These last couple weeks, progress on the house has been SLOW! I was really hoping we’d be moved into the house by now, but with renovations, nothing is ever on schedule. But let’s breakdown what was done and rejoice in that!
OFFICE
I spent hours painting the office, but it was totally worth it! Before the color was a mud brown with white molding.
And now it’s the beginning of a dark and moody space which perfectly compliments the fireplace. I’m imagining curling up on the couch and reading a good book with the fire going… I still have to install the gallery light, add the home office furniture, a couch, blankets, curtains, basically all the things to make this a cozy office.
I should point out though that dark on dark is not everyone’s cup of tea, in fact, my husband is not entirely sold on the darker color yet. But I asked him to give it a couple months with the furniture, rug, curtains, etc. in the space. Going from a lighter to a much darker color, to include a dark ceiling and trim, is a big change and it sometimes takes a while to get used to. Give me a couple months I told him and you won’t want to leave the office!
KITCHEN DRAMA
Oh, the kitchen! We wanted to expand the kitchen footprint and with the floors being laid, even though the kitchen renovation is a Phase 2 project, we decided to knock out a few walls now to at least get the flooring laid. So, I started banging away and found a water line, then more banging, and found a gas line, then more banging and found an HVAC line. In all, we had multiple electrical, 4 water, 2 gas, HVAC, drain, and central vac lines to move. Are you sensing my budget going bust, because I sure was. I did leave room in my budget for incidentals, but this incidental is costing $6,200 more than what we thought. Shoot. me. now.
And it put us way behind schedule. But, I found competent professionals to do the work and just need to find a finish contractor to repair the drywall at the end. All this work had to be done to expand the kitchen anyway, so I guess the Phase 2 budget will go a little further since we’re tackling this now. I’m struggling to find the silver lining, but there it is. And, look how much more space we’ve made in the kitchen by removing those walls!
FLOORING AND STAIRS
I picked up the balusters that I had custom made from a rural lumberyard in Maryland operated by Mennonites and they are crafted so beautifully!
The stairs are currently being sanded so that we can stain them the same color as the floors.
The risers will be painted white.
So, with the balusters picked out and picked up, I looked high and low for baseboards that I liked. I searched Lowe’s, Home Depot, specialty magazines, lumberyards and couldn’t find anything that I liked. I had this image of baseboards that I had seen on Pinterest (that I’ve since lost the source for), that I loved. It’s very classic with its clean lines and tiers of stacked molding. So, I brought my image to the same lumberyard that made my balusters and they said they could make them for me in a week. Sold!
Incidentally, I popped in one day last week and my contractor had a big pile of baseboards stacked in the family room. He didn’t ask me what style I wanted and just picked out stock, standard baseboards. Well, I hated them. So, I very nicely told the contractor that I wanted to go in a different direction with the baseboards and he was understanding and tried to help me pick out another style. Lesson of the day: Don’t compromise on what you want in your renovation. If you contractor is doing something that you don’t like, speak up.
EXTERIOR
The landscapers came to do their spring clean up and mulching and the yard looks fabulous! I can’t wait to spend time gardening this summer.
NEXT WEEK
I am so hoping that the floors (without the baseboards) will be done this upcoming week. And if the balusters could be installed as well, that’d be icing on the cake because then we’d be in a position to move in, finally! I’ll be chugging along with painting and will focus on the balusters to help get us moved in faster.
