Au Revoir NOLA & STILL unfinished bathroom!!

So, I've been too busy and pissed off to post this week... let's just say the tile guy laid our penny tile down WRONG!!! THE TILE GUY! Who only does tile & showers!!! How the F do you f*ck up penny tile!? Well my friends... he did.

And I almost had to go to divorce court because of it. ;) I kid. BUT it's been very stressful and no, the tile is not coming up. We're living with it. Too long of a story to get into but the tile is here to stay. How did he f*ck it up you might ask? He didn't lay the tiles down right! So randomly you can see lines because the circles aren't matched correctly.

Lesson learned. I am having detailed drawings of every single little thing we want done when it comes to the next phase of this reno. I should of gotten more quotes for the work. We were in such a time crunch though because it all happened so suddenly.

I do LOVE my contractor and my guy who's cutting my marble for the sink though!

Anyhoot, The Hubs & I are off to NEW YORK CITY! To spend Christmas with his family. I can't wait to get outta here! And to be able to shower properly!!

photo credit: gotham girl photography

Upper West Side here we come!!!

Potty Talk

What oh what to do when your only bathroom is in the middle of being gutted!? Why, use the neighbors Pot-O-Gold port-o-let in front of their renovated house of course! 

I think some neighbors think we're nuts going in and out of this thing! But hey, you gotta do what you gotta do!! Oh, and this NOLA girl has also been known to "pop a squat" during this reno too! 

What?? Too much info?! 

Big Reveal of the FORMICA!!! :)

The new counter top is in! And I must say, it doesn't look as awful as we feared. Bonus is that we love the new sink! It's huge!! And there's something to be said for some kick ass water pressure when you've been denied it for so long. So, without further ado....

Before:

NASTY!

After:

Ignore the unfinished strip going across the top of the back splash - still need to fix that. But looks way better right!?

 Big. Ass. Sink.

Perfect for washing wittle Wootie! :)

So, there ya have it. When ya in a pinch and need a counter/sink ASAP that looks decent Lowes is always there for you! 

Forgive me Design Gods... For I Have Sinned.

Remember last week when I shared that our bathroom is undergoing a complete GUT renovation!? Well, excuse the pun but shit hit the fan once all that went underway. ;-)

While the floor was up in the bathroom, Big Mike (my daddy) who is the head of this whole operation decided it was best to change as much plumbing as possible while it was all open. So, on the very positive side, about half the house now has brand new shiny copper plumbing! On the "Oh, I never even knew that could happen!?" side, the water just stopped coming out in the rental bath and our kitchen sink about a day after new plumbing was installed. 

Hmm? Well, thank goodness I have Big Mike in my life! (former plumber, electrician, carpenter, now electrical engineer, basically can fix anything wrong in our house!) He knew what the problem was and helped me fix it all for about 4 hours this past weekend. (he was NOT a happy camper!) Apparently, sometimes when you install new plumbing, all the junk, sediment, etc. gets pushed through to the older plumbing and clogs it all up. Interesting stuff. Anyhoot, we had to clear all the lines and blah blah it's all fixed. 

Except our kitchen sink. In the words of Big Mikie - "Your kitchen sink is such a piece of SH*T!" The faucet  is sealed tight to the sink so you can't take it apart to clear out the faucet. Which meant we had to get a new sink/faucet. And while we were at it, might as well get a new counter top, once again Big Mike said, "and replace this disgusting counter top! Just get something 'throw away' since you plan on redoing the kitchen sometime soon". I love design advice from father. 

Please. Don't judge us. It's cracked. Stained. Nasty. Nasty. Oh and yeah, that's a little toothpaste up there from when we were using the kitchen sink to brush our teeth since it was the only sink in the house. yep.

SO, the point of the title of this post: we purchased a FORMICA COUNTER TOP!!! In a faux black granite!!! (I'm laughing while typing this) yes. yes. I am a designer. and I purchased a faux black granite formica counter. and the REALLY sad thing about this is that this formica thing will look 10x better than what we currently have! So shhhh.... but I'm kinda excited to go home tonight to see it installed! 

Big, sexy formica chillin'... 

Oh, and believe it or not, the one who is really traumatized by this is The Hubs. He HATES it!! But he is excited to be getting a large single bowl stainless sink. Here's what we got:

And since this sucker is 33" wide, you won't see too much of the formica. We hope. 

