Our Blog - Renovations (or as I call it ... the Money Pit) - Part 4

I was hoping to be further along than we are, but, that is just how things go. There has actually been quite a bit of progress, but there isn't *that* much to show, unfortunately. But, in theory, the next blog after this one will be the last.

The bathroom probably had the most work to be done, since we combined a bedroom and the existing bathroom, and so there was a lot of plumbing work to be done. The new tile floors are in, we went with a slightly rustic (not exactly perfect edges) tiles in a light beige. You can also see the beginnings of the shower. There wasn't a stand-alone shower in the existing bathroom and so we ended up needing to have this built up a little bit to allow for the drain lines. Unlike houses that either have a crawlspace, basement, or plumbing already put into the concrete slab, we can't basically have the plumbing under the floor since it is already-poured concrete (and we have an apartment below us). So we had to built up the shower a bit, so we will have to step up into the shower. But that was the compromise we had to make to have a large stand-alone shower. Here you can see the shower tiles and the design. Taupe colored tiles form the walls and cover the base, and then we have mosaic tiles in 2 niches that will be on either side of the shower column, and then two rows of mosaics on the long wall. The short side closest to us will be a glass wall, and then the long side on the right will be a sliding glass door.

We put a large corner tub up under the window with a row of tiles around, matching the shower. We have the same "cascading" faucet as we have with the double sinks. (The apron around the bottom will look better later .. he hasn't really attached it yet.

Our sinks and vanity system is a set of two sinks with vanities, along with lit mirrors above and a column for additional storage in between. Then we also put a row of the same shower tiles around these as well. We have cascading faucets that match the bathtub.

We have a powder room with a toilet, vanity/sink, and mirror (no pictures yet as it is literally an empty room right now as the new vanity/sink/mirror haven't yet been delivered yet. Then we added a 2nd toilet in the new bathroom (which is a little different than most French apartments that normally just have 1 separate toilet) and a stacked washer/dryer set that will also be in the bathroom (the washer is there now but the dryer won't be delivered and installed until Saturday morning.

Now back to the kitchen ... which is almost complete. The countertops got installed, so now we are waiting on a replacement cabinet and door, and for them to add two additional lights under the cabinets (slightly smaller than the ones that were ordered). Initially, we were going to have granite installed but it is porous and can stain, as well as needing yearly resealing. We talked with our kitchen designer about the options and we went with a relatively new product (introduced in 2013) called Dekton. If you have no idea what it is, don't feel bad, neither did we. It basically is a combination of quartz, glass, and porcelain which is then heated and compacted for strength. It resists staining, cuts, scratches and supposedly you can take a hot pan (up to like 500 degrees) and put it right on it without any issues. No sealing is required and the only negative we could find is that if you dropped heavy things on it, it might chip or crack. Okay, so I'll be sure not to drop heavy objects on my countertops. Now for the pictures! We went with "Aura" which is inspired by Calacatta and Carrara marble, which is white with grey veins. You can see the cooktop mounted in the island and the sink under-mounted behind it. With almost 5 meters of countertop along the back wall, we ended up with 2 seams although they are nearly impossible to find. All of the walls that you see will eventually get large, white tiles.

We spent the weekend painting the bedroom in a color called "menthe glacée", which translates to "frozen mint". It actually turned out quite nice! We decided to go with different colors in the various rooms. In the living room/dining room/kitchen area (which is one big room), as well as the foyer and hallway, we went with a neutral grey color. The bedroom has this green, and the bathroom is getting a light beige color (almost the same color as the lightest of the mosaic tiles in the shower). We didn't want white but we also didn't want to go with anything too dark since there is only 1 window in the bathroom and we wanted it to be lighter. Then powder room will be a nice blue on the walls with bright white vanity/sink/mirror and toilet.

So ... the next blog you'll see on the apartment will be the "final reveal", and will most likely show up around the New Year. We will be extremely busy over the next 3 weeks. We have to get the apartment finished (mostly our carpenter's work, but we have a bit of painting to do) as well as all of the furnishings. We have a few things purchased and delivered so far but we still have a bit more to buy. We also have to pack and move our things from the existing apartment to the new apartment, and our checkout of our rental is December 28th. We also will be out of town for about 4 or 5 days on a quick trip over to Strasbourg for the Christmas Market there.

At this point, we would like to wish everyone that is reading our blog a very Happy Holiday season, a Merry Christmas, and a Happy New Year!

Update: you can now link directly to the final reveal!