this neverending story. When we started the demo, we ran into more problems than anticipated. It turns out the plumbing was horribly undersized and questionably installed. We had to basically rip it all out and start anew.

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The bathroom renovation has commenced. This has been a long time coming. This renovation will include a new vanity built by yours truly as well as all new finishes. We’re replacing the shower tile which is currently a cream-colored 5×5 square tile and will be replaced with a bright white subway tile with a mosaic accent band. Unfortunately, the original honeycomb floor tile that we discovered after removing the crappy Pergo wood laminate, which should never had been installed in a bathroom in the first place, couldn’t be repaired so it will be replaced by a 12×24 white floor tile with a linen texture laid in a brick pattern.

Also, the chocolate brown paint that we chose when we moved in 4 years ago will be going.  We’re opting for a lighter french grey that will hopefully lighten up the space.  The wainscot will also be replaced with something similar but we are opting dropping the height of the trip so that it doesn’t intersect the light switches, mirror frame, etc.

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I was invited by Perennial StL to enter a furniture competition where we were supplied an old wooden ladder and were tasked to turn it into a fresh new furnishing for the home using only the wood salvaged from the ladder.  Also, we were only to use hardware that we had readily available, we weren’t able to purchase anything new.  I immediately started thinking about an Adirondack chair, probably because I have been lusting after some salvaged pallets to make one for myself, but I talked it over with some people at the office and we decided that was an obvious choice and that I should come up with something that is a little more unusual than a chair.  That also ruled out coffee and end tables as most people have that taken care of already.  Naturally, my mind went towards alcohol, specifically alcohol display and storage.  I wanted something that was portable, usable for inside and outside, and also multifunctional if possible.  I started sketching up some ideas for a bar cart/wine caddy/breakfast butler that contain storage and workspace as well as be portable and easy to move around.

Here are some initial sketches (using 53′s Paper app on the iPad):

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Three down, four to go. I have to say I thought there was a really good chance I would be retaking this exam (Building Systems).

Now onto PPP…

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So I’m at that point in my life when my wedding calendar is waiting and my friends are starting to procreate. Apparently a majority of people my age feel that they are responsible and financially capable of raising a child. I however feel I am not up to the challenge yet because of my lack of responsibility (did I feed the dogs this morning?) or financial capability (if supporting two dogs are this expensive, I can only imagine what it costs to support a child!). What I am up to is the challenge is to construct a little something for the children of my close friends. When my goddaughter was born I made her a simple toy chest. The toy chest was easy. I just found some pictures online that looked good and made one to match.

Another friend and his wife are getting ready to have their first baby and since he has been a huge Ford Mustang fan since I’ve known him I thought this would be perfect. This project has been much more difficult than I had anticipated. From what I have found, no one else online has built a Ford Mustang rocking horse so I have to come up with the construction myself. I decided the emblem would be the most iconic symbol to use considering it has remained almost completely unchanged since 1964. I going to cut the emblem silhouette out of two sheets of glued wood planks and then put the seat and handle in the middle.

I will be starting on it this next week an will post some progress photos.

UPDATE 9/6/12

Here are the progress photos as promised:

First, I found a photo of the emblem online and blew it up to the size I needed and traced over it in AutoCAD. Then I printed it out on 11×17′s and taped them together.

I used transfer paper to transfer the line drawing of the mustang to the wood. I’m using an Aspen plank I bought from Lowe’s.

Then I used a sabre saw to cut out the silhouette.

Next, I will assemble, sand, and paint it. I will post more updates after this weekend.
UPDATE 11/10/12

Holy cow I waited a long time to update this post. Well, I have been done with the rocking horse for a while now. Here are the finished photos:

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It’s been a good week for infographics.  I saw this one on Active Living Research‘s Facebook page.  It discusses the positive impacts of alternative transportation methods typically found in well designed communities.

Click to enlarge.