Week 10!! (& Week 11)

The Irvin renovation continues to move along well as we check things off the long list of items that need to be completed. The trim was continued, the painters started to do the caulking around the coffered ceiling, a couple doors were put in, the family room molding was changed around the porch door, the tile was started in the new bathroom upstairs, i picked the hardwood floor color, and started looking for wallpaper for the back of the bookshelves.

It is fun to watch the trim going in because i think molding is what gives rooms and houses character. We decided to do double crown molding around the base of the coffered ceiling.

Seeing the doors go in Liam's closet and on the door to the playroom was very exciting.  The pantry door is in which helps me visualize the kitchen space.

The old refrigerator is still in the house. It is so heavy it will take 4-5 guys to move it out next week. They are going to move in Monday so the floor refinishers can do the flooring. This is what the new space in the foyer looks like without the refrigerator there. 

The molding on the porch door was finished off and as Billy said, you cannot even tell there was ever windows there. We decided to take the rosettes out and have the door molding match the rest of the doors in the house.

The tile in the bathroom was started this week. My dislike for tile continues. I was asked a number of questions about how I wanted the tile laid out in the bathroom and I think I made a mistake about how the niche was tiled but I am not going to point it out to anyone. If you are ever showering in there and notice the issue, I will pay you $5 not to tell me. My need for clean lines has been harmed in the tiling of the bathroom....ugh!!! Next time, I'm doing poured concrete!

They are going to start the floors on Thursday 3-17 and it should take about a week to finish. When we get back from Hawaii we should be able to walk on the floors in socks. I was able to pick our final floor color. I did not want to do anything too dark, but wanted dark floors. They are going to be much warmer and I cannot wait to see them! The color is Dark Walnut. 

I have decided to wallpaper the backs of the 2 built ins in the family room. I want to give it some interest and decided that wallpaper would be better than paint.  The wallpaper Mimi picked out and we agreed would be perfect has been discontinued so the search continues!

We are looking forward to an amazing trip to Hawaii and cannot wait to see what the floors look like when we get home.

Aloha! 

Week 9!!

It has been another exciting week at the Irvin household! Now that we have been in the basement for a whole week, we can safely say we are REALLY happy to be home! The kids and I get up in the morning, get dressed, brush teeth, etc and just head down to the basement for the rest of the day. It has been working really well. We just come in and out through the basement doors so the kids are safe and we are not getting in anyone's way.

This week the drywall was finished, paint colors were picked, tile was picked up and the tile guy came and did prep work to lay bathroom tile on Monday, the coffered ceiling was completed, the new flooring was laid, we decided to change out our foyer chandelier, I bought a new foyer chandelier, Billy spent a lot of time wondering why we were spending money on replacing a perfectly good foyer chandelier, and some other details were obsessed decided upon.  It is hard to believe we have been doing this for 9 weeks. In some ways it feels really fast but in other ways, it is hard to remember life before. When someone asks Billy what he thinks about renovations, he says, don't renovate, move, but I am really loving seeing the changes everyday. I have no regrets! I hate to say it, but I really am loving the process!


Mimi at Williams and Sherrill helped me pick paint colors. Thank the good Lord she did! We went to the Marva Marble and we took all of our stuff- cabinet color sample, floor sample, new chair cushions, rug sample, couch fabric and Mimi sat with the huge paint book and we looked at it all together. It's amazing to watch someone with so much talent work!
For the kitchen and keeping room we will paint Natural Choice and the family room Accessible Beige. I wanted something neutral and it looks really good all together. I am getting very excited about this part coming together!


The tile guy came this morning and prepped the new bathroom for tile on Monday. Jim picked up our tile on Friday so we are ready to get it all together!

The coffered ceiling in the family room was something I was so excited about. I have always loved a coffered ceiling and did not know how I would incorporate one into my house, but when we decided to build a ceiling in the family room thought it was my perfect opportunity.
It is hard to get good pictures of it, but you can see the molding inside the boxes. I just love how it is turning out!

