We got our mudroom door reinstalled! We cut through the siding, but used the door we had already: We did discover that there was absolutely no insulation in the wall…Kind of makes me wonder what all that blown in insulation was for when we “weatherized” a few years ago. The cinderblock “chimney” s till needs to come down.
We also got the Bilco door installed to the basement. The deck will go to the right of that.
What my living room currently looks like: Yea. Still lots to have happen in here, but we have a pass through! I am so beyond grateful that I have an Ikea couch. I canNOT wait to take that cover off and wash it!
And the Kitchen {going left to right from the post that stayed}.
The mudroom…There’s a closet-space when you walk in on the left, that will be our pantry area, then to the right of that will be the washer and dryer area with shelves above. The opposite wall will have more shelves, bottom storage for shoes, maybe a bench and hooks for coats etc.
Better shot of the pantry area {looking in from the mudroom exterior door}.
The upstairs. You can see the doorway into the closet/storage area on the left.
Panoramic of the upstairs: The closet, the bedroom with the sitting area and the bathroom {left to right}.
Bathroom {left to right}: Sink, then toilet, washer/dryer behind that wall, then the tub.
Our flooring: 1800 sqf of Southern Yellow Pine. I think the floor is going to look incredible when it’s done, in the meantime everyone is cursing me under their breath because of how many pieces there are to nail down. We’re going to do a very light stain on it, then poly it several times so that we don’t have to worry about kids or dogs.
Last weekend was the World’s Largest Yard Sale in our town, at the fair grounds. My MIL and I headed down at 8am to check it out. I was looking for bigger pieces of furniture for the house {which I didn’t find}. We did find a large 2x4 mirror for $20, so I bought it figuring it could go above the bathroom vanity. Then a few vendors down I found this beauty for $10…I came home with 2 mirrors {in my defense the girls are going to need a mirror in their room}.
This mirror {see picture} is awesome! It’s old. It’s solid oak. It’s heavy. We’re going to strip it and refinish it to match the bathroom vanity. I could not have found a more perfect mirror for the space. Well worth the $1 admission fee.
I also bought {not at the yard sale} tile for the kitchen back splash, including my arabesque tile for above the new stove we got {it was what I really wanted and on sale for a really good price}. Now I’m trying to figure out the tile for the upstairs shower. We’re going with a 3x6 subway tile in white, with a gray grout. My problem is I can’t decide on an accent tile.
This is my favorite tile. It reminds me of the ocean…which is kind of the feel we’re going for in the bathroom. The problem is, with the cost of shipping to order a sample, I might as well buy the 4 or 5 sheets that I actually need.
This is my second favorite tile. It has the frosted glass, the rippled glass, and a solid glass tile. In all honesty I would get this one in a heartbeat if it were square tiles.
My problem is that I can’t decide, so I’m hoping you guys can give me a bit of insight: Which would you pick?
I really prefer the look of square tiles as an accent to white rectangular {3x6} subway tiles. I’m not worried about what is going to be easier to clean, it’s only Matt and I using this bathroom.
This isn’t even a pressing decision that needs to be made, since the tile in the bathroom will be one of the last things to happen.
Onto the next opinion poll.
Originally I had really wanted to do “Farmhouse” styled molding around the kitchen windows, a la this:
But now I’m wondering if it would be better to stick with the moldings that are on the rest of the windows, just a plain square edge mitered edge 3” molding.
We’re not planning on putting curtains up in the kitchen. We are going to be using some sort of shade to keep the heat out in the morning, but that’s all. And I kind of like the idea of putting shelves above the windows to display collections {kerosene lanterns, Matt’s beer steins, and my tea cups}, but that might only be along the windows on the back of the house.
My question to you: Do we go with what the rest of the house has or go with a farmhouse style in the kitchen?
There are 9 windows in the kitchen.
Psst….we’ve picked paint colors too! Design-Seeds is an awesome way to decide on a color pallette. The siding is also ordered.
