our staircase, finished!

I've been so busy cleaning and putting my house back together I haven't had time to really take pictures or to blog. Most everything was finished last Wednesday... the painting, stairway and tile work in the kitchen, they were all here working until 7pm. The carpenter has been waiting for a few pieces of cabinetry trim to come in to completely finish the kitchen that is 98% done. Hopefully that will be tomorrow! In the meantime, I'm getting ready for company that are arriving on Thursday.

Nothing like cutting it close!

Here's the newly finished oak stairway and wrought iron balusters

view from the living room

view from the foyer

Pics of the kitchen are coming... soon, I promise!

get the red out

To go along with my new kitchen and paint color, I needed to reupholster a few pieces of furniture. I had an arm chair re-done a few months back in the stripe below, and I just sent my small red sofa out to be done and to get it out of the dusty mess. I'm doing the sofa in a solid sage green and I've been shopping for fabric to do the seat cushions for my kitchen chairs. I wasn't coming across anything combining my two colors of sage green and Wedgwood blue. At long last at Calico Corners I came across a Ralph Lauren fabric that would work.

It's called Cottage Rose in Prairie Blue. I also found a second fabric to do the desk chair in, not sure of the name but it's the one with the bee's, and the colors are great together. The floral will be in the breakfast area adjacent to the keeping room. I'm a bit matchy/matchy when it comes to color and wanted all the colors in the open area to flow.

Both fabrics will be here in a few days, then I'll get to work.

There's no more red in my kitchen or keeping room anymore. All blues, greens and browns now. I'll have to show you the end result next week when it's all back together.

from carpet and pickled to stained white oak

Our house was built in 1990. For that very brief period of time, 1989-1990, pickled wood was being used. I can't even claim it was "in" because there really wasn't that much of it done. But... if you were one of the unlucky homeowners to inherit it, I'm sure by now you're ready to get rid of it. I know I was! The quote I got to re-do the posts and railings was more expensive than replacing them. So we opted to start fresh with all new wood.

Here's the carpeted before:

Fresh new white oak steps and railings:

Stained with first coat of polyurethane:

They're here this morning sanding, painting the risers my trim color, and putting a second coat of poly on. The house is still a complete mess on the entire main level. The only project that's completely finished at this point is the foyer floor. The painters are making progress, and the carpenter will be back on Monday to do the crown in the kitchen and finish up his work. Tuesday is the start of the back-splash, and the install of the balusters.

The days are growing longer as I'm held up in my bedroom, to stay out of the way. I give it all through next Friday, and then I should have my house back! Please!!! :-)

home renovation projects update: week 3

On Tuesday the granite was installed. They put my stove-top in and the new sink. The plumbing isn't done though, nor is the electrical hooked up for the stove-top. My oven works though, and I heated up pizza in it last night, woo-hoo!

Everything is so dusty, I can't wait to clean!

Here's the backsplash tile we chose for the wine bar, Pantheon Random Nova Roma. We went a bit crazy here since it's such a small area. The colors in the granite are also in the different tiles, so it should coordinate very well.

Here's the calmer backsplash tile for the rest of the kitchen, Crema Nova 1x2 Brick Polished. It's a mini subway tile that goes well in color to both the granite and my limestone floor.

That should be in and done early next week, carrying into our fourth week of renovations.

I've also had someone working on the stairway since last Thursday.

We had already cut the balusters out.

Here's the before with our pickled posts and railing and the carpet edges showing a bit dirty.

Thursday he ripped up the carpet and installed white oak steps. Friday, Monday and Tuesday he installed the new posts and railings. It dragged on a day longer because he had made a few mis-cuts and needed more wood.

Remember... always measure 3 times and cut once!

Today, the railings and steps are being stained, a mixed color of 1/3 Minwax English Chestnut and 2/3 Special Walnut.

At the same time my painter Danny has been here since Monday working around everyone else, caulking, trimming out, painting ceilings, God bless him!

There have been a few days I've felt a bit crazy/anxious with no place to go in my own house. Friday was one, when there were 4 crews all working at the same time. Today is another, I'm in my bedroom with all the stuff from the shelves and walls laying all around me, with the 3 dogs barking every so often at the noises. I breathe in wood and spackle dust and it occasionally burns my eyes. But... so far I love everything we're doing. I love the finished foyer floor and the paint color we've chosen, Martha Stewart Tobacco Leaf. I love the granite, the cabinets and the wood steps.