Friday the new hardwoods were put in. We pulled up the hardwoods in the old dining room and the foyer because they were laid in a different direction and had a cherry inlay that I did not really like. Since we took the dining room away to make the kitchen bigger and a foyer and pantry, the floors were not working anymore. The hardwood was pulled up early in the project so we have been looking at the subfloors for a while now. It looks so nice to have flooring down--even though it is not finished yet. It was so loud when they were laying it down. It sounds like bombs are going off. Raleigh was so scared she was hiding under anything she could find. It was not the best day for her!

The floors stacked up and you can see the sub floor here

New floors! Looking down for the top of the front staircase

They had to lay this one piece going the opposite way. I did not want this, but they could not get the floors to line up and we would have had gaps in the wood-I did not want that!

They used the front porch to cut wood

The new flooring being laid

The new mudroom flooring

Replacing where the island and cabinets in the kitchen were

New foyer flooring

Flooring in the media room bar

Pantry

Chandelier, oh Chandelier, why are so you big and gaudy? I was walking down the front stairs admiring the banister when i looked up and thought, wow, that chandelier really, really does not work in here anymore. Once we pulled out the black banister and we are going to change out the carpet runner, it will just be ugly and not match in the least. Since we already have to paint the ceiling it isn't that much more work to change it out now. I went to Shades of Light last week and found this chandelier:

I got it for a great price and think it will add clean lines to the space. 

 I do not think the chandelier matches our decor in the least and the medallion is pretty awful.

It is really pretty at night when it reflects off of the walls

but the medallion reminds me that it has to go 

It's too ornamental for me!

I realized that I hadn't posted any good straight on shots of the front staircase. We love the new banisters! 

Next week tile and painting will start and then when we head west to Hawaii they will refinish the floors. Looking forward to another great week!

Week 8!!

We moved home Saturday. We barely fit all of our belongings into our two cars. We almost had to tie Raleigh to the roof, but was able to squeeze her into a space next to the trash can and Nora Kate's doll kitchen set. We moved back into a house with drywall stacked on the floor and plywood for walls. The drywall was the big focus this week--which is super messy and dusty. The banisters were replaced and no one fell over the edge while we waited for the new ones to be put up. The basement walls were finished and we were able to move down there Thursday morning. We hung out in the bedrooms until then. We were grateful for nice weather so we spent a lot of time outside.

First the insulators came and put up the insulation. The media room walls were insulated to help with sound dampening.

Media room wall

Kitchen wall to the exterior of our home

Family room ceiling insulation-again to help with sound dampening

insulation for the windows over the door that we covered over

Insulation for the mudroom wall into the garage

Drywall up in the media room 

Media room

Starting on the ceiling in the family room

Kitchen pre-dry wall

The bathroom walls

Bathroom

Family room ceiling complete

Mudroom walls

Family room ceiling

The family room wall patched where the plumbing came down from the new bathroom

Kitchen walls

Pantry walls

Pantry

Liam's room-used to be a double door but now will be a single door

Liam's closet. There will be double doors put on here

The banisters were changed out this week. We lived for one day with no banister on the front stairs which was very nerve racking with the kids. We are very happy to have them back up! The wood will be stained to match the color of the new floor color. The spindles will stay white. I absolutely love the look of the banisters and I am very happy we decided to change them out. 

The old spindles sticking out from the dumpster

It was so odd not to have any railings up 

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New railings on the back staircase

Railing up on the front stairs

Back staircase railing

Next week they are going to finish the drywall work--need to sand the rest of the drywall and then they will start trim work. Once the trim is done the painters can start painting and caulking the trim. I am going to pick paint colors this week for the kitchen/keeping room and the family room. We are really happy to be back in the basement and loving being back home. It might look like a construction site, but it is always nice to be home-even when home is drywall and sub flooring!