Dining Room and Kitchen Almost Complete

We have made some serious progress on the dining room.  I have unpacked just about everything that was piled on the table. We still need our three prong outlets and white light switches, but we are switching those out ourselves so we are just moving slowly from room to room.

 I found that awesome runner at William Sonoma this weekend on sale for $16 from $60!

Painting the Future Craft Room

Awesome Garage

Hardware

We finally got some (not all) hardware up on these cabinets. I had no trouble deciding on hardware. I have always wanted exactly this. I will say I was surprised at the price. They were between 6 and 12 dollars a piece at Lowes depending on the size. Yikes! Lukily we found them for between 2 and 4 dollars a piece on amazon! Tell me if your in the market and I'll send you a link!

Notice the hole in the wall? Still waiting on light switches and electrical outlets.

And that door leads to our unfinished basement. That is a serious project down there. We have been slowly working on it DIY style. More on that later.

The Dream Kitchen

The dream kitchen is almost done. We still need grout and plugs. We actually have very few working plugs in the entire house which has been an adventure. I want to show you all the progress and all the things we have discovered but no plug for the computer! For now I will just be completely excited about this kitchen.

House on Monday

This was the house Monday. So much has happened since then it is unbelievable. To be continued.

Framing a wall between the garage and the basement. 

Dishwasher and sink--installed.

Beautiful Range--installed. 

Paint Beginnings

Last week the paint started to go up.  I love a white and bright house so of course we did a ton of white with light grey-blue in the front and hall.  

I spent a TON of time pouring over 20 shades of grey.  I will share our actual colors when they are all up - but if you are planning on painting anything grey and need help deciding, let me know!  I may have memorized the entire Benjamin Moore grey swatch list and all their subtle differences.

Here is just a little preview of the front room.  The dining room will be the same color but  a few shades darker. And can you see my super tall base molding getting ready to go in?  Excited!  

Avery picked "dark dark purple" for her room, but this is what she got.  Luckily she loved it! This pic is not quite the true color.  Ill get more up soon.

More Kitchen Progress

The kitchen trim is up and the lights work!  The hood would have been installed too, but it arrived with a dent in the front of it. 

Kitchen Progress

Amazing right?!  I am way too excited.  

So much progress this week!  

They started priming the walls for paint!  The family room and kitchen are going to be all white.  I cant believe how fresh it looks already. 

And my cute little painter my be 85...

The new cabinets arrived!  And the recessed lighting was finished in the kitchen.  I love all that light.  Now that the kitchen is being put together I can't believe there was once a door there.  

And my favorite thing - they started installing my giant pantry.

I also did a ton of work on paint colors and bought all my light fixtures.  More on that later!  Have a fun weekend!

Floors and a Deck!

I love them!  I just love them!  The finish will be applied after the cabinets go in and the painting is done, but we are keeping them a very light color.  The wood paneling in the background (that I also love) will be white.

There has also been some awesome deck progress.  I was very skeptical about the ability to salvage this deck from 1959.  Notice how far apart the railing is?  And that the deck is grey?  And it wobbled terribly.

All the railing was moved closer together and new wood was added.  The deck was also reinforced underneath to prevent the wobble.

Then the entire thing was power washed.  Amazing!  We have a deck!  New stain to follow.

Progress!

A few things that happened before the floors went in:

Entry to dining room before:

Entry to dining room progress:

As amazing as these giant glass doors were, they were not safe or up to code.  Before:

New doors progress!  Just picked up the door knob today.

No More Kitchen Door

Before and After

Cabinets and Rockstars

More walls were opened up today! Unfortunately I couldn't get over there to take a pic.  But I will have some updates tomorrow.  I'm excited!  

We made the final decision on what and where the cabinets are going.  We went with these guys:

They are shaker style and will look super clean and modern with my hardware:

And on a completely different note, Avery announced:

"Mom, I want a rockstar bedroom, full of peace signs and rockstars."

Amazing.  Where is a four year old coming up this?

Maybe its time for this movie:

http://www.schoolofrockmovie.com/

And as far as peace sign go, these aren't too bad right?  Yes they are.  I think I will just paint her room purple while she is gone.  haha

Let's Talk Fireplaces

When I originally saw this house I thought the fireplace needed to be painted immediately.  The brick was dark and the black mortar was terrible.  The hearth was a giant mess sticking out into my family room ready to break the teeth off my sweet running and climbing girlies.

Then we hired contractor Steve (who is amazing btw).  It turns out Steve worked in brick for quite a while and is somewhat of a brick expert.  He told me straight up I was not allowed to paint that brick. 

According to Steve it is old Alabama Bessemer Grey brick that probably dates back to a pre-civil war era.  The brick was hand cast, which is why it is so rough and multicolored.  In some of the bricks you can actually see the fingerprints of the men who made it. So awesome, right!  

That little bit of history made me fall in love with our fireplace.  I decided not to paint it but the hearth still had to go (I don't love that fireplace more than the girls' teeth/heads).  Now I am looking for a creative way to showcase it and its awesome brick. 

Here is the fireplace before:

Here is where we are now.  It already looks so much better without the hearth.  Steve is going to take the brick from the hearth and lay it on the bottom so it matches perfectly.  

Its been hard to find some good inspiration now that I'm not painting it.  Everything I am drawn to is all white.  If you see fireplaces that rock the original brick, send me a link, or post a link in a comment.  (pics from http://www.bhg.com/)

This was my original idea:

Love the white in this one (below) but I don't love the plant or the stool.  Way too much French country. blah.

 

Based on the style of the room (below), I would automatically expect this one to be painted but it's not!  And it really works - awesome.

And this one (below) is so not my style but I find it so beautiful!  Just had to share.

So thats the current round up.  I appreciate everyone who has been giving me advice!  Thank you and keep it coming.  I need all the help I can get!

Demo day three! And I need advice...

So I ran over to the house this afternoon and this had happened!!

And yes that is my girl collecting nails or some other dangerous construction leftovers.  I am standing in the kitchen looking into the family room.  The wall separating the two is gone!  The space already feels so open.

Here is the view from the other side.  See the door?  We can't decide if we should just get rid of it or not.  That entire wall is going to be glorious kitchen so we could put the refrigerator there and gain a lot more counter space...I just can't decide.

Here is a pic of one of the workers covering the window for me so I can try to get a visual.  Hahaha!  What a good sport.  But really, what do you think?  More kitchen or random door leading to the side of the house that lets in tons of light?  I need help.  Seriously.  If you are reading this right now tell me what you would do.  Not kidding.

We do have all this light flowing into the area and another large window over the future sink directly to the left, so its not like we have a lack of windows...

And of course while I stared at the door the girls got some time in the best back yard in Vestavia.  Makes my mom heart feel sooo good.