Quick Update!

I have been seriously slacking on blog posts lately. We've been frantically trying to tie up loose ends so we can officially move in on Friday!!!  I thought this day would never come!

So what's been happening?

1) We have doors! They took a little longer to install because most of our rough openings were just a hair too small. Great... Oh and our pocket doors were also framed incorrectly so we (by we I mean Dave - our finish carpenter) had to remove drywall, cut studs, change the pocket door frame and repair so we could repaint. Nightmare. 

2) We have trim! It's not 100% done yet but it will be by Thursday!

3) We've started finishing our stairs. It took me a few days to get the GIANT staples out that were holding down some protective plywood. It mostly took me so long because I was frustrated that anyone would intentionally use such an annoying method of securing plywood. I dented a couple stairs trying to get them out too. 

Any that I gave up on got covered in tape and left for another day! 

We conditioned and stained every other stair so we could still get up and down. That was a recommendation from my sister and it was great!

The risers will be black and the stringers will be white. Eventually...

4) The man we bought the barnboard from dropped off some goodies for our house! They came out of century old barns just like our floors... I can't wait to decorate!

There are spade hinges, a door latch, a pulley and a cart thingy. Technical term :)

5) OUR KITCHEN!! It's soooooo close to being completely done. I am SO in love. Don't mind the mess... We have cleaners scheduled for Thursday morning. I just can't clean up construction mess anymore. I've been doing it since October!

6) Our bathroom is taking shape too! The plumber is coming tomorrow to install the sinks and toilet. 

7) Our walk in coset is a work in progress! It took me pretty much an entire day to put it all together and figure out the best design and use of space. I  am quite happy with how it turned out. 

See that gap behind the shelving? I didn't like it... So I cut a piece of pine around the baseboard and am going to paint it white and attach it to the side. I think it will make a huge improvement. 

On the wall straight ahead will be a little white 3 drawer Ikea dresser and above it I'm going to hang a large cork board. I want to hang jewelry from it and also tac up any important piece of paper to avoid clutter! 

On Friday we have two 8'x8'x20' shipping containers full of 2 households of our stuff... Time to unpack and prepare for the worlds largest garage sale! Jake has had his stuff in storage since July! He can't even remember what he has. The girls are dying for all of their stuff and I can't wait for the day when I can stop saying, "it's in storage"! 

Wish us luck!

We're Kitchen Up!

We finished the floors just in time! The last coat of polyurethane went on around midnight, and the kitchen guys showed up at 9:30 am!

We applied the the polyurethane using a "T-bar" and lambskin roller which worked really well. Jake went ahead of me and poured it on with a watering can and I just kept "pulling" a puddle as I walked. 

This morning we noticed a couple of spots that will need to be sanded down and touched up, but not too bad considering how exhausted we were applying the final coat!

The finish is SO beautiful and it's hard to believe that we did this!  We love them! They're better than I'd imagined them to be, but everything I had hoped for! 

Before the kitchen guys got here this morning we laid down some Tank Board we bought at Home Depot to protect the floors as much as possible. It's basically a thick piece of cardstock/cardboard. 

Just as we finished putting the Tank Board down the truck I've been waiting 6 months to arrive backed in! OUR KITCHEN!!!!

 They started bringing all the pieces in and I wanted to jump up and down I was so excited!

The kitchen started to take shape pretty quickly! 

The pantry/desk wall got started today, although it's not exactly what we were expecting. We wanted the microwave hidden in the pantry, but it ended up being showcased in a pantry... We're going to discuss options to change or hide that tomorrow morning. I hate dealing with this stuff... I always feel bad. But at the same time, it's not what we wanted. 

See the opening in the middle? It's where the microwave goes, which is fine. I'd just prefer to have it behind closed doors. 

This is the drawing, and I love the symmetry. 

We also got the first glimpse of the island colour today too! Jeff, the "kitchen guy" admitted to me today that he thought I was crazy for picking it for any cabinetry let alone the center of our kitchen. But now that he's seen it, he likes it. Or at least he says he does ;)

We love it, and that's all that matters! It's very subtle, and looks almost white. Not the best picture, but you'll be able to see it more once it's installed!

Our bathroom vanity install has begun as well. 

They'll all be Benjamin Moore "Pewter".

Looking forward to the progress tomorrow!

I Heart the Heart of Our Home

They say the kitchen is the heart of the home... Well I know where my heart is!  Actually it's kind of a toss up between the kitchen and the floors.  But I guess the floors are also in the kitchen... So the kitchen it is!

We just got the drawings of our kitchen this week... I am thrilled!!  I know I shared a little detail about the kitchen in an earlier post, but here's where it all comes together!

This is the basic floor plan of the kitchen:

My kitchen must haves were an island, and an arched window.  You can thank Houzz for the arched window idea.  

The window faces the back of the house in front of the sink where we've actually already seen deer! It's big, and round and well... I like big windows and I cannot lie.

We have chosen a white, stepped shaker style door for our cabinetry.  We wanted something simple and classic in hopes that it won't become outdated in a few years, as opposed to picking something super trendy.  Here's the door style we chose, but obviously not in our colour choice!

I was so excited to get the drawings of our cabinetry. Now we can order the handles and knobs we picked!  We ordered samples and are really happy with them! 

We've decided to go with 2 different colours. Black for the perimeter cabinetry and brushed nickel for the island. 

These will be for all the perimeter drawers.

And these will be for all of the cupboards. They remind me of the nailheads on leather furniture, love them!

And these are for the island drawers. They are the same as the black ones, just a different colour!

In an earlier post I showed a picture of our island colour, but I'll show you again! It's call Icy Moon Drops and I think it will look great against the white cabinetry and reclaimed floors. 

Our island top will be a variety reclaimed wood species like this one:

Since we are kind of going to be living in the country, I didn't want our house to be too contemporary, so we've added some legs to our island to add some character. 

And lots of drawers!! I have 1 small bank of drawers in my house now so I'm excited to have big ones! And lots of them!

And we added the same legs to our desk on the pantry wall and the open shelving will be reclaimed lumber as well. I can just see all my cute tea cups on display :)

I'm excited to have not 1, but 2 pantries to be able to store all of our jars of PB. 

On the floor plan the fridge is kind of in the center of of the main wall. It was cutting up the counter space, so we moved it to the far side. We're also taking our cabinets right up to the 9' ceilings so there isn't that awkward dust collecting space. I don't own any fake ivy to display so this seemed like the best choice for us! ;)

And my FAVOURITE wall of all... The window!! 

Ignore where I had drawn the handles... They'll actually be in the middle. 

What's missing? Counter tops! 

We've decided to go with laminate counter tops for the perimeter. And we're actually picking the ones I have in my house now. So I know we'll like them!

We would have loved to have gone with a quartz counter top, but we decided to splurge on other parts of the house that can't be upgraded down the road. 

 

As for a backsplash, we don't know what we're doing yet. I want to wait until everything is up to decide. 

So there ya go... The heart of our home!