I'm so Jealous!

Look at this blog post, and what this lady found on Craigs List!  OMG, what a find! And here I am, making all this effort to go to Betis to get my mirror done!

If hers looked like a "kingdom", mine looks a bit like barnacles. Okay, it is rococo, therefore the shell.  Here is what it looks like now. I visited it again a couple of weeks back to check on the finishing because once it's delivered, that's it!

Good thing I went to see it because I didn't like this "lahar" finish of theirs--which is white powder instead of dark stains in the crevices. Makes the mirror look new but dusty, instead of old and beat up.

But the wood carving is exquisite. Our carvers are very talented.

I'm excited to get it into the house...

Here is the proper finishing I'm having them duplicate. I think it will give the carving more emphasis instead of making them look like one big chunk.

Oh look, a nice small mirror.

Read that blogpost again, about the luckiest girl in the world who found her mirror on Craigs list. Waaaahhhhhh!

I doubt if her mirror is really from the 1890's, but who cares. It's not only the cost, but the thrill of finding it.  I love the way she describes how she pursues the mirror.

Oh well, I'm happy for her, and happy for myself too! I love how my mirror is coming along.

Garden Stools at SM

Look! beautiful garden stools! I carted one home right away.

SM...They've got it all!

Renewed Inspiration

We got back from our trip ten days ago. I didn't  want the trip to end and I'm getting sadder by the day because the feeling of being in those places is slowly slipping away. I didn't realize how stressed I was until five days into the trip when I stopped thinking about the renovation back home and decided "to be here, now!"

Rome was just what I needed at this stage of the renovation (where did I say I was, in "finishing"? whaaahaha!). Seeing all those old stone buildings, stone floors, solid wooden front doors, curly old grills revalidated my choices. Being my first renovation, and one that i'm completely doing by myself (with a lot of solicited comments from designer friends too), I sometimes feel insecure that what I like is baduy. How can one not feel that way here when we're surrounded by Asian modern stuff and straight clean lines. I like that look--but NOT for me. I've been gravitating towards curly grills, carved old wood and basically an old-world look. I probably was a Roman princess in a past life, or maybe a Roman servant! Either way, I'm sure I I was exposed to all these curly things in my past life.
I came home with renewed confidence in my previous choices and an attitude that says "follow your heart" and not the trend. I will be surrounded by things I love to look at. And how on earth can my choices be baduy when they've been around for a couple of thousand years? 
The photos show things I were drawn to during this trip. I'll post what I have in the house as soon as I find those similar shots somewhere in my iPhoto. I have pictures of the house from the time it was vacated  by the last tenant, and in all stages of  the renovation. Wouldn't that make a cool scrapbook for the kids?

I'm tired of saying "the house is almost done--just a few more things".  But it really is! They just need to retouch the lousy duco job, finish the kitchen, finish putting the molding on the balcony, begin the final coating the floor, but they can't do that until absolutely everything is done in the interiors. The varnishers are so slow--I think it's only Mang Ben working and he still has so many doors to do. The paint contractor tried to bring in other varnishers but I saw the difference right away, and the workers were gone the next day!

I'm not happy with the way the granite supplier installed the stone. Very sloppy work! I already told him to assign his BEST guy to this project because I was very particular about these details. If this is his best guy, this guy will be out of business soon. This photo shows the joint where the agglomerate cream stone meets the white tiled wall. This is a macro shot, but still, this should be a hairline joint.

My light supplier is excellent. Great prices and service. I like him a lot and I've recommended him to about 5 different projects--all much bigger than mine, and they all like him a lot too and have been referring him to even more people. People like him make me happy. The others, I want to strangle.