Update on Reno

Our mast bathroom is finally complete. Done and dusted. After waiting for 9 months for our "greige" tile, we settled for cocoa brown. I do like it. I like all our choices,mand I'm loving the finished product. Especially using the space.

Lights from Restoration Hardware.

Faucets are Delta; sinks are Kohler.

Mirrors from Pottery Barn.

Quartz Counter Top from Home Depot.

Shower Doors from Home Depot online.

Heated Towel Bar and Shower seat are online purchases.

Our back hallway got a new coat of paint: Benjamin Moore, Stone.

The Powder Room is also BM Stone. Tile was installed a number of years ago. Mirror was a TJMaxx find from years ago--a quick substitute when the Nordstrom's mirror was too big for the space.

Library Light fixture is also from Restoration Hardware.

Back Order Hell

When did we start this master bathroom reno? February-March-April? It should have been done by now. The tile guy was willing and able. Within two weeks, I'd selected and purchased all the fittings--light fixtures, shower enclosure, mirrors, faucets, towel bars, heated towel rack, shower seat, etc.

The Quartz vanity top was ordered--a bit of a delivery and installation hassle, but delivered with sinks and faucets installed by early May.

Then everything came to an abrupt halt. The greige (Camo) subway tile was back-ordered, not to be produced until mid-June. Ugh! I considered finding another tile, but being in no real hurry decided to wait it out. There are boxes stacked along one wall in the master bedroom and also in the garage.

Actually, this is the entry before we moved everything to the master bedroom.

One 3-week European vacation later, the tile has been back-ordered again--until September! Yes, grey subway tile is a scarcity. The salesman talked several times to the rep and even checked with another tile manufacturer. Their back-order date is out even further than the company we've ordered from. (I tried several times to get that preposition away from the end of the sentence, but finally gave up.)

So, listen up! Horde any grey subway tile you find. According to the law of supply and demand, prices are sure to rise. Or, maybe this scarcity now just means that in 20 years there will be tons of DIYers scraping grey tiles off bathroom and kitchen walls; filling up landfills. Right on top of all those granite counter tops and stainless steel appliances that are so, so in demand right now.

Sankt Johann im Pongau

CA and my separate departure itineraries came together at the airport in Munich without a hitch. Figuring out the GPS in our rental car was and is the greater challenge. We were more than relieved that the entire road trip between Munich and St. Johann im Pongau was in daylight hours.

Our hotel is in the village center, which is always something we appreciate as we can explore on foot, and there are many cafes and restaurants in close proximity.

Cafe Bauer, Sankt Johann I'm Pongau

Austrians seem very in touch with their cultural past.
In every town, folk clothing is available for purchase.

After walking about, finding an ATM and a perfect cafe for breakfast, we spent our first full day in the Austrian Alps exploring areas that JL and I had visited in 2009--with DMs family. We chose the circuitous and mountainous Route 164 toward Maria Alm--this is the same mountain road JL and I had attempted to traverse in the middle of the night in the tiny Citroen. Certainly, the scariest driving I've ever experienced as the road was totally unfamiliar, narrow and steep, with a rushing mountain stream on our left. The small car just didn't have enough power to cart two grandmas with heavy luggage.

I wasn't able to pinpoint the exact geography of the 2009 debacle, but driving the route in daylight with CA caused me to again whisper prayers of gratitude. It still amazes us that throughout that horrible, defeating experience we were kept completely safe.

Maria Alm; May 24, 2015

LG and MK in May 2009

Marielle and LG; 2009

Turns out that Monday is a Catholic holiday in Austria, so all shops and businesses are closed, except for a few cafes, restaurants, and gas stations. We've a beautiful 60° spring day, and while a great deal of our site-seeing is from a car, Austrians are out in great numbers hiking, biking, para-sailing... We stop just beyond Saalfelden to explore a cable car set-up that transports bikers and their bikes to the top of a mountain. They then mount their bikes and point them downslope for what is obviously a fast and thrilling (and muddy) descent.

