Day 2 Ponte Vedra Move-in

To start at the beginning click here.

What a refreshing sight to see that clean beautiful white slate for us to fill with happiness.

Good riddance gold!

I can’t wait to see what’s under that paper but, alas, that will have to wait until Friday.

new hardwood floors in the great room

No more brocade

Much progress on the new kitchen. Good thing since we are moving in today. 🙂

Music Room

Guest Room

I love the new chandelier. Much better scale.

Dining Room

Black instead of oak.. check

Master Bedroom

I love the new blue ceiling.

Looks like it’s time for me to get to work.

But first things first..

What is that sweet man doing now?!?!

We decided at the 4 hour house visit ( read from the first post for this story) to re-use the existing drapery hardware.

The house was filled with what appeared to be lovely custom made drapery even inner-lined with European bump. No problem… right?

I had an epiphany a week before move-in.

We never actually COUNTED the rings.

Well, well, well things are not always as they seem. The draperies were fake. They would open and close but apparently they were not actually pleated.

Meaning? Meaning that we were almost 300 rings short for the house and I was in a world of hurt.

I spent 2 hours the next day in Birmingham contacting every single wholesale supplier of hardware in the country but no one had that many rings in the correct size and color.

We finally worked our way back to the manufacturer of the raw rings and they agreed to ship what looked like a boat load of rings directly to the house where

“that sweet man” – you guessed it- painted them all.

Good grief.

Meanwhile this was happening inside.

The granite men are preparing to cut the hole for the faucet.

The painters are painting the backs of the bookshelves ( and a million other things).

Then these guys arrived to off load the trucks.

This was the place to be apparently.

Let’s get this show on the road.

Why, you ask, are we moving furniture into a house that is obviously not ready?

Well, the lease on the corporate apartment runs out this Sunday,  school starts on Monday and the family has been separated for 12 weeks.

They were ready to move in and it was up to us to make it happen.

Tomorrow, Day 2.

If you would like to say, “That was fun!” at the end of your project contact me at

www.cindybarganier.com.

You Think This Is Glamorous Huh?

For all of you who think Interior Design is such a glamorous profession hang with us on days like this.

It was tile selection day for the beach project.

Here I am working with Billie from Destin Tile and Stone making the tile selections for the baths and kitchen.

I love this grey strie that we found for the downstairs master. The glass tiles are used as an accent band on the walls.

Here is a close-up of the glass tile.

It is actually a combination of tile slivers and smoky glass and it is beautiful but I have to tell you that I am being very careful how I use all of these specialty tiles.

I know the tile reps would hate it if they could hear me but I am afraid that they (the glass tiles) are going to scream

2010 like big hair screams 1980.

Just don’t date yourself too much.

We did a little special touch in each room and one of my favs is the river rock on the floor of one of the upstairs showers.

Now, here’s where the glamour part ends.

There is no such thing as a decorator who doesn’t work out.

Everything that we deal with is heavy. HEAVY I’m telling you, tile, granite, wallpaper books, fabric books, paint cans.

And step aerobics? Are you kidding me? We INVENTED that. We are up and down ladders all day.

So here we go in our cute little clothes (sometimes) to the granite yard… in 120 degree weather.

 

You know I’m just kidding you.

I actually find the granite yard quite exciting.

 It is hard to believe that all of those different colors and patterns were just buried on the side of some mountain until someone figured out a way to excavate them.

God is so creative. That’ s why I love to hang with Him.

We found this beautiful black to go with the grey strie’.

 Don’t you think that’s great looking?

We were trying to find remnants to use in the upstairs baths. That’s a trick I use that allows me to use a more expensive product. You don’t need the whole slab…. IF you can find a piece big enough for your needs left over from a job that someone else with very good taste used. 🙂

For this phase we went into the marble warehouse.

 These are the giant machines used to wet cut the slabs.

This slab is being readied for its cut.

I am determining what size I have to have for each vanity.

Then we narrow down by size and try to find one that will match the tile.