Can't wait to share with y'all the afters!! Ha!

Want a good laugh!? Latest on Operation: Bathroom

This is the current state of our loo:

AAAHHHHHH!!!! It happened. The bathtub died. Then it was go mode to get this baby renovated! Very stressful too. I'm a designer and have ideas of what I want but this project was thrown at me so fast I've felt a little overwhelmed!

Which is also why there's been a lack in posting. I've been so busy trying to decide on things, get prices on things, etc. And let me tell you, shower heads are friggin' expensive yo!!! This is the true curse of this reno, when two designers are renovating their bath, (Hubby and I) we don't want everybody else's bathroom.... we want it to be unique, tastefully done and classic. Which also equals EXPENSIVE! Ha! But we both would rather spend the little extra now, have it done the way we want rather than staring at some sink that I "settled" for because my dream sink was $400 more.

Here's a refresher of what I was planning on doing:

Below is what the dream bath is becoming:

Let's talk about my tile for a sec - I thought I would have to get the white porcelain penny tile - which I love - but it certainly ain't no marble! BUT while at Floor & Decor what oh what does my lovely momma find!? A close out of 1" white marble penny tile for $3.99 sq/ft - regularly $15.99 sq/ft. Whhaaaat!? 

The area we need to tile is about 39 sq/ft and we bought every last sq/ft of this stuff which came to 44 sq/ft! I hope and pray my tile guy has enough! 

OK, here's the rest of the bath:

The bathroom stayed pretty much the same as the original plan - except for the sink. We are so excited about making this sink from a 150 year old dresser! I think it will add warmth to the all white bathroom. Bonus - it's a couple inches taller than a regular sink height which we loved because we're crazy tall. (not to mention we'll have a bit of storage)

Below is an inspiration image of what look I'm going for with the mirror/sconce action:

Since our house is over 150 years old, I really want to mix the old and new - classic, timeless tile, an antique dresser/sink and a gilded mirror paired with chrome fixtures and sleek modern sconces. I think the balance is going to be gorgeous!! 

The only annoying part to all this is that we have NO bathroom while the renovation is happening!! Our rental, which is next door is almost always booked but when it's not, believe me, we're over there showering! Our contractor shimmed in the old toilet so we at least can go potty. The bathroom should be complete in about two weeks. Two more glorious weeks with no shower. Let me tell ya, I've grown to love me some dry shampoo! ;) (We're not totally gross, we shower at the gym or my parents. )

Oh, and how the hell are we affording this!? I have no clue. I do know we are now renting our house out for the Super Bowl and Mardi Gras if I can get the right price baby!! 

I'll keep y'all posted on Operation: Bathroom.

PS - read THIS post to see some of this bathrooms ugliness. 

PSS - Follow my Bath Remodels on Pinterest to see how this all evolved!

Bath Remodel in the Works... All because of a Drum.

For the last couple of months, our tub has been slooooowly draining. uh. oh. and a couple of weeks ago it stopped draining all together. Boo's long hair probably equals some nasty monster of a clog somewhere under there! Ooops! 

SO we got some plumbers out to take a look and... well... it ain't lookin' so good! First, our plumbing is OLD. Our tub has a drum trap instead of a P trap - which needs to be replaced.

  Side note: can you believe that I actually had a plumbing class at school and learned about P traps!? never would I think that was useful! Ha. 

Anyhoot, the cost to replace that thing is $1,500!!! WHHAAAT!!! Most of that cost is digging under the house to access the pipes since our house sits barely off the ground. So, of course we got to thinking and the bathroom needs to be gutted anyway. So why not rip up the floors from above to access the plumbing and renovate the bathroom while we're at it!?

Here's my fantasy land bath:

A white hex tile on the floor, subway tile on the walls in the bath, dual flush toilet, some kinda awesome sink. 

We plan on getting rid of our claw foot tub. I love that it's old but ours is disgusting, needs to be resurfaced ($400), needs new fixtures ($800) and hubby hates it because he's 6'4". So, out with a tub and in with a shower! 

I'm loving this Restoration Hardware sink in the above image but that's not gonna happen. We'll probably do something custom and give the illusion of a large slab of some kinda stone... don't know yet. I'm obsessed with this kinda sink below:

But yeah, probably not gonna happen! A girl can dream though right!? 

