The three of us drove to Burlington, dropped off A., and then R. and I went to the Ferguson showroom. I saw the HF Bento and a Mobius in person and they are exactly as I expected, so I’m happy about that.
We also looked at a lot of vanities and I experienced a Toto washlet and I was sold on it before and also that was an excellent experience. Some experiences really make it clear just how far into middle age one has gotten.
I did the interior doors meeting, and we started with the two exterior doors, and that was, to say the least, cartoonishly disappointing. I gave direction, expressed gratitude and was not at all snarky. We got through the interior doors and I said no cheek walls, and explained the rearranging in the kitchen. All in all, really successful on interior doors and kind of a rolling horror show on the exterior doors.
So, I got the rough opening numbers on door 1 (the main entry) from J., and I worked out the rough opening on door 10 because I thought of that later. J. kept pointing out that the doors I like over at Simpson (Lombard) are sold as double doors with no lights and that fits really perfectly into the space and should look really great. So I don’t know why this went so weird, but whatever. I hadn’t realized just _how_ square N. had made the rough opening. Turns out that 10 is slightly shorter and a smidge wider, so it’s more normally rectangular, except he’d set that up as a fairly narrow single door with really wide lights. *shrug* I had misunderstood a lot about door 10 earlier, but at this point, having seen how they were “interpreting” the door for a single door with lights, it occurred to me to just size it for a double no lights there, too, and again, should look really good. I priced it in sapele, and I mean those are shocking numbers, but absolutely fine.
I called J., and she laughed (this was the second call and the second laugh — the first one was because D. and I had simultaneously thought of pivot doors, but of course not in New England) and said she’d kept thinking why not just make door 10 a double door no lights, too. So we’re going down that path.
She’s completely over whatever concerns she had when I said I was thinking of taking the kitchens and bar away from O. millwork, since the designs we’d seen so far were so cartoonishly bad, and I took a quick look at their gallery on their website and it’s clear that those designs are exactly the kind of work they are doing (voiding corners, waterfall over the edge of a counter, etc.). She and/or D. came up with an alternate, and when I look at _their_ gallery, I have such nice, warm, comfortable feelings. I do not fucking need an edgy, contemporary kitchen. Goddess save us all.
We’re gong to have a meeting early tomorrow to go over what I _definitely do not want_ in terms of millwork (not from anyone), and what I do want, but have real concerns about pricing or want done very differently or whatever. Mostly this is so they are up-to-date on my thinking, but also because O. is wanting a buyout to produce any more planning/pricing and what we’ve seen so far makes us all want to run away. I took a look at their “careers” tab, and I don’t think they have the capacity to do what we need done, and I am also pretty sure they don’t _want_ to do the designs that have been coming from N. They want to do curvy, biscuited or C&C’ed or whatever floating wood shelves for cannabis dispensaries, and more power to them. They are lovely. And also, not what we are looking for.
I’m reasonably certain my weekend is going to be me going over the entire house and figuring out exactly what I want in terms of millwork. I’m going to spec out all the kitchens and the bar without any reliance on what was provided by N. I’m definitely switching to the alternative bar layout, and I’m going with the fully re-thought main kitchen, and I’m going to figure out what to do about the banquette in the Eat In Kitchen, which may evolve into a wildly different layout in there, too, and I’m also going to see if I can figure out what I want for display shelving at the top of the main stair, and R. wants a chair rail in the dining room, and I need to look into cork paneling or some other wall treatment that I like better than tambour wainscotting. I’m also going to rip out every bit of trimber I can, because I found an article about parallel lines that explains a whole lot of why I hate tambour and the trimbers.
Oh, and I think I might replace the subway tile I put into the pool bathroom with a vertical installed large format tile, like I want in our main bathroom.
I’m sort of looking forward to doing this. I’ve been reacting so much, and coaxing things along, and I’m am tired. I am going to put out something that I genuinely want, and if there are problems, we’ll figure them out.
We also looked at a lot of vanities and I experienced a Toto washlet and I was sold on it before and also that was an excellent experience. Some experiences really make it clear just how far into middle age one has gotten.
I did the interior doors meeting, and we started with the two exterior doors, and that was, to say the least, cartoonishly disappointing. I gave direction, expressed gratitude and was not at all snarky. We got through the interior doors and I said no cheek walls, and explained the rearranging in the kitchen. All in all, really successful on interior doors and kind of a rolling horror show on the exterior doors.
So, I got the rough opening numbers on door 1 (the main entry) from J., and I worked out the rough opening on door 10 because I thought of that later. J. kept pointing out that the doors I like over at Simpson (Lombard) are sold as double doors with no lights and that fits really perfectly into the space and should look really great. So I don’t know why this went so weird, but whatever. I hadn’t realized just _how_ square N. had made the rough opening. Turns out that 10 is slightly shorter and a smidge wider, so it’s more normally rectangular, except he’d set that up as a fairly narrow single door with really wide lights. *shrug* I had misunderstood a lot about door 10 earlier, but at this point, having seen how they were “interpreting” the door for a single door with lights, it occurred to me to just size it for a double no lights there, too, and again, should look really good. I priced it in sapele, and I mean those are shocking numbers, but absolutely fine.
I called J., and she laughed (this was the second call and the second laugh — the first one was because D. and I had simultaneously thought of pivot doors, but of course not in New England) and said she’d kept thinking why not just make door 10 a double door no lights, too. So we’re going down that path.
She’s completely over whatever concerns she had when I said I was thinking of taking the kitchens and bar away from O. millwork, since the designs we’d seen so far were so cartoonishly bad, and I took a quick look at their gallery on their website and it’s clear that those designs are exactly the kind of work they are doing (voiding corners, waterfall over the edge of a counter, etc.). She and/or D. came up with an alternate, and when I look at _their_ gallery, I have such nice, warm, comfortable feelings. I do not fucking need an edgy, contemporary kitchen. Goddess save us all.
We’re gong to have a meeting early tomorrow to go over what I _definitely do not want_ in terms of millwork (not from anyone), and what I do want, but have real concerns about pricing or want done very differently or whatever. Mostly this is so they are up-to-date on my thinking, but also because O. is wanting a buyout to produce any more planning/pricing and what we’ve seen so far makes us all want to run away. I took a look at their “careers” tab, and I don’t think they have the capacity to do what we need done, and I am also pretty sure they don’t _want_ to do the designs that have been coming from N. They want to do curvy, biscuited or C&C’ed or whatever floating wood shelves for cannabis dispensaries, and more power to them. They are lovely. And also, not what we are looking for.
I’m reasonably certain my weekend is going to be me going over the entire house and figuring out exactly what I want in terms of millwork. I’m going to spec out all the kitchens and the bar without any reliance on what was provided by N. I’m definitely switching to the alternative bar layout, and I’m going with the fully re-thought main kitchen, and I’m going to figure out what to do about the banquette in the Eat In Kitchen, which may evolve into a wildly different layout in there, too, and I’m also going to see if I can figure out what I want for display shelving at the top of the main stair, and R. wants a chair rail in the dining room, and I need to look into cork paneling or some other wall treatment that I like better than tambour wainscotting. I’m also going to rip out every bit of trimber I can, because I found an article about parallel lines that explains a whole lot of why I hate tambour and the trimbers.
Oh, and I think I might replace the subway tile I put into the pool bathroom with a vertical installed large format tile, like I want in our main bathroom.
I’m sort of looking forward to doing this. I’ve been reacting so much, and coaxing things along, and I’m am tired. I am going to put out something that I genuinely want, and if there are problems, we’ll figure them out.