Two months down
In July - the same month we began the construction phase of The Project - I ended a nine-year run at a local non-profit organization that I truly, truly loved. It was a well-thought-out, long-planned departure, but the fact that it dovetailed with the start of a major remodel was most definitely unintentional. Two months later, and I am still on the hunt for an opportunity that excites me and my budget (lest we forget that employment, while often satisfying in other ways, is a fee-for-services exchange.)
On the flip side, unemployment plus construction has me looking forward to Mondays like never before. You know what happens on a job site on the weekends? Not a lot. There are some serious bankers’ hours in residential construction, folks. And you know how many job opportunities are posted on the weekends? Also not a lot. Monday is my new Friday.
Da Vinci Marble Field Trip
Last Friday, we accompanied our interior designer to Da Vinci Marble in pursuit of countertop materials and primary bathroom floor tiles. When it comes to countertops, I am all about practicality. Don’t get me wrong, I love natural stone and could ooo-and-ahh over marble and granite slabs all day long, but in my workhorse of a kitchen I’ll take man-made quartz, please. I knew I wanted something that was light in color and not too busy in pattern. I think we browsed for all of 10 minutes before we selected the following:
Santa Margherita “Virginia” - Kitchen Countertops
Santa Margherita “Vermont” - Bathroom Countertops
Both choices are from the same collection. The Virginia quartz is warmer, and will complement the Ogawa Green Manganese tile, and the Vermont is cooler, and will pair nicely with the various blues in the bathrooms.
As for the primary bathroom floor, we’re still weighing our options. Our whole-house budget for tile and countertops is $20k, but we went in knowing that this might be one of the areas where we chose to splurge a little. So far, I’ve spent about $7,300 on tile, $600 or so of which I plan to resell. When all is said and done, I’m guessing we’ll spend about $10k on all of the tile for the house, excluding the primary bathroom floor. The countertops were a lot more affordable than I would have guessed (around $6k all in). This leaves about $4k for the primary bathroom floor.
This floor has been the Husband’s passion project since the very beginning. He was really hoping for a mosaic, but the floor is large: we’re going to need a whopping 176 square feet, including the recommended 20% overage. At a recent visit to Heath (I believe it was Trip #4), he fell in love with this half-hex pattern:
Unfortunately, I’m not going to find a lot of those in the tile shed, and they retail for $58/sqft (including mounting). Sonoma Tilemakers has a slightly more affordable version at $46/sqft.
The Rental
I was, admittedly, skeptical when we signed the lease on this property. But after two months living here, I have to admit we really lucked out. The neighborhood is phenomenal, the landlord is local and super responsive, and the house has, as the Daughters say, good vibes. And it turns out I really, really like padding around on wall-to-wall carpeting. I also feel the need to give a shout out to this gorgeous gentleman, who might be the world’s most adaptable cat. I’ve lived with cats all my life and, generally speaking, they are not super psyched about moving house. This guy took one look around and was like…guess I live here now. Truly the Matthew McConaughey of cats.
Heath Tile Shed - Trip #6
I haven’t done two trips in a week to Sausalito since my initial weekend of discovery back in August. But, our interior designer did some tile calculations this week, and it looked like I might be a little short on the Opal Pacific. I figured it was best to get while the getting was good.
I ended up with another 16sqft of Opal Pacific 1sts and 40sqft of Ogawa Green Manganese 2nds for the kitchen. After six trips, I have come up with the following tips for navigating the Heath Tile Shed:
Come with a list, but be prepared to be flexible (see: the Opal Pacific 2x8s versus 2x6s saga)
If you can, always grab the 1sts. 1sts are perfect, overproduced tiles that are available for 40% off their usual price. 2nds are a gamble at $14/sqft; I’ve had some boxes that seem indistinguishable from their 1st counterparts and some that are noticeably flawed.
The guy who runs the tile shed is terribly attractive. Even the Husband was like…damn, that’s a good-looking fella. I might have stammered. You have been warned.
