Kitchen/Nook Renovation - Part 4

Last week I posted about the new flooring being installed at my family's home and I can safely say that I love the new tile. Its looking great and really updated the space. While everything was already out of the room, it made sense to repaint the walls and they look fantastic.

For the nook, we used Benjamin Moore's "Natural Linen". Its a nice smooth beigey colour thats a nice change from having yellowish walls for the past sixteen years.

And it really makes the trim stand out. Do you notice anything different with the trim?

Instead of just putting back up the original trim, my Dad decided to get adventurous and add something a little more decorative to the top.

With advice from an extremely helpful young man at Lowe's he was able to come up with this classic lintel for the top of the door trim. I've always been a fan of this style and after admiring my father's handiwork I noticed that some of the trim in my own apartment is actually the same. I always knew that there was something about it I liked.

My parents decided to kept all the same furniture - except for these new fellas. Beautiful dark espresso wood and dark chocolate brown leather chairs. Originally they were ordered in time for the big family dinner on Christmas Eve, but when the boxes arrived they were the wrong chairs. The lady at the shop had written down the code next to these ones, which happened to be garish white upholstered ones and they had to go back. Oops.

But when the chairs finally arrived they were worth the wait. I love the simple design with the "X" stitched into the leather. Now we're just on the hunt for a nice dark leather club chair to match these and replace the antique wicker rocker that you can see in the background. We need something a little more modern and comfortable in that sitting area, but I still love that rocker because when you sit down and rest your hands on the armrests you can see where my great grandmother used to rub her hands while she rocked. I'll just sit there with my hands on the worn wood and think of her. But don't worry its not going to be sent away, just moved somewhere else in the house and given some new upholstery.

And here is a quick shot of the flooring as you're going from the nook to the kitchen, to show you how well the tile goes with all the different pieces - stainless steel appliances, white trim and antique wood furnishing.

We've come a long way so far, but there is still plenty to be done including replacing some of the water damaged cabinets (a lesson in why you don't let little kids help with the dishes), creating new window treatments, installing new under-counter lighting and adding some accents to the nook. I'll keep you posted :)

Here are Part One, Part Two and Part Three to see the progress that's been made so far.

Kitchen/Nook Renovation - Part 3

After being without a kitchen for a couple of weeks during this whole renovation process at my family home, my parents are glad to finally see some progress!

Here is the nook with the new tile floor. We still need to put the baseboards on and then lug all the furniture back in. The fireplace had to be removed so that the new base could be tiled.

 

But thankfully it was fairly easy to put back in place. Just missing the actual fire part....

I love this tile. The pattern is so subtle and yet interesting at the same time. And it really has spruced the place up. The only one who seems to be missing the linoleum is Whiskey - he used to get so much more traction when he was chasing Shadow and now his little legs go all over the place. But he'll just have to get used to it.

And here is the tile going from the nook to the kitchen and then extending out onto the landing. The best part is that the section in front of the sink is heated. I can see this becoming Shadow's new favorite spot to nap.

 

The tile was extended right up to the wall in the kitchen so that the cabinets can rest on it. I can't wait to see how this is going to look once everything is back in place!

 

For the past sixteen years almost everything in our house (and our cottage) has been painted some variation of this yellow colour - or as our mother corrects us all the time - "Butternut Cream". (With the exception of my dad's office which he painted this bold "Ox Blood Red"...he's colourblind so it was the colour that "stood out to [him] the most". Lets just say that it is VERY red). Its time for a change, so to go with the new flooring they choose Benjamin Moore's "Kangaroo" (left) for the kitchen and "Natural Linen" (right) for the nook. This picture doesn't really do justice to how beautiful these colours are. Sorry, I was having colour balance issues.

Be sure to check back next week when the kitchen starts to come back together (Having a sink and stove again! yay!) and the paint goes up on the walls. Plus a few little last minute surprises.

An you can read Part One and Part Two to catch the progress that's been made so far :)

Kitchen/Nook Renovation - Part 2

Last week I posted about the renovations that my parents wanted to do to their kitchen and nook area - the most used space in our family home. Now that the game plan was all laid out, it was time to start dismantling everything to start the work. I called dibs on the crowbar :)

First we had to remove all the furniture so that we could prep the room for the tile to be laid. The space looks so much bigger without the couch and chairs. That oak table in the middle of the room is one of my favorite pieces in our house. My parents purchased it from an old neighbour in their small town on Georgian Bay many years ago before they moved to our new hometown. The woman who owned this raised twelve kids around that table. Don't worry, they weren't all crammed around it like that - it has leaves to expand it.

 

In the bottom corner you can see where we started to pull off all the baseboards and quarterround. The tile will be adding additional height to the floor, so we will have to reinstall the baseboards afterwards, which will be a great time to repaint them and replace any sections that need repairs.

 

It feels weird to be able to look out the big window without sitting on the couch. I love the view of the river from here. Its Whiskey's favorite spot too - he sits on the top of the couch and guards for squirrels in the ravine.

 

Thats our little river at the bottom of the hill. See that big tree with branches on only half of it? Victim of a sneaky snowmobiler who hit it while he was trying to use our yard to get up to the road. Breaks my heart to see it so bare, but thankfully the ravine on the east side of the property is lush and offers lots of shelter to the wildlife around here.

 

While we were clearing the rooms, anything valuable was to be put on top of the upper cabinets....including our beloved Whiskey. My little brother (yup, he's in a faux fur trappers hat) put him up there so that he could survey the situation.

 

Don't worry he was only up there for a second, and I swear that he loved the attention. When you're only 18" tall I'm sure you appreciate being able to look down on everyone else for a moment.

