Paint decided. Now, on to the staircase

Confirmed the paint colors this morning. For your viewing pleasure:

We also talked (and talked, and talked) about our staircase. You'd think a staircase is pretty straightforward. It's stairs, right? And a handrail. Well I'm here to tell you it's decidedly not a straightforward project. Because here's what you have to figure out:

The tub has arrived

Ta-da!

And with a model!

It's actually facing the wrong direction (it will be turned around when it's actually installed). We both sat in it, and it's deep and roomy and we can't wait to take our first bath!

So many lovely shades of gray

Finally we got to go through the umpteen hundred paint chips we've amassed over the last several months! Only after we got home I realized there were nine additional shades of gray we forgot to consider so...shhhhhhh...we're going to have to go back to the house in the morning just to make sure. The mister doesn't know this yet.

I can tell you this, though. We're painting the entire first floor, minus the two existing bedrooms and the bathroom, plus the staircase, upstairs hallway and master bath the same shade of light-to-medium gray (Manhatten Mist). The girls's rooms, bathrooms and closets will all be a light neutral gray (Silver Charm). The master will be a darker shade of gray (Cathedral). This assumes none of the nine shades I found bump any of these.

So why all the gray? It's a fantastic neutral. Given that many of the rooms face different directions (so the sunlight is different), the color will take on different hues in the light. For example, in one room Silver Charm takes on a slight bluish cast, but in another, more of a clay. *swoon*

Tomorrow we meet with our builder to go over the master tub placement, our paint colors, and the staircase. They've installed all of the doors, and are beginning all the trim work this week!

Floors and doors

Dork alert: I shot a video for you all, so you could get more than random pictures of different rooms. And part way through it, I flipped my phone horizontally, thinking I'd capture a wider view. Yeah, no. That's not what happens. You get a sideways view instead. I'll try again this weekend, because I think a video at this point will really be cool.

The view from outside the house hasn't changed much at all. Ah, but on the inside, big doings are afoot.

The story behind blue porch ceilings

Rumor has it people paint their porch ceiling blue because it:
- reminds them of the sky
- keeps bugs away
- wards off evil spirts
- all of the above

Yep, all of the above. The folklore about warding off evil spirits (often referred to in the South as haints) is so well-known, the blue actually has a name: haint blue. Unlike Tiffany blue, haint blue isn't a single color; rather, it appears to be in reference to several shades of blue. The painters finished our blue porch ceiling today. Take a look:

What a difference some walls make

Sheetrock is in! The rooms are actually room-like now. The gals aren't quite as impressed; they can no longer see the entire house from any spot on the second floor.

And with sheetrock comes dust. Imagine taking hundreds of bags of flour into your house, hanging them as pinatas, and then busting them all open with a stick. Scatter random pieces of wood and sheetrock (all sizes!) around, string some power cords selectively in areas you actually need to traverse, and for background music, find an audio clip of a dental drill and put it on loop. This is what it was like while the sheetrock was being installed.

This week they'll mud it and sand it and do whatever else it is they need to do to get the walls ready. We're supposed to pick paint colors soon (hooray!), and tile will go in soon (again, hooray!). Oh, and guess what? We got ourselves a tuuuuuuub. It should be here in two weeks, and I'll post pictures of it when it arrive!

How I use Pinterest

I'm not just on the Pinterest bandwagon, I'm up front handing out bumper stickers, kissing babies, and campaigning for it as one of the best sites ever.

It's been a fantastic way for me to organize ideas and options, especially when I need to show the mister what I'm thinking. I've got a board for most things to do with the house, like carpeting and front doors. Here are other boards I'm currently filling:

• Chandeliers. I'm a sucker for a drum pendant. It's sleek, mid-century, looks classic/modern/retro, comes in a variety of options from fabric to glass, and can be one of the most striking and yet affordable fixtures you can install. Can I get an amen?
• Blue ceilings. A while back I read a great piece on how it's tradition in some places (especially the South) to paint your porch ceiling blue. I'll tell you why soon.
• Staircases: We have some choices about how we want to finish the staircase, and it may affect our other staircase heading downstairs. Mostly to do with the balusters, a word I haven't had occasion to use until this reno.

I also use Pinterest for non-reno things, like storm photos (natch) and letters and numbers.  Are you on Pinterest? Do I follow you? Would love to see what you're working on!

Mixing metals

I am in love with this door knob.

At $169 per piece (I know!), it's spectacularly over budget. Maybe that wouldn't be so terrible if we only needed one or two, but we need ten. Perhaps I could just get these for the bedroom doors, though, and something much cheaper else for the closets and bathrooms?

Forgetting cost for a minute, though, what I'm pondering is mixing metals.

We have chrome in all the bathrooms. Running that finish all through the door hardware - much less the light fixtures - seems a bit much (and awfully...shiny). I like brushed nickel, and oil-rubbed bronze. And between us, I've even taken a shine to some of the brass finishes, too.

It's early days. We've just begun the door knob and light fixture hunt. I expect mixed metals is in our future. And I expect no one but us will notice.

PS: Yes, a new blog design. My BIL's 'feedback' notwithstanding, I wasn't really into the previous design. Maybe I need a mixed metals template.