So I guess it will all be worth it in the end when it's clean and organized and we can get back to living in our house! I can't wait for that day!

I love you stinky face...

That's our nickname for Carter's scrunched up face,

but most of the time he's got a smile on.

I love that little face smiling and scrunched!

Happy 1st Valentine's Day to my sweet grand boy!

before and after: I'm in love with my new foyer floor

The "before" foyer was builder marble surrounded by a metal strip separating it from the rest of the main floor tile. We inherited it with the house. I.hated.it.

So when the time came to do some demo work in the kitchen and make the house a mess, I decided it was a good time to add to it. And boy did it add to it! Tile demo creates the biggest mess! The broken pieces flew everywhere and dust settled on everything.

But the mess and clean up was all worth it with this result...

I.love.it!

We did a natural granite tile with a border of our limestone and a 4x4 brown tile accent.

It looks like it was always there and a planned part of the original main floor.

That was my hope and vision and I'm so happy with the way it turned out. Yeah!

cheers to progress!

I've been living without a kitchen and in a mess for over 8 days now, but... we're getting there! Most of the cabinetry has been installed, here's an update:

The microwave shelf is new, we used to have it on the counter in the corner so this will be a nice change. There will be an appliance garage below it for my coffee maker and grinder. The space to the far left is for the dishwasher. We do have a dead corner to the left, but I've added so much other space to make up for it. Besides, it was impossible to reach back in there anyway when I had use of that corner, so I don't think I'll miss it!

From left to right... a divided tray cabinet, a lazy Susan corner cabinet and a double trash bin pull out cabinet, yeah! Trash and recycling, oh boy!

See, still a mess with tools everywhere, but they're in! That's my double oven over there in the dining area. Granite measure is tomorrow.

The best for last... my new wine bar. I.love.it! It's such a useful addition to that space. Drawers and wine fridge to come soon! Cheers!

ready for a baby sleepover!

This past weekend, we put the crib together that we bought to have for our grandbabies. I must say it is sturdy, can't shake that thing! It is a Babyletto from Million Dollar Baby.

We decided it would be best in the office vs. our 2 guest rooms so that the baby would have his own room when visiting. I wanted a crib that was not too babyish, if that makes sense. I'm trying to keep the office more "manly" than baby for my husband. So no babyish fabrics either... just colors that coordinate with the room.

Here it is... all ready for you Carter and Baby Nathan!

Now, use your imagination...

Our recent home improvement renovations include re-tiling the foyer. I think it's a must have project since I already had them rip out the old tile!

I like this type of pattern

Ours won't be quite as busy though. We're doing a border of 6x18 granite rectangles and then a 2nd border out of my limestone tiles , cut to 4x18 rectangles. We're incorporating 8 4x4 squares into our pattern, keeping it more in the middle.

In the picture below, imagine the wood area as my limestone tile, with a double border like this (the inner border the limestone tile again), with the brown accent tiles and that's what we're planning.

I'm so glad I found this picture!

Here are the tiles I've chosen:

I'm trying to keep it natural to go with our existing limestone so we're incorporating similar colors and a brown porcelain tile to accent the brown flecks in the granite.

You do need imagination and vision... can you see it?

kitchen progress, day 2

They finished taking everything, appliances, cabinets and countertops,

out of the kitchen on Day 1 and here is how it looked:

The previous owners put in the new limestone floor over the existing floor and up to but not under the cabinets, as you can see. That's why we had to keep the same footprint.

Day 2 they put up this "knee wall" as a support for the breakfast bar. It will be covered in cabinet veneerer and look like part of the cabinetry.

And now for the messy part...

I've disliked my foyer tiles since day one 9 years ago. When tiling the rest of the house, they left the original marble tiles in the foyer. I hated the color and I hated the metal strip where the two tiles met. So... be gone ugly tile!

This little job left a fine layer of dust over everything. I had covered all the upholstered furniture and closed all the bedroom doors, so those rooms are okay. But the living room, dining room, kitchen and keeping room all got snowed on. I vacuumed the floors, and maybe I'll dust today just to keep up with it, but I'm sure tomorrow will bring another "dust storm".

We have 12 tiles from the existing limestone to incorporate into the foyer, not enough, so I found this granite tile to coordinate:

We're working on a design. I was working on it with graph paper and little squares I cut out when it dawned on me my designer must have a computer program to do it! That's a bit easier, right?! I want to incorporate the limestone so the foyer looks like we did it on purpose, and not an afterthought. I'll keep you posted!