Serious Play

New Back Step

So, the renovations have moved outside! When we began our home renovation, we had plans to fix up the backyard as well. However, the kitchen budget ate up the backyard budget and that was that! We have no regrets, but I really was hoping to have some serious backyard BBQs this summer. No such luck! 

When we built our garage in the backyard, the existing interlocking bricks had to be lifted and a big trench dug to wire electricity and gas to the garage. As a result, our backyard has been a bit of a disaster ever since. We really wanted to pour a patio this summer, but we ran out of money.

However, we did get a new back step and sidewalk to the garage. My sister's husband does concrete work and he came over a few weeks ago to build us our step. It is quite a process. First, they have to draw the outline of what is going to be done, then bust out the old step and remove the old patio bricks. He builds the forms that will be a mold for the concrete, they pour, level it off, smooth it out, and wait for it to settle a bit. Finally, he uses a pressure washer to expose the stones giving it a lovely pebbly look.

It really is awesome! Even though, it is just the beginning of what we want to do, it already shapes up our yard a bit more. It will be easy to add the patio next summer (fingers crossed). In the meantime, I am already looking forward to having a sidewalk to walk on through the winter, rather than traipsing through the snow in my high heels on the way to the garage. Thanks Jay!

Of course, my nephews made several appearances throughout this production too! They came with their dart guns (only foam bullets!) and chased Ashley all around the yard! They are just too cute...

On top of all that, it was my sister's birthday. I took her out for lunch and some shopping. We had a good heart-to-heart conversation about what is happening in our lives right now. It is all good. She is so awesome to have as a sister. I am blessed.

 

No More Waiting

So, after waiting several months to unpack my new kitchen light, I am still in love with it! I had even forgotten exactly what it looked like, but I knew that my love of this light would not fade! It is beautiful, so glassy and smooth and perfect.

The other night, Sean was able to hang the light in our dining room. We also unburied and hauled the dining room table and chairs in from the garage.

Unfortunately, while enjoying my light, I noticed that my dining room table does not go very well with the yellow wall, or the modern style of the light fixture. I guess that means I'll just have to go out and buy a new one!

Here is what I am dreaming of...

It's from Crate & Barrel of course. I really think that a round table will break up all the straight lines of my kitchen as well. I definitely want a pedestal base so that no one has to straddle table legs. So it's on my wish list until the budget recovers from all our previous renovations! Actually, I would be just as happy to come across some great mid-century modern style round table at an unexpected location for a wicked deal! Anyone care to point me in the right direction??

Dream Kitchen

So, I have my dream kitchen. It is small, but big enough for me. It is not too fancy, but I chose everything that would maximize functionality. It is not a million dollar house, but it is my dream kitchen! In taking these photos (and then trying to edit them!) I realized how difficult it is to take pictures in here! The lighting is just not cooperating and my photo skills are not yet up to the challenge of backlighting due to the windows! Sorry. I hope you enjoy these anyway...

This shot shows the opposite angle and it is a bit of a ceiling shot to show you the lighting as well as the beam that separates the kitchen from the dining room. The three pendant lights over the island are just perfect for lighting up the island in the evening. Sean positioned them so that the light covers the entire surface and really shows off the details in our granite.

Here's a little closer shot of the phone center (we still need to get a filing system for my husband's paperwork!) The backsplash is continued in this space to wrap around on three walls. We talked over a few choices for this little nook and I am glad that we decided to go with this one!

 
Here is the view that I showed yesterday with the under cabinet lighting on. The hood fan is from IKEA and is the only thing not yet working in the kitchen (I can use the light, just not the fan). We need to get a roofer who can vent the fan out the roof. I think Sean has lined someone up...just not sure when it is happening. Our cabinets are all custom made in maple. We chose to have no handles on the top cabinets. Instead, the door is a few inches lower than the actual cabinet, so you just pull from underneath to open them. The bottom cabinets all have simple pulls from IKEA. At this point, we chose to keep our white stove and fridge. They are very good quality and it seemed unnecessary to change them simply to make them stainless steel. One day, when they give up the ghost, we will replace them with stainless. For now, I am happy with what I have.

I apologize for this shot, as it's pretty dark, but this is my new sink facing the window that looks out into my backyard. I love this window. Our dishwasher is stainless steel because a little over a year ago, it was leaking and we had to replace it, so stainless seemed like the right choice. Interesting to note that it was the dishwasher that sortof got the ball rolling on this renovation! Because of the leaking, the sub-floor swelled and was breaking the previous tiles. We knew that if we had to replace the tile, we would have to do the whole kitchen. I'm so glad we did! Speaking of tile, we absolutely love our glass tile backsplash. We have already had so many comments on it - thank you! It is meant to mimic the look of bamboo with its uneven lengths. It really brightens up the room with all the dark cabinets and granite in here.