 

Adios, linoleum. See you soon, cupboards.

We moved all the drawers and furniture to the other room...

 

...and it was a task and a half to get it all to fit. Geez Louise, we have alot of stuff in there.

And of course the most important thing was to convert the bar into a coffee / tea / hot chocolate station for all the hard workers to reenergize. As the non-coffee drinker in the family, I can say that the amount of Tim Hortons coffee that goes through that maker is unheard of.

I'll have more on the progress next week, and don't forget to check out Part One of the renovation.

Kitchen/Nook Renovation - Part 1

Sixteen years ago my parents unexpectedly sold their house within four days, and suddenly they had to design and build a new house bronto, with two little girls and a four-month-old baby in tow. It was rushed to say the least. Now they are in the process of updating their house, and the room that needs the most work is of course the place where we all spend the most time - the kitchen/nook area. Its a small kitchen that opens up into a larger eatting/sitting area that gets a lot of natural light with great views of the river behind them. People naturally seem to gravitate towards this room and it always feels homey, but all of the traffic has had some wear and tear on it. Their main goal is to replace the linoleum flooring with ceramic tile and update the rooms.

The fireplace was actually built by my father just over a decade ago using plywood, decorative molding and a gas fireplace kit. In order to have all the tile lie flush with the molding, the entire unit will have to be dismantled, along with the baseboards and quarter-round. In the mirror you can see the heavy pink/burgundyish drapes that cover the french doors leading to the porch. Those are going to be replaced as well, in something closer to the new colour palate of the rest of the room.

The flat screen television used to be where the antique wicker chair is now, resting in a stand on the little sideboard below it. This created a dark corner there, and limited the amount of seating that we could have. However, mounting the tv to the wall was no small task. It took my father two days this Fall to get all of the cables for the tv and surround sound wired through the walls, as well as anchoring the wall hooks for the tv. The weekend that he did it was the same weekend that my sweet little cousin was visiting. And she was going through her 20 Questions phase, and wouldn't stop pestering him with questions: "Uncle, what are you doing?", "Why?" (I'm sure that he was asking himself the same questions!)

Over the past couple of years my parents have been slowly replacing all of their appliances with stainless steel ones to create a more uniform look. They plan to keep the same oak cabinets, but will be replacing those that have suffered from water damage (those ones that are just left of the stove). On the right side near the top you can see where my mother and sister went to the paint store and fell in love with a light green shade, only to discover that when they got home with a sample, it was more of a minty green. A good reminder to always check the colour with your own light before you commit to having a minty fresh kitchen! They've opted for a more neutral colour palatte instead, and plan to paint after the tile has been laid.

When I took these photos they had already started removing some of the drawers so that they could dismantle the cupboards. Although the countertops are in great condition, they are hoping to replace the countertops soon with a nice dark stone surface.

After sixteen years, three dogs and lots of kids, this linoleum flooring has seen better days. The cermaic tiles that they have chosen to replace it with are gorgeous, and will be able to handle the wear-and-tear of our busy family. There are also a few little perks that they are including, like a heated section of the flooring right here in front of the sink.

And of course our kitchen wouldn't be complete without keeping the Tim Hortons' coffee maker, complete with two sugar containers (we have a problem) and a cute little coffee jar. I don't even drink coffee and I know the EXACT measurements that go into making their favorite blend.

Next week I'll post about the demolition work that we all chipped in on, and the progress that has been made so far.

Welcome to That Old House

If you live in our part of New Jersey, you probably know our house. It's the old house next to the high school, raised up off the road by an old stone wall, its clapboard siding painted yellow, with a big columned front porch and dark green shutters, and a newer glassed-in conservatory on the side.... and by now you are saying, "Oh! You live in that old house!"
Yes, yes we do. And have since May of 2008.

Howard and I are empty-nesters -- both daughters away at college and grad school -- and because we wanted a larger nest to host guests when our chickens do come home to roost, and also because I wanted a change from the house we'd raised our girls in, we decided to move.

In the fall of 2007 I saw an old farmhouse in an online realty listing... and decided to take a look.

When I did, I was a goner.

It was MY house. It was the house I wished I lived in when I was a little girl. It had its drawbacks -- but hey, nothing is perfect!

That was the end of October. We bought the house in March, although our other house was still on the market with no buyers in sight. But miracles do happen, even in slumping real estate markets -- we got two offers on our own house, and accepted a solid full price contract. (Thank you, St. Joseph.)

We hired plumbers, electricians, painters, an air conditioning installer (God bless central air!), handymen, an iron fabricator, and a contractor to shore up a few saggy floors and spongy joists.

The original section of this house is built without any nails. The timbers are hand-cut, and fit together like a giant puzzle, an enormous hand wrought Erector set of timbers. It's beautiful to see, and clearly visible in the attic and cellar.

We also hired a landscaper, my husband having finally abandoned the fiction of his enjoying yard work. However, the pro and I don't see eye to eye about the importance of a perfect green lawn. Our 3/4 acre was mostly wet muddy ruts back in March, and now, on this first day of October, I look out my windows and I see green. I am happy. Landscape guy is not.

"It's all crab grass," says he.

"So?" says I. "It's green!"

He thinks I'm nuts. He may be right, but I'm happy. . . .

We are holding off on more big projects until the spring. They will include exterior painting, maybe roofing, replacing missing shutters, and some fencing so our dogs can run around and sniff out squirrels and chipmunks without the annoyance of always being on lead.

The house is still very much a work in progress, but then ... so are we all.