Lukeworks

Back in February, I held a poll regarding countertops. It was very helpful and forced me to research many different countertop options. While granite was the most popular choice, 16% of you voted for concrete. I also voted for concrete, so concrete wins.

Last Friday, Sam and I visited the Lukeworks studio, here in Baltimore. Mark, the owner, showed us the process they use to fabricate custom concrete countertops. There seems to be no limit to what they can create. We are keeping things pretty simple ourselves. Here is the sample of what we chose:

Although Lukeworks uses white concrete, and they must add dye to make this gray shade, I like that it seems very natural.  Most people, myself included, associate this shade and texture with concrete. I also think it will look great against dark cabinets and a dark floor. 

The process cannot start until we install the kitchen cabinets.  Once that task is completed, Mark will come and take all of the necessary measurements.  It should take about 4-6 weeks from that point for them to fabricate and install the countertop. I cannot wait... I am very excited for this. 

Stairs, Part 1

We have been faithful Dwell magazine subscribers for the past 5+ years. So, of course our house plans include the must-have feature of all great dwell houses... an amazing, modern staircase.

We found that you can't just pick one of these off the shelves at Home Depot. Henry, as always, had a guy. We met Tom and, once we saw the type of metal work he could do, we came up with a few ideas. 

Here are a few inspiration stairs we found on houzz .com :

A couple of Sam's ideas:

At the house now are the two stringers (the part of the stair that supports the treads).  Tom installed them temporarily but they still need a little bit more soldering and a coat of paint.  

I am looking forward to seeing them come together piece by piece.  

Tiles and Tribulations

Wednesday, I finally placed the order for our bamboo flooring.  Right after the posting on March 22, I found out that we would be faced with additional installation costs.  Because hardwood needs to be either glued or nailed, it involves extra labor costs of $3.00-$5.00 per square foot. That put us over budget so we started at square one and began looking into click-lock floors instead. We came to the same conclusion the second time: while we could find great bamboo click-lock floors, they only came in a light, natural shade. CaliBamboo made several dark, high quality, click-lock floors but they were $10.50/sq.ft. After a lot of back-and-forth and (Sam claims) talking in my sleep about floor samples, we went with our original choice, Ambient Chocolate Strand Woven Bamboo:

I felt better immediately so I am confident that we made the right decision. The last thing I want is to stress over what shoes guests are wearing in the house or be afraid to drop or move anything on the floor. There is nothing in the house that will be used more than the floor...our families helped to convince us of that last weekend in Ohio. 

With that behind us, we need to move on to bathroom tile. Here are some samples that we ordered from modwalls to get an idea for sizes and colors that we might like.

The only tile I was 100% sure that I wanted in the house is Metro Hex White with Black Dot porcelain mosaic tile from Home Depot. We ordered it this afternoon to use in the first floor half-bath.

I anticipate the other baths being much more difficult because we'll need to coordinate the floor and the shower tile ...I can see some restless nights and sleep talking ahead. 

This week, we are hoping to have the stairs fabricated and installed.  The inspector will not go upstairs to check things out until we have real steps. Hope to have some pictures soon. 

Trees in bloom on Bank St.

Daffodils at Patterson Park

Happy Spring, Everyone!