On this side of the island, there are deep, long drawers, which hold all of the items that frequently come out of my dishwasher - my everyday dishes, glasses & cups and cutlery. It is so handy to the dishwasher as well as to the fridge when you want to fix a snack! Our tile is a graphite color, not as dark as black (although hard to tell from this pic). We saw it in one of the display kitchens in IKEA and although IKEA does not sell it, we tracked it down and we love it! The light over my sink is a retro 50s light that I found at an antique store. I think it adds just the perfect touch of whimsy. Sean wasn't too sure, but now that it is in it is growing on him.

 

The opposite side of the island has the overhang for pulling up to with our new bar stools from Urban Barn. From this angle, you can see the yellow wall (looking a lot more green than it actually is!) that spans through the dining room and into the living room. You can also see that we do not yet have our dining table! 

I love this open space to the back door that we have now. Originally, I wanted to put in French doors to the back yard. It seemed like a pretty good idea, but with everything in place as is, there doesn't seem to be enough room to have 2 doors here. What I really wanted was to have more light come into the house, so we are discussing the possibility of changing out the door for one like this and adding a long window on the side. 

Well, that's it for now! If you have a chance, leave me a comment to tell me what you think! 

Cabinet Lighting

Click on the pictures to enlarge. 

 

So, we are finally putting finishing touches on our kitchen. On Thursday, we had the under-cabinet lighting installed. It adds a nice glow all the way around the room as the evening settles in. We most likely won't use them much in the coming months because of our nice long days (although they are on now, due to the bleakness of the rain)!

I am hoping to take shots of my completed kitchen in the next few days, if the lighting cooperates. I will then post them, along with the 'before' shots. My overall plan is to make a scrapbook of our entire renovation from start to finish. I will keep you posted on that one!

 

Craft Room Rearranged

So, as part of our renovation, we attacked my craft room. Remember when this happened? Here is what it used to look like and now it looks like this...

 

After the carpet was installed, we realized how badly the walls needed to be painted in this room. I did not have a vision for this room, as I had been concentrating on so many other decisions. Anyway, to gather some inspiration I set out in search of a duvet cover for the guest bed. I figured that if I could find something I liked, then that would give me an idea for a wall color. After searching a few different places, I decided on the duvet that you see in the bottom right corner. It is from here. Sure enough, I was inspired to buy the green paint you see on the walls, called Tea Time, which I thought fitting!

So,I spent the long weekend sanding, mudding, sanding again...

After 2 days of that, and a few aching muscles, I was finally able to paint...

It was important to me that I use NO VOC paint and Rona happened to have just that! Choosing NO VOC paint ensures that there are no chemicals like solvents or other atmospheric pollutants. This is another step towards maintaining health for my family...and for very little extra cost.

 

After a couple of weeks with no creative space, I have my craft space set up again! Previously I was using built-in shelving that my dad made. I have now downsized my craft space. This desk was one that was purchased for the girls to use for homeschool and is now repurposed. It is the same line as the IKEA bookshelf that I had before, so they go nicely together. My computer rests here and I still have enough space for spreading my work out on the desk top. My printer resides neatly on this handy drawer unit (which holds all of my rubber and acrylic stamps), also from IKEA, close at hand.

In order for all my 'stuff' to fit in this reduced space, I have had to weed out a lot of stuff that I wasn't using regularly...it may end up on Kijiji! I like how it is all so accessible...no more things hidden away in cutesie boxes that I didn't even remember what was in them.

As you can see, there are still a few boxes to unpack, but most of them only have a few items left in them. Still, how did I accumulate so much?

The ultimate goal was to repurpose the use of the space in my craft room. Previously, my crafting area took up 75% of the room and that left only 25% for a guest bed...and no room to walk around! I really wanted to reverse the percentages and make this first and foremost a comfortable space for my parents when they come to stay with us. Rearranging and reducing my craft area has allowed me to do that and I feel extremely satisfied about it!

My parents are actually coming to stay this weekend, so my goal is to finish up the guest space in this room for them...and then I will have more pictures to share!

Carpet Installed

So, we have carpet! It has felt like forever to get to this stage of our renovation. Always in my mind, everything we did was working towards the day when we finally would have carpet. You can imagine my extreme satisfaction to walk on the lower two levels of our home without dust, concrete and old snagged stained carpet. I don't even need shoes anymore!

