Afraid this is mostly a picture-gram to catch you up on where things are. We last left our intrepid homeowners...with a pending window enlargement. The company came back and finished the deal, with some trim and sills work still to be done. It was quite a production to do a double-expansion (wider and longer) of a window in the studio.
Meanwhile the kitchen received the cabinets, which came in from the cold (garage). Don't worry about the coloring because they'll all get painted after they're installed. They'll look great against our new maple floor.
Nearby, the dining room got some light shed on it with this funky, Tiffany-inspired fixture.
Finally, lest you think only the main level received attention, the main part of the basement got some expert drywall work to repair the former access to a chimney (now closed) and vent fan (probably because of the wood burner). In case you can't tell, these photos show our guys first tried to replace only a couple small parts but, thinking that didn't look good enough, then replaced the whole section with drywall.
And the laundry room continued its makeover into an inviting space.
Or at least let there be better windows through which to let in the light. That's been the biggest change in the past several days. There were 15 straight replacements, 3 that we lengthened, and 1 in the studio that's going to be longer and wider. We're basically making the place a greenhouse.
Out with the old...
In with the new...In the first one, the markings on the sides are where the shutters used to be, so you can see we've added more than a foot in length.
And here is an enlargement in work, in this case it's the double-enlargement in the studio.
Rooms continue to emerge, butterfly-like from their dust and drop cloth cocoons. The kitchen is the latest to get some new features, like a maple floor, sheetrock, plaster, paint...and a new alcove to house our tall pantry.
Tomorrow should be a big day. It will be day one (of two) to install new windows throughout and the cabinets should be added to the kitchen.
So the guys have been busy turning the studio into a really stunning room. First the paint, and now there's a new floor. In the studio and kitchen we were never going to match the original flooring in the rest of the house, but we picked a "character maple" that has more variety than a standard maple floor. It's clearly lighter than the rest of the house, but the variation echoes the diversity of the oak floors in the other rooms. And this is a hard maple, which means it's actually harder than oak on the Janka scale (http://tinytimbers.com/pdf/chart_janka.pdf). We think that it's reflecting a bit of the peachy walls.
In a kitty-corner room, the kitchen has lost the last of its original bits. This...
has become this...
After some drywall and other behind the scenes (or under the floor) work, the kitchen will get its very own maple floor to match the studio.
We join our program already in progress...the big progress has been made in our sweatshop...er...garage. With all of our kitchen cabinets in hand we're moving briskly to sand and stain them for installation. We're pretty fortunate that we have a large space in which to work and that for the most part the weather has been cooperating, with milder than normal temperatures. The kitchen itself is still missing a new wood floor and needs some plaster and painting work, but hopefully we'll get the timing synchronized to put it all together next week.
This has been a really good week for turning the outline of a house into something that looks more like what people think of when they hear the term "house".
With an eye toward moving sooner than later, our focus shifted to finishing the main level because we can live there while the basement (main room, bathroom, laundry room, and bonus room) is still a work in progress. The kitchen cabinets are getting sanded, stained, and moisture-proofed and should be ready when the kitchen walls are prepped/repaired and the floor is installed. Speaking of which, here's what a "hardwood flooring kit" looks like:
Our stash of paint has transformed every room on the main level. The studio has gone from this:
to this:
to this, a nice warm peachy color:
The small studio annex has gone from this:
to this, the same light peach color to match its bigger sibling:
Next door the bedroom has gone from being a somewhat unhealthy lavender:
to this much more inviting "I'd like a touch of coffee in my milk" color:
If you take a right turn from the bedroom you come to the library, which we've brightened considerably. Before:
After:
Finally, the living room has had a much-needed face lift. From two tones and chair rail:
to a bright, cheerful yellow:
