Tag: bathroom renovation

Week 11: Farewell to My Fabulous Fifties – The Bathroom Edition

Hello on this beautiful Monday. I am not sure what the weather is doing but it is a beautiful Monday to me because my bathroom is done! There are no painters, plumbers, contractors or workers of any kind. As nice as they all are, it’s great to have our home all to ourselves again! In fact I think I’ll do a celebratory lap in my jammies!

So this edition, week 11, will primarily focus on our bathroom reveal. Our home is 21 years old and the bathroom is original to the house. The before photos don’t show it well, but the tile was cracked in spots and the space was in need of a general update. Our contractor Tony did a great job from start to finish and I would happily recommend him without reservation. He was honest, hardworking and always showed up on time. He was also priced fairly. We really felt lucky! We are delighted with the way it turned out. This bathroom is used as our back-up bathroom when time is tight and we both need to shower and it also serves as a guest bathroom. We had a new steam sauna installed. Our old one had been broken for quite a while, so we are really looking forward to putting that sauna to good use. So here are a few before and after photos.

Surprisingly, we found this vanity at Lowes and it was exactly what we had in mind. It came with the sink and marble vanity top. We decided to eliminate the wall mirrors and just place one individual mirror above the vanity.
I stripped off the wallpaper (not fun) and we opted for wainscoting along the walls with a tile border running around the room. It also serves as a backsplash to the vanity.
We opted for a rain shower and a hand held shower. We had a niche built in for bath products.
Side view entering from the guest room.
Hand-held shower in addition to rain shower and bench for using the steam sauna.

I scoured Instagram for quite a while to collect all the bathroom images I liked and looked for commonalities between the photos to help make decisions. We opted to go from a beige palate to a gray and green palate to coordinate with our recent basement remodel. The green in the photo actually doesn’t translate well. Our paint color was Seasalt from Sherwin Williams with Extra-white for trim and wainscoting. Our tile is a linen-look from Virginia tile with coordinating Agate Bari Pearl with variations for trim and shower floor. Our plumbing fixtures were from Builders Plumbing and Heating Supply and Ferguson Plumbing, both in Ann Arbor. Now that it is complete, I am so happy we undertook the project. It took 3 1/2 weeks from start to finish but that includes a week where nothing was done, the contractor was finished but we were waiting for the painter and shower door. The shower door had to be custom made due to sizing, and was done by Mirror Image. The artwork on the wall adjacent to the vanity was a watercolor we purchased years ago in Saugatuck, which I had re-matted in gray. I found the Bless Our Nest mixed media piece at Bed Bath and Beyond. If you want any names of people or products, don’t hesitate to reach out.

So, that’s a wrap for our bathroom redo! But because owning a house provides a revolving carousel of never-ending projects, our next few undertakings will be having our wood floors refinished and replacing the laundry room countertop. Onward and upward.

In other news, I have found THE wine! Many thanks to Amanda, a member of my husband’s office team, for sending it my way! I have been trying wines from Italy, France, California and Washington, but I should have known that deep down I am a Michigan girl at heart. This 2016 Muscat is from Shady Lane Cellars located in Michigan’s Leelanau Peninsula. It’s described as elegant and fresh with aromas and flavors of orange and apple blossoms, tangerine and a clean vibrant finish. It is not too sweet and strikes just the right crisp note for my palate. I still love me some Grand Traverse Late Harvest Riesling but this will provide a nice alternative when I’m not in the mood for sweet. I enjoyed it with barbecue chicken, fresh corn and a salad made with produce from our local farm-stand (shout out to Budd’s Produce). And as a further bonus, I know I will always remember the name of this wine because my family nickname is Lane. I find it pretty humorous or perhaps poetic justice that its name is Shady Lane. I believe I can confidently check off item # 46 on my list (find a new favorite wine) I also believe I see a road trip up to Shady Lane Cellars in my future!

Shady Lane Muscat
Chicken was still on the grill while we enjoyed yummy salad and corn from Budd’s Produce in Belleville. Shady Lane Muscat was the perfect accompaniment to this summer meal.

