Day 50: Trimming

Into the sun room:


Windows trimmed and room continuing to take finished shape. Can't wait for the tile!!!!!


*a note... I am nervous about the paint color. Baby bluer than I orig thought, and YES while it is changeable... now that it is painted, it's moved down the list of priorities... like - throughout this process I have been given a lot of ideas as far as "well it would only be a couple hundred bucks more for..." and they are great ideas. BUT, thing is... we are doing work to the kitchen, dining room, office, guestroom, master, sun room, living room, minor bathroom stuff, attic, halls/stairs, closets, outside (siding, three doorways, outside lighting), and eventually yard. There are probably 50 to 100 EASILY thought of things I could do slightly nicer, better, etc for 200-1000$ a piece. But the issue is, can't do them all. Have to pick and choose.
Also, at the end of this, we will be continuing to look for deals on new appliances, a new couch, new arm chair, guest bedroom furnishings, etc. Soooooooooo...it's not my fav color but FINGERS CROSSED it comes together because we certainly have someplace more important to put the $ to redo it.

Mess - one day this will be a dining room not a storage room... excited... they plan to paint it soon! We are going with the old kitchen color. Its like a bisque tan color. The yellow was bright and fun for a while but a little extreme considering most of the rooms have a more historic classic look:


And THANK YOU to MICHAELINE and MOM for providing our touch of Christmas this year! Was a sad year without a tree but I come home to this wreath every day and smile.

Day 20: Post Holiday Updating As of Dec 2

These updates will be big and fast because while I might have been sitting on my toukas noshing on poultry and pie, these dudes were working hard!

Got up this morning (12/2) and here is where we stand:



Notice anything different?



WINDOWS!!!!!!!!!



The front door (used to be between living room and sun room) is making its way to the front:





Closet doors have been put on our laundry closet:



The kitchen and dining walls have been smoothed and spackled:





The back step is forming:



And well OK fine, spoiler alert... by the end of the day, the front door is actually in place:











And well I may not be able to decorate but check out the neighbor's bling helping my cause:

Day 8: Kitchen and Dining Room

OK, so ever since the wall was knocked down, I a little bit wished we went open concept with the dining room and kitchen. And I still do, really more since the dry wall has been put up. I acknowledge that it needed to be done this way, but I will miss the openness. On the otherhand, drywall means we are one step closer to cabinets. And cabinets will be a joy.
***note, fridge is currently in diningroom as it is being used and the floor is getting pulled up in kitchen, don't let it confuse you***







Also, insulation added to the outter back wall! Yay warm house and hopefully not chugging through our oil!

Day 4 and into the Weekend: Wrapped Up

So originally they were going to work on the roof on into the weekend due to the rain on Monday. They decided against due to not thinking they could finish on time anyways. WELL THANK GOODNESS. They ran started Saturday, and continued on through till Monday morning. And we had some crazy 40+ mph winds last night that made me think our house was going to blow away. The THWAP of the tarp was like hearing waves crash at the shore. However as it turns out, we did not and the house remained all wrapped up.


In the meantime we did some little jobs like removing tape that had been up for YEARS, so we could repaint and finish the dining room eventually. Learned a valuable lesson. The green tape didn't pull up much paint at all, but the blue destroyed the paint job. The green is definitely better and worth paying up for.


Also, we used the downtime to finalize some kitchen planning with Milton.
Granite:


Cabinet Color:


Wall:


Layout:


Very excited, think it's going to look GREAT!

Demolition Day 1: Uninsulated, Literally too.

Somehow the window looks so much nicer all exposed like that. I am going to miss it, I mean people pay a lotta money for a sheet of glass like that.



Since lunch time the rooms have started taking on shape and division.









The door to the hall is gone now, yay more openness!



The heat turned off, boo we're cold!

Demolition Day 1: It Starts

Here is where we generally left off in the kitchen and office (yes it got decorated and cluttered with stuff but still serves to show where we started after emptying it out and how it looked when Day 1 began):

Kitchen


Office (to become Dining Room)


And as of Brendan's mid-day check:


Wall between the two rooms is gone and being rebuilt with entrance more towards center of the house and larger, no door, and thus creating more open feel. I can't help but a little think may be people were right about the idea of keeping it totally open, but then I think of my wine rack, and dish cabinet, and dining table, and think it's good to have a defined dining room. Also means more cabinets. However I did sacrifice cabinet and counter to keep opening 4 ft instead of 3. Worth it.

Rewind: Jan 2010, Happy Birthday Mr. Ehlers

So after two successful runs hosting dinner for friends/siblings/aka people I knew would be way understanding of any mishaps in the service, we went for a birthday dinner with Brendan's parents (and younger brother).

The whole dining table in the other half of living room worked very well:






Dessert was eaten on the couch, and again I think everyone left happy:


***Note the table "runner" is actually a collection of placemats lined up. We got so used to the lovely Christmas runner Nanie gave us that we didn't want to leave it bare again. HOWEVER, we have since gotten a red normal runner... pics to come.***

Great Success!

Much Ado About Little Space

One of my bigger concerns is the living room. There is an eat in kitchen but no dining room and so it was suggested to try and divide the living room into dining room and family room. Unfortunately there really isn't a lot of space and I am concerned about it feeling small and cluttered. I may consider putting the dining room cabinet in the living room but not having a dining room table because it would block a walkway which is a 'no-no'. That being said I don't want it to seem like a room with random furniture.


Some tips for this (living room above is not mine but I think it embodies a lot of these ideas and works):

- Paint moldings and trim lighter than the wall color. It helps make the walls look more set back. (I don't think there are moldings, but may be I can look into putting moldings around the ceiling at some point)

- Consider furniture that is similar in coloring to the walls. (The dining room armoire I am getting was my grandmother's. I think it is a dark finish but I am going to have to look into refinishing it lighter)

- Take advantage of the space illusion granted by transparency (glass tops on tables, sheer window curtains).

- Try not to have too much clutter, including pictures on walls. Create a focal point such as one large painting or piece of furniture and then design around that. (Now THAT's going to be difficult for me. Wish me luck!)