 

 

 

Three hours later we shake the marble dust from our clothes and after determining that we have

 the right colors

in the appropriate sizes,

 available at the required moment,

for a price that is almost within budget

 we pack up another 50 lbs of samples and call it a day.

Hopefully when we present it to the clients we won’t have to start all over. LOL

Thankfully, that rarely happens but there are those days….

So there ya have it. A day in the life of.

If you would like to say,”That was fun!” at the end of your project contact me at

www.cindybarganier.com.

 

 

Slowly, The Picture Comes Into Focus

I have been fretting and stewing and clapping and dancing a jig then fretting and stewing and…..

well, you get the picture,  all over finding the perfect starting point for the new Watercolor house.

You think you have it and then like a wave upon the sand it slips away from you.

Design, it sounds like it’s so simple but it’s really very complex-if it’s good that is.

The balance has to be right.

The proportions have to be right.

The undertones of the different colors must match on the value scale or it’s all wrong.

Ahhhh, but when you finally get it right it is pure bliss.

I’m getting there.

Stay tuned.

Great Small House Plans

I got a new subscriber yesterday ( who needs to add their name to their profile so that I can thank them properly LOL). In trying to determine what kind of blog they write I ran across a link that had been shared and I found it fascinating.  I don’t normally just re-post something but it was so appropriate for the times that we live in I just had to share.

Perhaps it caught my eye because we live in a bungalow or perhaps it’s because I have been thinking so much recently about how expensive square footage is and longing to design  the ideal smaller house; whatever the reason I loved the post.

Here it is:

“Today I would like to highlight a series of projects submitted in 1911(ish) to the “Brickbuilder”, an early 20th Century trade publication.  Having sponsored a nation wide competition, the publication received over 650 submissions from around the country.  The 100 top entries were published in 1912 in a catalog distributed by the Brickbuilder, and have been republished in a book called 100 Turn of the Century Brick Bungalows with Floor Plans.  There were two requirements for entry, first the bungalow had to be built of brick, and second it had to come in at a cost of $3000 or less. ( A comment on this post said that According to Wolfram Alpha $3000 in 1911 is the equivalent of $71,995.11 in 2011.) I love these projects for their simplicity but even more so because of Brickbuilder’s attempt to make the resulting projects affordable by keeping the cost requirements low.  Why aren’t we designing and building things today with the same spirit if not the same form?

Design By Leo N. Denler, Buffalo, NY

Design by M. A. Ward; Chicago, IL.

Design By HArry F.C. Mennecke; NY, NY

Design By Wetherill P. Trout; Philadelphia, PA

Design By J.H. Taylor; Montreal, Que., Canada

Design By Harold Field Kellogg; Boston, MA

Design BY Henry W. Hall & Hugo K. Graf; St. Louis, MO.

Design By George C. Crockett; NY, NY.

Design By J. Theodore Hanemann; NY, NY.

All images in this post are from the library of CJ Builds LLC.  The following resource was used for this post:

100 Turn-Of-The-Century Brick Bungalows with Floor Plans::  Rogers & Manson; Dover Publications, INC.  1994

I hope that you found this enjoyable.

If you need help planning YOUR perfect bungalow contact me at

www.cindybarganier.com.

 

She Gets It

In Crans Baldwin’s  blog,  A Glass Half Full, an April  entry includes this statement:

“You know, I am not a designer, just an ordinary client involved in the design business. However I value what designers, real designers, bring to the party. They do the homework so I don’t have to think about it. They plan, they envision, they draw, they select and specify, they measure, and they consult me when it matters. They deal with late shipments, wrong shipments, mistakes, finish problems, difficult installations, problem suppliers, last minute substitutions, etc. Buying at retail is different, with different expectations. Working with a designer is like working with any other profession, and it has little or nothing to do with retail….”

I couldn’t have said it better myself.

Cindy Barganier Interiors

If you want to say, “That was fun!” at the end of your project contact me at www.cindybarganier.com.