We drive to the other St. Johann--this one Sankt Johann im Tirol. While not deserted, because of the holiday the Zentrum is quiet today with a few families and tourists sprinkled about. We find a promising restaurant for an leisurely lunch, sitting outside in the beautiful square. We both opt for the Schnitzel--how can we not? We're in Austria.

Lovely mixed salad that accompanied my schnitzel.

The return trip along the same mountain road is punctuated by many fast motorcycles,
 thrilling to the curves and switchbacks. If they'd just keep to their side of this narrow route!


I'd describe the remainder of our first day and evening, but instead must confess that I succumbed to the god of jet-lag and managed to mostly sleep from mid-afternoon until 5:00am today. Hopefully, I'm all caught up and ready for a full week of the gorgeous Austrian Alps.

Hunting and Gathering

In the midst of sourcing the elements required for our Master Bathroom renovation...

Mirror from nordstrom.com.

Mirror we already own
and can repurpose 

Anytime I'm out-and-about or online my search migrates into other projects, real and imagined, i.e., the mirror I found on Pinterest (nordstroms.com) for our Powder Room which necessitated a new sconce from lightingdirect.com. The sconce is lovely, but too small for the mirror. Luckily, we have a spare, smaller mirror in a guest room that works with the sconce for the Powder Room. Now, I'm thinking I'll move the Edward Hopper print from our Morning Room up to the sofa wall in our loft, and hang the Nordstrom mirror here.

Move Hopper print to Loft.

Hang instead of Hopper Print?

And then, there are the (3) gold-framed French architectural drawings (still unwrapped) I purchased second-hand at The New Interiors Anew, locally, for the Powder Room(!). CA looked around at the gold-framed photos and prints (French) on the Powder Room walls and said, "So, you don't like these any more?" MEN!!!

Existing prints and photos in Powder Room. The wall color just doesn't photo well.

Painted sideboard. Chair is turned from normal placement.

Do I go back to Interiors Anew today for that lovely Thomasville small console table that might fit in the Entry Foyer? Or, in the Great Room, necessitating moving the current painted sideboard into the Study-Dining Room--replacing the shabby-chic half-table already in-place?

And, while I love the current American Primative bench and small chest currently in the Foyer, where else can it fit? I wouldn't mind using the Thomasville console in the Great Room, but I don't want the shabby-chic half-table front-and-center.

And, have I EVER used this many en-dashes in a post previously?! Sheesh! It's like they're exclamation points or something. Bah-hah on whoever said one should only ever use (4) exclamation points in one's life!!!! (Or, is it "whomever"?)(And, where does the end punctuation go in a sentence that ends with quote marks not indicating spoken word?!)

**I digress.**

Yes, the painted sideboard can go in the Study-Dining Room. It belongs there. It's filled with dishes and has no business in the Great Room. It was a space filler and never the right color. Light yellow in a room with shades of blond and tan (café au lait). If I don't buy the small Thomasville console, I'd really love a French writing desk here.

This chair turned "out" is really bugging me.

What vexes me about the Thomasville console is that I think they doubled the price since I first saw it. Yes, that's a vague suspicion, but there's recent precedence. A week or so ago, I saw a sewing rocker at a local thrift shop, and behold! there it was (I think) at Interiors Anew, doubled in price. No hard feelings if I'm right; people have to make money. And then, with my current Autoimmune flare and all that confusion added to all the freaking details and moving parts on the bathroom reno... I am probably all wrong.

The best news is that, for now, I have all the products required for the Master Bathroom reno in-house. After much purchasing-exchanging-returning-Internet commerce-big box store wandering. That is, I have all the products except the tile, which I just found out is back-ordered to mid to late-June. Ugh! I revisited Century Tile yesterday to look for replacement tile, but after 10 minutes I told them we'll just wait.

All that, and I still have issues with these pieces:

In Powder Room for convenience. Not working.

This is just hanging around our loft doing nothing.

I'd like this bucket bench out of the Foyer.
Not sure where it'll fit.