Our longtime friend, Luis C., who happens to be a contractor (!!!, little did we know), came from Toluca, Mx., (an hour and a half away, depending on the traffic), to talk with us about the remodeling of our beautiful, new, luxury apartment. You all know that we purchased it this past month, knowing that we wanted to redo it “our way”. Well, originally, we had asked our cousin Marco, youngest brother to Juan, and Pepe, who is an engineer, if he knew someone who could help us with the renovation. He said he “knew a guy” that would do the floors well, and would not be not too expensive. We hopped on that like locusts on wheat! Little did we know that “the guy” was younger brother to Luis, but lives here in CDMX.
Fast forward to today- Luis, and his carpenter, Mario, brought samples of flooring, and countertops. OMG! The flooring we picked is a beautiful ceramic tile, 20″ x 20″, very pale, but white, marble-looking, and the countertops will be what is called Blue Pearl Granite, though it looks more black than blue. We have decided on medium-light oak cabinets in the kitchen, with glass inserts, and that go all the way to the ceiling. The ceramic tile will be on all flooring outside of the kitchen, (which is already white), including the bathrooms, and all 3 bedrooms.
We are completely redoing the bathrooms- the first bathroom, off the living room, will be handicapped accessible, in that we are expanding the door opening 7″ to accommodate a wheelchair, removing the large existing sink and vanity, and replacing it with a smaller, possibly angular, floating, corner sink; moving the toilet from front facing to facing the door so a wheelchair can come up along side of it; building a “wall” of what we call Saltillo block “behind” the toilet, as part of the shower, and removing the “lip” on the floor entrance to the shower, making it completely flush. (I will try to post before and after photos as things progress so it will make more sense.)
We are changing the flooring to match the rest of the house, the ceramic tile, but are, at this moment, leaving the dark brown tile that is currently in the showers. It is “corrugated”, so none of us will slip and fall when showering, we hope, plus it looks really nice with the dark brown “stripe” of tile around the walls. (I will show you, at some point.)
EVERYTHING is being gutted in the apartment except the stove and exhaust fan. Nothing will be the same when we are done with this “soon to be beauty”. And it will be us, the two of us, our ideas, our hopes and dreams, and it will be amazing.
I hope you stick around to see the magic happen.