I’m really hoping that things will start coming together very quickly in the next couple of weeks. Matt and I are going to start assembling the kitchen cabinets {we figure it’s best to do that before we can’t return things} in the next week. If you feel inclined, be sure to keep us in your prayers during that experience.
They did get the walls around the stairway framed in.
And some of the plumbing run.
Where the kitchen table will be going.
Where the woodstove will be {in the far right corner}.
The got the master “suite” framed in the week before.
The rainy days this week they worked on framing out the kitchen areas. The room with the red pipe in it, is where the mudroom/laundry room will going.
The kitchen wall between the living room. You can see the big opening that will be the “pass through” to the kitchen. I gotta be able to keep an eye on the kids somehow.
The basement steps were installed. We got a great deal on these since there was a small dent on one of the steps. The original buyer didn’t want it with the ding, so we got the deal.
The new sliding glass door in the kitchen. We went with the brand Neuma and I’m really pleased with it. It’s a nice, solid heavy feeling door.
And the roofing! We went with Charcoal, but it looks like a darker slate blue. Whatever. I don’t know how anyone can pick a roof color based off of a 2cm x 2cm swatch. I wanted black, but we thought it might be a bit too stark.
Picture from the neighbors’ so that you can see the roof.
Continuing around the room. Where my FIL is standing will be our “sitting area”. This is one of those dream things…I’ve always wanted a little sitting area in our bedroom, a place just to relax and chill without having to walk downstairs and inevitable wake the kids as soon as our feet are in the hall. I can’t even tell you how much I look forward to looking out my windows and enjoying the sunrise.
The second story floor trusses in place…they weren’t nailed down. Of course the delivery truck arrived with the plywood decking 10 minutes after everyone left, otherwise they could’ve worked for the day and got them down and started the walls.
This is the crazy access to our original basement that I mentioned before. We will have to build a flip down staircase to access this part from this room. We’ve decided to not lose the stairwell from the kitchen {we were going to make it a pantry}, because this is just ridiculous. I am not going to climb into this thing every time I need to get something from the freezer.
On Monday, my father in law and our contractor started the upstairs walls.
Avie got to come down with us to check it out and took advantage of the wide open spaces to practice her dance routine.
This wall here is the kitchen. You can see on the floor the sheet of plywood higher than the rest, those are the stairs into the basement. There will be a pony wall {meaning it will only be about 4’ high and 3’ wide} on the narrow end {opposite the windows}, then our range will be there, and the kitchen cabinets.
Looking through the doorway and windows to the backyard.
The fridge is going to go between the green post in the middle and the red post, then the rest of it will be cabinets, with our pass through to the living room.
Upstairs….let me just say how weird this was….to stand in what I remember our attic being {damp, dark, and just nasty} and see this… it’s just incredible!
My Mountain….with our White Tree of Gondor
This is the view we will have from our bed, add in a few windows and walls though.
Tuesday and Wednesday were miserable…absolutely miserable. It was cold and rainy and just not nice. I felt terrible that they were down there working in the rain. But they did get a few more walls up!
These are the windows that will be in our bedroom, all but the one on the far right, that will be in the center of the bathroom wall.
The two windows toward the left will actually be in the closet/storage/studio area.
It looks massive from the outside. I keep thinking to myself, “oh my what did we do?! This is huge and unbalanced, and oh my.” I know it will be more balanced once it’s finished, but boy are there a lot of moments of self doubt in a house.
Despite the rain they did manage to get the tile floor ripped out of the breakfast nook {soon to be mudroom}. My FIL said it was miserable, it took 2 hours to break up all the tile and get it out, but the original wood floors {which I’m thinking were the original pine subfloors- Thank you Rehab Addict} were still intact.
You can just see how much water damage there was. There was a hole in the floor and it was all spongy. I don’t know if there was a bathroom here at one point or what. From what we can tell the bathroom was at least in 2 previous places before existing where it is now.
The kitchen has an entirely different feel once there are walls. It went from feel big, but not really that big, to feeling like you have a room that’s a good size for what we needed and wanted.
The Kitchen….