As you can see, we still need some electrical work done and the installation of our baseboards in the basement, but that seems so minor now!

While the carpet layers were still here, Sean had asked if they'd help to bring in our sofa from the garage. Apparently between three of them, it took over an hour to wrestle the sofa into the basement. First, it had to go over the kitchen island, down one set of stairs, spin around on the landing and then down another set of stairs. The trouble was its size. It is 90"W x 46"D x 35"H - a real monster! Sean was intent on having it in the basement before I arrived home from work. Once again, I could have cried!

Of course, we have spent the last few evenings together in the basement enjoying the warmth of the in-floor heating, the soft wool carpet and the huge new leather sofa! It feels like home! And it is so much better than all four of us crammed into my little craft room!

It is tricky to determine the true colors of the walls and carpet from these pics. There is not much natural lighting down there, so it is mostly lit with pot lights on the ceiling. This wreaks havoc on taking photos though. Probably the first picture of the fireplace has the truest colors. The walls are slightly green and the carpet is a tan color. It is funny, before we had the carpet, the walls really looked more grey, and now with the carpet, the walls have turned green! This whole picking colors thing has been so difficult! We were trying to keep to the neutral colors of the stone in the fireplace.

Now there is a story here...It was about a month ago, when Sean and I went hunting for carpet. I really wanted wool carpet because of its natural fibers and absence of VOCs, plastics and chemicals. Because of that, we were limited. Not all carpet retailers carry wool, as it is more expensive and most people these days are sold on the stain resistance factor (read: chemicals!). In each of the few places that we visited, I learned more and more about wool carpet and became more and more sold on it.

Anyway, we found this one retailer where Sean and I were able to agree on the pattern, color and price of the carpet. Before even looking, we knew we wanted a darker carpet for the basement... something cozy and warm. [Just so you know, I was voting for cork in the basement, but Sean would not hear of it!] When seeing the choices of color at this particular retailer, it came down to two. One was a darker rusty brown and the other was olive green. Well, rusty brown did not excite us, so it was olive green. Done.

The day after putting in our order, Denis (the nice man who sold us the carpet) phoned to say that there was no more of our color left in their warehouse. He was going to search further, but it didn't look hopeful. So, we were back to square one. Where do we look now?

About a week later Denis phoned to day that there was one large piece (somewhere ambiguous) that another couple were still deciding on. After a few days, Denis called again and suggested that we put a deposit on the carpet, that way, we guarantee it is ours, should the other couple decide against it. We waited with bated breath for a few more days, and finally Denis called back to say that it was ours! Yippee! We won! We felt so fortunate. It was going to be another few weeks until it arrived.

One evening, while packing up my craft room (the same carpet was being installed in there too), I had a reality moment that shook me. All I could remember was green - a sage green - even in my craft room. Now, here I must explain that we decided to convert my craft room into more of a guest room. I am downsizing the space that I will use for crafting and devoting more of the room to be comfortable for when we have visitors. Previously, my scrapbooking supplies took over the room, so that when we needed the bed, we could barely open the door! Anyway, as I was packing boxes, I tried to imagine the paint color I would use in there with a new colorful duvet on the bed. In that moment, I suddenly had a horrible thought...what color do you paint when the carpet is a sage green? I felt so limited. In my mind, I tried several combinations but could not come up with a color that I could see working. I was horrified!

As the date for carpet came closer, I was actually dreading it. I just could not see how we chose such a specific, rather than neutral, color. I absolutely could not mention it to Sean at this point. We had fought so hard to get this particular carpet and now I was having second thoughts. Poor Jessica witnessed my little break down one morning on the way to school, as I just could not stand it anymore!

The day the carpet was being installed, I texted Sean to get a feel for how it looked so that I could prepare myself before coming home. In true Sean style, his response to me was simply, "It's great". No help there at all. When we pulled up to the house, I sat for a few moments and commented to Jessica how nervous I was to go inside. She asked if she should go in and check it out for me first. She's such a darling. Bravely, I entered the house...and was so relieved to see that it was not as green as I had remembered! Thank goodness.

Now, my vision for the craft guest room is blooming! I think I have a color chosen already!