Moving on, my Duolingo streak remains intact at 712 days. French class resumes after summer hiatus on Monday. I’m still meditating using the Headspace app. I’ve even tried a walking meditation which I liked. I’ve done yoga using my Nordic Track and I’ve managed to squeeze in a total of 30 workouts on my way to 50, including a walk along a Hawaiian beach, and a stroll through both Antarctica and Vienna. I am way ahead of schedule. I’ve read a few more books (Unsheltered, Year One, The Education of Dixie Dupree). Very different reads but all were enjoyable. I am currently reading John Grisham’s new book, The Reckoning, which will be book #43. I am 84% of the way to my goal of 50 for the calendar year, and 14 books ahead of schedule. This will give me a cushion when I dive back into the last book in the Poldark Series, which is entails reading 688 pages of very small print and always seems to slow me down!

We are getting close to the debut of our dog Kobe’s new tricks. (yes, I said tricks with an s!) Turns out you CAN teach an old dog a new trick …or two! In looking over my list, there are still quite a few things that can ONLY be done in warmer weather, so I need to keep plugging away at them. We head up north next week where I hope to check a few more items off of my bucket list and take a few photos of the lovely upper peninsula to share with all of you. Make it a great and productive week and like Kobe, why not challenge yourself to try something new this week too? As always, if you want to check out the original bucket list here is a link to the blog post. Make it a great week. Now where’d I leave that wine glass?

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Week 8: Farewell to My Fabulous 50’s

Summer on the lake. Backyard views.

Well I am eight weeks in and feeling pretty satisfied with my progress so far. The check marks are flying and the bucket-list items that require ongoing commitment are also doing well. As Mike was off this week, we had a little more time to accomplish some of the things on our summer wish list (and my bucket-list). Fun fact: I thought we were approaching the midway point of summer, so I googled it. And guess what? Summer is not half over until August 7th. We still have a lot of summer left! Doesn’t that make you feel better? So let’s get on with it, shall we?

The bathroom is rounding home plate. Tony, our contractor extraordinaire and jack of all trades came on Saturday to finish up. The last items needed will be a custom glass door, which is scheduled to be measured by Al, someone Tony recommended, on Tuesday. It also needs painting which I’ve lined up for Tuesday. I picked several paint colors and we narrowed it down to the top two contenders. We painted swatches on the wall and have decided to go with Sherwin Williams Seasalt. Did we make the right choice? Let me know what you think! The wainscoting will be Extra-white, also by Sherwin Williams. The last thing we need are all of the accessories, towels, wash cloths, waste baskets, artwork, i.e. the fun stuff! I’ll wait to share bathroom pictures though until the final product.

Unfortunately the true colors didn’t translate well. They are a bit lighter than this appears.

I also used my herb garden to prepare a dish this week, Skinny Teriakyi Pork Chops topped with a few chives from the garden. It’s from a recipe I printed off the internet a few years ago. It was yummy! I wish I could attribute the recipe to someone however, despite an exhaustive internet search, I couldn’t relocate this exact recipe, just variations of it. Here is the recipe:

Skinny Pineapple Teriakyi Pork Chops

20 oz can Pineapple Slices in 100% juice, (reserve 1/2 cup juice)

