Thursday, February 3, 2011 Sunshine, Sunlight, Silver Paint and Final Questions

Sunshine, Sunlight and Silver Paint?

Well, my Posh Project Manager (PPM) did his nightly check in on my renovation last night, to find, Horror of Horrors - My Bedroom Painted Silver? Okay, gray, but still.

As I explained in a post last week, I selected a delightful duo of floor and wall tiles - both in chic shades of grays. Of course, I selected the perfect shade of paint ( #1591 "Sterling" by Benjamin Moore" for the little bit of space not covered in tile for my bathroom.  Check Out the Bathroom Color: Sterling Here

I had chosen "Roasted Toffee" #988 (Benjamin Moore)  Toasted Toffee at the Benjamin Moore Website for the rest of the apartment (bedroom, kitchen, living room, etc.) And "Super White" for all the moldings and doors.  See "Super White" here

So, back to business. Tonight, my PPM discovered my bedroom had been painted the gray/silver bathroom color, "Sterling" !! Horror! Of course, my PPM did say he rather liked this gray/silver in the bedroom, but I was not brave enough to change my plan mid-stream. So, a repaint it is.

I texted my GC to talk about some of the minor remaining details:

• Correct Paint Colors:  Okay, I have to say, any construction project is going to have problems.  Even with the best of General Contractors.  And my GC is absolutely fantastic!  I texted him to ask to meet Friday morning.  By 10:00 the next morning (Friday), the construction guys had already repainted the bedroom - the pretty silver, albeit wrong, was gone.  And my apartment was now the lovely shade of Toasted Toffee!   So, long story short:

Any construction project will have hiccups.  That being said, an incorrect paint color, in one room, that was only visible for less than 12 hours, is a pretty great hiccup to be had.  My GC was great.  Calm, attentive and really just fabulous.  I would definitely recommend him for any renovation!  He is fantastic.  Of course, I mentioned this blog, and now I am worried maybe he won't want to be identified, after I outed him on the wrong paint color so I will be emailing him this blog address.  I know there are probably some folks out there who expect a project to go forward with no mistakes at all.  (This is naive and ignorant in my opinion, nothing is perfect.   I wanted someone who was going to make sure I was completely happy and deliver a perfect job at the end.  So far, my GC has done this without questions.  If he wants to be identified by name and number, I will be posting his info very soon!  

• Kitchen Cupboards - no pulls or knobs right now. The cupboard doors and drawers have a cutout underneath, so hardware isn't necessary. I am hoping to find the perfect gorgeous, ANTIQUE cabinet hardware on eBay. I am thinking a nice, ornate Brass or Silver.

• Cable Outlet location:  My GC already had done the work for this.  He is fabulous like I said.  

• Bathroom Tile Orientation (should the long tiles be put up horizontal or vertical? Horizontal. Definitely.  I met the man who did my kitchen floor tile, will be tiling my kitchen backsplash this afternoon and will be doing my bathroom tile next week.  I am very impressed.  Great Job!  Thank you N!  

• The Kitchen Countertop - Granite? Corian? Some other kind of Plastic?:  God, Granite seems so damn expensive.  But like my PPM and GC said, after the cupboards and the floor tile and backsplash are installed, I really did want granite countertop.  So to hell with it.  We are going with a very chic, black granite (with a little bit of color speckles).  I will post the picture next week.  I also had to decide how to have the granite countertop cut.  There are a bunch of options.  Rounded, square, double rounded, (I don't remember the exact names of each of these, they have more sophisticated names for each style).  I picked the rounded, thinking it would be one less sharp corner for me to bounce my head into.  

• The Entry Door Threshhold - with the new hardwood floors, the old threshold is not the right height.  So my GC explained the ways we could address the problem.  All systems go.  Have I mentioned how much I like my GC?   I was so concerned about not having any thresholds or bumps in the floor; I fall all the time in my current apartment because of the difference in my current kitchen and the rest of the apartment floor.  This GC is fantastic.  He has managed to get it so it is alllllll one level.  No more tripping for me.  And when we discussed the entry door threshold he actually apologized, and said, "there will be a slight bump.  I know you didn't want that, but we can't avoid it."  Okay, this guy is fabulous.  Honest and dedicated.  My brain, hopefully less scrambled in the future, thanks him!