 

Shifting Stuff Again

So, when I arrived home from school today, I could have cried. The contents of my craft room were sitting haphazardly in my living room…

Now, I have been spending the last few days packing up my craft room, so why get all bent out of shape? Well, this reno has given me the opportunity to sort through absolutely all of our stuff (except my bedroom closet…but that’s coming!), decide what is junk (garbage), what is reusable (Value Village) and what is useful (keep). It has been a long arduous process, but rewarding in the end. I actually have enjoyed tossing things and repurposing things and figuring out the best place for things. So, now, over the past few days, I have engaged myself in this process with my craft room. However, Sean decided that it was taking too long and it was time for him to intervene! When I stood at the threshold of my emerging butterfly of a home, and I came face to face with chaos (by this I mean, nothing in boxes, piles of random books, magazines and papers, my Value Village pile mixed in with my “belongs in the Christmas box” items, etc.) all I could think was, here we area gain! Not only did I have no idea where things were, but all this stuff was cluttering up my newly decorated living room (I can’t even see the zebra chairs anymore)!

When I finally had processed what had happened and simmered down a little, I came to realize that he was right (Don’t you hate it when they are right?). My meticulous process probably would not have been completed to my satisfaction that evening anyway. I would have putzed and reminisced too long and then we would be left scrambling the day before carpet is to arrive.  Instead, along with absorbing what had just happened, I had time to laugh with the girls and even read before bed, the craft room looking like this…

… and the old carpet was ripped up, leaving this…

I mean, I got out of doing all the work, right? And this means progress, right? And by the weekend, I will have carpet, right? Besides, the double-edged sword here is that Sean had bought me these the same day…

… and they also greeted me as I stood in the threshold. Now do you get the mixed emotions?

  

Yellow Feature Wall

So, I regret that I do not yet have the rest of my weekend pages from my Week in the Life project ready to show you today! I spent the weekend, cleaning and (wait for it...) moving some things back into my house! Yep, you can imagine my excitement.

The painter came on both Saturday and Sunday this weekend and finished up the painting. Here is a peek at my yellow wall in the living room...

And yes, these are the zebra chairs that have been waiting in my garage!

Our painter, Jeremy, (also a firefighter with Sean) finished up the landing on the third floor and the basement this weekend. 

Sean also hung the pendant lights over our island...

Carpet is set to be installed this Friday!

I am finally seeing some light at the end of the tunnel!

Painting Started

So, I'm back! I didn't really go anywhere...except to my sister's house because the painter finally came and the smell was too strong for us to be in the house (sound familiar?).  So, here's the thing - I have been adamant about using NO VOC paint in our house but apparently the lacquer that is used to spray the baseboards and casings does not come in no VOC, thus the bad smell. My husband thinks that I am over-the-top and being a bit freaky about 'the chemicals' in our house (yes, there are nasty chemicals in the paint on your walls, and the carpet on your floor, but don't get me started on that!) but I put it to him like this, "So, if I get breast cancer within the next 5 years because of breathing in the off-gassing from the new paint and carpet in our house, you will not have regrets?" I figure that we are in a position to make good choices that will play into our health for the rest of our lives, so we might as well. Of course his argument goes something like this, "We both grew up with regular paint and carpet and the paint and carpet that was in the house before this was not LOW VOC and we are fine!" But I am not convinced. How do we know that my migraines are not because of chemicals, either from the air in my house, or the foods that I have been eating? I do not believe that any one thing is going to contribute to poor health, but it is the combination of things over time - and often we are not even aware that it is happening!

The good news is that my baseboards and window and door casings are now lacquered!

 

So, this is the end of the 'red' wall! I love my red wall. It has been red for about 7 years and there has not been one single day that I have wished it a different color. But it is time for a change. Hopefully by the end of the week it will be golden yellow!  

Did I tell you?

So, I think I forgot to share some things. I was going through some old posts regarding our renos and realized that there were things that I thought I had blogged about, but realized that I had not. That is the reason for my posting today.

Oh yeah, then there is the current state of my garage...

 

And then, I have been referring to my hardwood, but I realized that I hadn't even posted about my hardwood story. So, here it is...

It is coming together! This week the painter is coming. I am so excited. I really want this whole thing to be over. Actually, I want the 'construction' to be over so that I can get started with the decorating! 

I have been dreaming and designing in my mind for several months now. I sketch out room plans. I scan every magazine that I can get my hands on. I follow blogs that have to do with decorating. In fact, there are some really great ones out there, so I am going to share some links...

House of Smith's (this is one that I visit almost daily as it is so full of inspiring ideas, and this reno project is only a few steps ahold of my own!)

The Lettered Cottage

The Inspired Room

The Brick House (language warning on this one, but the ideas are inspiring!)

Hooked on Houses (I don't know how she does it, but this gal gets into the coolest celebrity houses!)

A View on Design (this one is similar to the one above)

A Passion for Beautiful Things

Wary Meyers

SF Girl by the Bay (okay, this one I absolutely love. every day i am inspired!)

Enjoy, as I do!