We're trying to put this project off as long as possible to save more $ for it - the plumbers were able to kinda get the tub draining again, it just takes about 3 hours for the water to go down! So we're standing in nasty filth while showering and scared that any day will be our last with the clogged tub fiasco.... 

I love my old house. I love my old house. I love my old house. 

Whoooo Wants To See My BossMans House!? Shaun Smith Home Tour!

I have been waiting forever to share pictures of my boss, Shaun Smith's home. I was hoping to share with y'all professional shots of it but they are taking longer than I thought so here are some snapshots with my camera!! 

Entry Area: 

Notice that AWESOME glass & chrome staircase!? I'm loving the floor to ceiling curtains, lucite table, the chairs.... everything! 

Greek Key detail in the master bath. AND the marble walls - it goes up to the ceiling!

Sitting Room:

Living Room:

Master Bedroom:

Just plain awesomeness:
(I need that snake in my life!)

Dining Room:

Aaaand the Kitchen:

Counters are vein cut quartzite. Cabinets are custom, there is a subtle "X" pattern throughout the home, taken from the original front door.

And there ya have it! Isn't it FAB!!?! Every time I'm here I just stare at everything - it's all oh so lovely! 

Oh, and he completely gutted this home, reconfigured the floor plan, added about another 1,000 square feet and designed it from the ground up! I hope y'all love it as much as I do! 

Blanche's Boudoir Redo!

OK, I'm totally reposting this from my work blog but I was cracking myself up with it so here ya go!

A little known fact about the Shaun Smith Team - we are all OBSESSED with The Golden Girls. We quote them, we discuss their fashion sense and of course we engage in never ending conversations about their decor! 

So after one too many slices of cheesecake last night while lounging on our Lanai, we decided to redecorate Blanche's Boudoir. Let's face it - she's the most fabulous of them all! 

Below is what we would do: 

(everything is available through Shaun Smith Home - of course!)

We think it would look FAB! What do you think!?

We thank y'all for being our friends! 

XOXXO,

Shaun, Betsey & Blanche

Ever Evolving Bedroom...

Our Bedroom is kinda coming together!

My mom was getting rid of some white lacquered nightstands so of course I took those off her hands :)  I'm loving how light & airy the bedroom is feeling!

I actually like the funky shutters exposed like this. It let's in a lot of light and I'm not committing to window treatments just yet since this is our temporary bedroom.

There is still quite a lot to be done but it's looking SO much better these days. I scored these Thomas O'Brien sheets from Target - 50% off! I luvs them! I felt like I was sleeping in men's pajamas last night!

Even our little Wootie got a new bed thanks to Target. This is the best looking dog bed I've seen. And it fits oh so snuggly under our new nightstands.

But just look at this tragedy... my poor bed making skills mixed with the fact that we have yet to buy a King comforter/coverlet just makes this look awful! 

Things coming in:

-Those huge 27 x 27 pillow inserts will soon be in a very light grey linen. 

- New bedside lamps

- new king sized pillows

- a new king coverlet

And that's all I need for now! Slowly.... yet surely this house is coming together.

How about y'all out there?! Is your master bedroom finished? Of course nothing in our house is every fully finished... ;)

Gettin' Rid Of Sh*t!!!

I'm having a cleansing moment. I'm rolling with it. I'm getting rid of the clutter... AKA SH*T!! This past weekend I put all these guys up for sale on Craigslist:

Antique tufted armchair - got this in NYC and moved it down with us. Totally not my style anymore... not sure if it ever was my style!? This was in the furnished rental we have but I moved our black Eames Lounger over there instead. Looks much better!

MCM nightstand. I ruined it's match in a rainstorm :( and we inherited my mom & dads modern white lacquered and chrome nightstands which look MUCH better than this temporary guy anyway! I have pics to show you of the new nightstands... loving them!

E.T. - also known as brown leather Eames Knock-Off. He was just sitting around collecting dust... he had to go!

The cool MCM chair my aunt gave us. I did & still do love this chair. I just am not in the mood to reupholster it, pay for new fabric & we don't even have a place for it! So it's gotta go.

I told ya I'm getting rid of SH*T!! The house already feels so much better. I've sold them all already except the tufted chair. 

Oooohhh and we just got our new TV console in! It's FABULOUS!! Can't wait to snap a pic of this sexy guy!! 

Anyone else out there cleaning house!?