Labour Day Weekend: Sunset

Labour Day Weekend was mostly surprisingly cold. The general Seattle reaction seems to be a little bit of grief for the summer that we feel like we never had. But it stopped raining, got a bit sunny, and climbed into the lower-sixties on Sunday and so we jumped at the invitation to go grill on Shawn and Sanna’s roof. They live in South Lake Union, and there are great views of the Space Needle …

… and all the way around to Gas Works Park. The rooftop garden and grill area is great. Here’s Capital Hill across Lake Union, with a seaplane about to land.

(See it? Look just to the lower-right of the six white smokestacks in the middle of the photo.) Shawn and Sanna are farmers’ market mavens, and they had prepped a feast. Lots of purple vegetables (including Dragon’s Tongue beans – if you ever find these, buy them! They’re awesome.), delicious potatoes and sausages.

The clouds were amazing — tall and spectacular (I wish I knew my cloud types?), and once the sun began to set at a too-early 7:20, they became increasingly dramatic.

And then even more so:

The roof is great because it’s planted with gardens and people bring their dogs up. Very social. Once the sun was officially down, we needed to make a run to the apartment for blankets and more sweatshirts, but better staying up there in the twilight and prettyness than heading inside!

And now we’re committed

We have two bathrooms – one off of the master bedroom that was beautifully renovated by the previous owners, and one off of the main hallway that serves as a main/guest bath. Here’s the view from the tub mere moments before I took a drill and removed the medicine cabinet and above-toilet cabinet.

Now we have a big hole in the wall and an unpainted patch of drywall, respectively.

Our plans are to replace the vanity with something a bit more sleek and modern, replace the mirror with something a bit more proportionate, paint the walls (after repairing a slew of holes, dents and major scrapes), put in a new medicine cabinet (Kevin bought one today that’s perfect!!), and get someone to resurface the tub. (We’d been looking to do one of those tub liners, but the more research I did, especially with the Better Business Bureau, the more leery I felt. Since the tub’s scratches are all superficial and the tile is in good shape (I just don’t like the color) resurfacing looks like a good option, and about a fifth of the price.)

We’re planning to leave the floor, toilet and trim alone. Not to jinx things, but right now, it’s looking like we’ll be able to make the changes we want for just under $2000 – not bad for a bathroom remodel.