1/4 cup less sodium soy sauce

2 TBSP brown sugar

2 TBSP rice vinegar

1/4 tsp ground ginger

4 -40z boneless pork chops, trimmed of fat

1 tsp fresh chives, chopped

  1. In a small bowl prepare marinade. Whisk together pineapple juice, soy sauce, brown sugar, rice vinegar and ground ginger.
  2. Place pork chops in a large resealable bag and cover with marinade. Seal bag and place pork chops in the fridge for 3-4 hours or overnight. If possible, turn bag every hour or so to evenly cover pork cops with marinade.
  3. Remove pork chops from bag. DO NOT DISCARD MARINADE.
  4. In a small sauce pan over medium heat, bring marinade to a boil. Reduce heat to low and simmer sauce for 15-17 minutes until sauce thickens, making sure to stir sauce frequently. After sauce has thickened, remove from heat and place in a small dish. You will use this marinade sauce while grilling pork chops and pineapple.
  5. Preheat the grill to medium-high heat. Lightly coat grill rack with nonstick cooking spray.
  6. Place pork chops on grill and brush often with marinade sauce while cooking. Cook pork chops on each side for 4-5 minutes or until cooked through.
  7. Delicately add pineapple slices to grill and cook for 1-2 minutes on both sides.
  8. Let pork chops rest for 2-4 minus before serving.
  9. To serve, place a grilled pineapple on top of each pork chop and sprinkle with chives.

Serving size is 1 pork chop/1 pineapple slice, 268 calories

Skinny Teriakyi Pork Chops topped with garden chives and a side of my “special” coleslaw.

Yoga lakeside was ah-mazing! (bucket list item #50) Thanks to my sister-in-law Sharon and my niece Ashley, our instructors, for the excellent start to our day. Thanks also to Katherine for sharing her beautiful lake-front with us. Class started at 10:30am and it was H*O*T*. It felt like what I imagine hot yoga must feel like. Sweaty. Despite the heat, it was an amazing class. I know the heat seemed to improve my flexibility, but the best part for me was, as we were resting in savasana, a gentle cleansing rain came and cooled us off. Thank you Mother Nature!

Favorite way to do yoga: Outdoors with friends.

We tried a new restaurant, San Morello (bucket-list item #11). This little gem is located in the new Shinola Hotel in downtown Detroit. We brought Mike’s stepmom, Louise, out to lunch there for her birthday. The atmosphere was lovely and everyone’s meals were delicious. We ordered 2 dips with bread for our starters: Sheep’s milk ricotta with hot honey and garlic and also Italian butter bean wild mushroom sott’aceto. Both were yummy though I especially liked the ricotta dip. Louise ordered a traditional breaded eggplant al forno, (Melanzane for you Italians out there.) I had a classic tomato, mozzarella, basil wood-fired pizza, and Mike ordered Tuna tartare as an entree. Our waitress was very good and I would absolutely go back. We opted to sit inside as it was extremely hot but they do offer patio seating and I’ll bet it’s lovely on a cool summer evening. Here is a link to their website if you want to check it out for yourself. https://www.sanmorello.com

San Morello. You can see the patio dining to the left.
Lunch with the birthday girl.

After lunch, we walked around the city a bit and discovered this cute little coffee shop, Madcap Coffee, next to The Brakeman. It had large windows that open in the summer, allowing you to place your order street-side. We ordered their summer blend, which we enjoyed before heading home.

Awaiting our coffee. Bonus: a good place to people-watch.

Newsflash on the wine front: I may have a contender here for new favorite wine. I gave the waitress at San Morello my likes and dislikes and, after conferring with the bartender, she suggested I try a white wine from central Italy, Verdicchio Classico Castelli di Jesi Felici 2017, Marche. It was $12 by the glass, and I was able to find it online from $14-$20 a bottle depending on the vendor. If you, like me, prefer less dry white wines, with crisp fruit notes, you might like this one. Currently, it is my top contender for new favorite wine!

Top contender so far for new favorite wine!

Bucket-list item #43 was a sunrise breakfast on the pontoon. Mission accomplished. We got up early on July 4th before the lake gets busy and had a lovely little sausage/egg/English muffin sandwich with fresh pineapple orange juice, and fruit. I hope we are able to do this a few more times this summer. What an awesome way to start the day!

Breakfast on the boat. Don’t mind if I do!

On Sunday, we had planned to tackle that bike ride to Lake Eerie but we decided to take a raincheck. Literally. Rain would have affected much of our ride and why make it unpleasant when we don’t have to?

As you can see, it was a busy week. Hope you all had a happy and safe July 4th. Until next week, happy trails!