To stain or not stain...

When you've got old floorboards, they retain some color even after they're sanded. That makes it tricky to match the new floorboards (where walls used to be). In the second photo, you can see one of our several Minwax testing sessions. Mr. Chen, the foreman, lobbied for a darker stain to hide the difference in tones. Steve & I wanted a lighter color to open up the space and provide contrast with the kitchen cabs and Raydoors. We hit upon a compromise by leaving the original floors untouched and only staining the newer sections. Then all topped off with waterbased poly sealer. We were pretty nervous when we opened the door to the apartment on Saturday morning then breathed a huge sigh of relief.

The floors look glowing & warm but not too dark. And the parquet pattern really "pops" now.

Backsplash & replacement cabinet doors

Here's Leo, our contractor (with his everpresent Bluetooth earpiece), showing how well the replacement cabinet door matches the originals. Other than the name of the company (Oriental Construction), we love Leo & his crew. They've really gone the extra mile and care deeply about doing a top quality job. Not only that, they were the low bidders!

The glass mosaic backsplash just makes me smile every time I see it. It injects movement and levity into the otherwise zen walnut kitchen. No, the tile guy hasn't been working round the clock. I'm just way behind on blogging.

Later I'll post pix of the two beautiful drawers Oriental built to fill the 24" gap in the island. They also cut a piece of the extra granite to create a second overhang on the window side of the island. Now it will seat people on both sides, which Erin says makes it much more of a hangout. I don't doubt it.

Maya's bathroom

Now we're really having some fun. This is the funky Italian tile we found in one of those huge discount tile warehouses that's always at the outer reaches of the five boroughs. I came up with the pattern to make sparing use of the pricey circle tiles.

Again, the god of tile is doing his thing & it's looking spectacular. The room used to be painted midnight blue and it swallowed the light coming from the small window like a black hole. Now there's tons of light bouncing around & it's much cheerier.

Tile Man Rules

Among the many things we love about our contracting crew, the tile installer is now #1. The man is a true artist. Rather than using shorter bullnose pieces (rounded on one side) on the corners, our perfectionist foreman Mr. Chen insisted on MITERING all the corner pieces. That meant sanding many many edges at a 45 degree angle for days. Well, the results speak for themselves.

The master bathroom is now a glorious cave of celadon green punctuated by a glass mosaic stripe (same as kitchen backsplash). Every seam is a joy to behold.

Note to do-it-yourselfers: toothpicks are the spacers of the pros.