Renovations: Days 10 and 11 (and this morning)

Other posts in this series: Day 1, Day 2, Day 3, Days 4-5, Days 6-7, Days 8-9, Days 12-13, Week 3, Before&After

This is one of my more fun updates, I think.  Our bathroom finally looks like a bathroom again!! First of all, the contractor finished grouting and caulking. We picked out a black grout for dramatic contrast with the white tile.  He also installed the shower fixtures, the sink, the toilet, the medicine cabinet, the mirror, and the new lighting.  All we have left is the faucet for the sink (which arrives today), the towel bar,  the toilet paper holder, and the shower curtain rod. I think all of that can be done in a day, so we are almost there!

The floor's a little dusty, but its pretty much finished now that it has been grouted

New Kohler fixtures and dramatic black grout. Oh, and caulk too.

I LOVE the new shower head. Too bad this photo is terrible.

The lower half of the shower fixtures. Note to self, must remove those stickers from the tub.

New everything! You don't know how much trouble we went though to get that Ikea mirror. It included trips to two different Ikeas and other hijinks. You'll have to ask Joe about it sometime.

Alternate view. A friend with a wide angle lense is going to help me photograph the final product, so stay tuned for the big reveal!

This is the new light fixture. We got it for $40 from the Restoration Hardware Outlet at Tanger.

Our contractor also patched up a hole in the floor that was left behind when we ripped down a wall to expand the mater closet.

Luckily most of this will exist inside of the new master closet, so you won't really be able to see it. But they put down new planks of wood and filled in the cracks with some kind of brown stuff. All of this will get sanded and re-stained along with the rest of the hardwood in the apartment.

In case you didn't notice it in my previous posts, this is the footprint of the old wall. It left behind a rather nasty void.

So that was day 10 and 11.  This morning I got up early and stopped by the apartment before work.  The floor guys had arrived and I got to pick out the stain color for refinishing the hardwood.  They sanded down a patch of floor and gave me three options (see below), and I ended up picking the one on the far left. Its called “Ebony” and I felt that it looked the most neutral and the most sophisticated.

Our hardwood stain options from left to right: "Ebony," "Dark Walnut," and "Mahogany"

They will be doing all the sanding and staining today, so I won’t be able to go back to the apartment till Tuesday when it dries.  Then they will be doing the varnishing on Wednesday.