Vain about Vanities

We made our first official decisions about furnishings! After all this talk about layouts and stairs and brick walls and basements…it was fun to get into buying products. Our contractor Jon said that we had to pick out vanities for the master bathroom, guest room bathroom, and the whirlpool tub that is going in the guest bathroom. I have been VERY excited to get a whirlpool tub – this is definitely something on my “MUST HAVE” list. I just picture myself after a nice long run, getting into a nice warm tub with the jets churning…perhaps a glass of wine in my hand and a People magazine to read….ahhhhh…

OK, sorry, I digress. Who knew that there were so many varieties of vanities? And that the prices can differ SO massively? I’ve never really thought anything about vanities in my life, and all of a sudden I am a resident expert after doing research online, going to four different stores, then back again to two of them, then more research online! I can spot a 36” vs. a 30” vs. a 24" vanity like a pro now.  

We were tasked with finding a 36” for the master and 30” for the guest room bathroom. It was hard not to splurge on both of them because the more expensive ones are JUST SO MUCH NICER! But we have a budget, so we had to try and stay on-task. So instead of getting two medium-priced vanities, we splurged on the master and saved a bit on the guest room one.

Ohhh...pretty vanity for the master bath! We are aiming for a "spa-like" feeling in that room, so the white vanity with the Carrara marble fit the bill!

I love the more modern look of the vanity, but the old-school faucet style

Guest room vanity. It's definitely less expensive, but I still think it looks nice! Clean lines, dark wood, white base.

 

Chillaxin' at the Home Depot in my whirlpool tub.

Mike did a lot of research on the tubs, because again, the prices differed a lot. But the difference is that we couldn’t really tell what made one so much better and more expensive than the other! Sometimes it was obvious, like one had five settings of jet speed and the cheaper one of that model has three. Really? Five settings of jet speed? I didn’t even know there was usually more than one speed, so I think I would be perfectly happy with three. So we picked one that is a bit on the less expensive side, and I know that I’ll still be happy with it! We actually picked the exact model that I am comfortably relaxing in above.

We also stopped by the house on Sunday...and we have some STAIRS! There were workers there both Saturday and Sunday - they have been working hard! It's very exciting that we don't need to be climbing up ladders anymore. It makes it feel more like a real house.

Stairs from the first floor to the second floor.

It's a little hard to tell, but on the right the stairs are coming up, and on the left are the stairs leading up to the ROOF TOP DECK!! Woo-hoo!

Ahhh...the gorgeous view of the water from the roof! The roof top deck isn't in yet, just the stairs going up to it.

So I know, I know. I haven’t mentioned the BIG WHITE ELEPHANT in the room. There is still NO news on the neighbor. But no news is good news, right? Right?!?! Sigh….

She's a Brick! Houuuuuuse

Look!! We have beautiful exposed brick walls!

Master bedroom exposed brick

First floor exposed brick

We also have no more scaffolding!

So things are forging ahead, despite the fact that we STILL don’t have permission from the neighbor. We do have more progress though – our wonderful contractor Jon went over to the house during Hurricane Sandy to take care of some things at the house. Apparently the neighbor needed some help, and he ended up getting some water out of her house, and cleaning up some debris from her yard. While he was doing this, he talked her into getting a lawyer to look over everything and advise her. So this week a package was delievered to her that contained everyone’s insurance policies, the contract, etc. She said she would take them to a lawyer and hopefully we’ll FINALLY get this all resolved. But nothing has happened yet, so we are cautiously optimistic.