Arkay's Profile

Agree with Gbannis. We considered subway tile, but went with off-white tumbled marble instead because the shine and sparkle of the smooth tile surface made it too busy. I clicked on this post hoping to see different takes on subway tile -- matt tiles or something, but it's all the same sparkly shiny tile -- and it looks kinda interchangeable. It really makes me love the softness and depth of our tumbled marble.

If you shop around you can save a huge amount on tile - especially if you do something basic, like white subway. Rather than tiling the whole wall or half the wall, consider doing a single course of bullnose tile at the bottom of the wall in place of the baseboard.

Frameless glass shower doors are horribly expensive and hard to DIY - we skipped it, got a nice shower curtain, and splurged on a gorgeous piece of granite for the sink countertop.

Tiling walls and shower enclosures is tricky, but laying a tile floor is pretty easy to DIY - buy a cheap wetsaw, etc. - so we hired out the shower job and did the floor ourselves. Our subfloor was in decent shape, so we used Schluter Ditra-Mat instead of cement board - MUCH faster and easier to work with, and it doesn't raise up the floor so much that you need to cut down the bathroom door or put in a massive threshold board.

Preppy drag circa 1978: Yellow Izod polo shirt over pink Izod polo shirt, lime green chinos, Docksides, no socks, untied.

Over at BoingBoing there have been a bunch of posts about standing desks, apropos of that same study. I have kneeling chair in my studio, as well as raised table where I work standing (in one of my lives I'm a sculptor) - both make me feel more alert & awake that sitting in a conventional chair.

If you're just starting out, get or build boxes that are as deep as possible - more dirt, less watering, happier plants.

I have a hard time seeing past the sleek affluence these exude, the sameness of the gray stone slabs, and the sense that the owners don't do much of the gardening themselves. It would be nice to see some more handmade/homemade rectilinear modern gardens.

Great kitchen.

Comment about Marmoleum for other posters: The subfloor has to be PERFECT or the Marmoleum will show every joint and screwhead. (Screwhead - is the name of the subflooring contractor I will NEVER use again!)

Laura Miller did a nice piece on Kinkade over at Salon, calling him "The George W. Bush of art" http://www.salon.com/2012/04/09/thomas_kinkade_the_george_w_bush_of_art/

I don't care for his work, but the story of his run-in with the Winnie-the-Pooh statue gave me a new appreciation for the man....

In the old days, it was hiding the bong. Now, it's remembering to pull out the awful faux-Picasso teapot my mother-in-law gave us when she comes to visit. I guess that's called growing up...?

The good thing with wallpapering a small space (or an accent wall) is you can spring for some really good paper. Check out Farrow & Ball - love their Lotus pattern....