Dreaming in paint colors

We hope everyone had a relaxing holiday weekend. Christina and I both skipped work on Friday, so that gave me 4 days to be covered in paint and really experience Labor Day weekend. I spent the first two days putting the second and third coats of red on the wall, as well as the second coats of green and the "blue" (again with the quotes). All I have left is some patch work and a second coat of white in the bedroom. I really was on the fence about the second coat of white, but I think that's just being lazy. Two coats are minimum in my book. For those playing along, 8 gallons of primer and 9 gallons of paint.....

We decided to go with low VOC paint that we purchased from Duron. I have to say that I was really surprised how well it covered given that I had read a few reviews/opinions that low VOC paints don't cover. Now granted, I primed every wall twice and for the red and green walls I also primed them grey....but still the low VOC stuff is nice. Plus since it hardly smells, you can paint all day without any headaches or feeling ill from the fumes, just maybe like a little play-doh. The red had to be a traditional base since the low VOC bases are for light and pastel colors. That's an FYI if anyone wants to go the low VOC route.

Everything else is wrapping up. Niko put in some long hours after work last week and finished laying all of the tile in the shower before the weekend. I'm hoping that he'll decide to come back and grout this week, unlike our contractor. I need the tile and paint to be done, and I think it's about there.

I'm including a few pictures of the completed shower for those who might be interested. The shampoo bottle on the recessed shelf was a test for my sanity. I had a moment of panic today thinking that the shelf we created wasn't big enough for a standard shampoo bottle. Needless to say, our architect won't be yelled at today, because it fits. Whew.

The items that are left for this floor are:

1. grout
2. install the plumbing fixtures
3. install the electrical items
4. lay the hardwoods in the bedroom
5. put in the correct sills that we ripped out
6. trim
   

The problem for us is that #2-6 were supposed to be done (correctly) by our former contractor. As we're still trying to figure out what the next step with that mess is, we might be waiting a few weeks to wrap it up. UUUUUUUUUUUUUUGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH. Anyway, hopefully we'll make that final decision after we talk to his bonding company and get some legal advice. It's getting ugly around here for sure.

To round out the posting, I took a couple pictures of the space. This first is where the tub (that's being used for tool storage right now) will go overlooking the stairs. The little unfinished lip you see has a marble top and it's bathroom side will have the baseboards wrapping on it. Fancy-schmancy I guess.

The last picture is of the niche that was created on the outer wall of the shower in the hallway. There were some adventures getting that niche there, framed properly and the tile on it....but there it is. Man, it's crazy seeing it and thinking about ALL of the work that damn thing was. But hey, I'm just the hired help right, and the architect seemed to be really attached to it?

So I guess that's it. if we do wait a few weeks to finish the third floor as I mentioned, then the next project is framing in the soffit in the office on the second floor. It's currently my workshop, but getting that soffit built with new electrical run to the room is infinitely more fun than painting. Any day of the week. It's not like we are going to run out of projects anytime soon!