Home Sweet Renovation

Saturday, January 16, 2016

What's involved in our Project?

I've been asked a couple times what is exactly in our project. This question mostly gets asked by B. He hasn't even met Steven..what a trusting husband I have!

-Whole new kitchen. Everything is being replaced except our wall oven (new cabinets, countertops)

-New appliances:
Kitchen: Refrigerator, 2 new dishwashers, Range with Oven, Beverage fridge, ice maker, 2 sinks, 2 faucets and microwave.
Media room wet bar: dishwasher, kegerator, beverage fridge, sink, faucet

-Moving our dining room to the existing living room space and pushing the kitchen into the dining room

-creating a walk in pantry with office area in it, expanding the foyer into the dining room space

-replacing the staircase banister and spindles

-replacing the runner on the front stairs

-replacing the hardwood floors in the dining room and foyer to get rid of the cherry inlay and the different direction of some of the hardwood.

-refinish all of the hardwood on the 1st floor, front staircase and upstairs hallway

-build a media room where there was an open space in the 2 story family room

-new media room system-sound, lights

-build a full bath upstairs in the 2 story family room space

-build a wet bar in the media room

-move the closet in L's playroom off of his bedroom to make it more usable. Take down the wall of the existing closet

-replace the fireplaces in the family room and basement. Change the surrounds of the keeping room and family room fireplaces. Build new mantle in the family room

-Replace the ceiling in the keeping room with white shiplap

-Change the keeping room door to the porch to a window to match the 2 next to it

-paint the medallion in the foyer to match ceiling

-build mudroom off of the garage

-replace the carpet on the back stairs

-build laundry shoot from L's room to laundry room (if possible)

-add separate HVAC for media room and L's playroom

-build coffered ceiling in the family room

-take out the middle built-in in the family room

-change all of the door handles and hinges in the entire house

-Lighting: Can lights in the keeping room, change out the ceiling fan to a white one, replace and move the kitchen light to be centered over new table, can lights in kitchen, pendants over the island, lighting in the pantry/office, sconces in the new foyer area, replace existing lights in upstairs hallway with can lights, wire new dining room for light fixture, lights in the media room, lighting in new bathroom, new closet lights

We were going to put a bedroom in the basement and a wall up in a guest room closet, but decided not to do those 2 projects.

It has certainly grown in the past 3 years!

Friday, January 15, 2016

Week one!

Hard to believe the renovation is here and week one is almost done!

This week they took out all the cabinets, appliances, granite, took out the drywall and ceiling in the kitchen and part of the dining room that will now be part of the kitchen. Took down drywall in the basement to expose the supports to tie the load bearing wall in the kitchen into. Took down the drywall over the hallway in the family room. Removed the middle built in bookcase. Removed drywall over the windows we will be losing in the family room. Had lumber and support beams delivered. Ordered materials for the new mudroom. Picked out new railings and pickets for the front stair case with matching for the back staircase.

I finalized cabinets for the kitchen, media room wet bar, and office. Picked out 2 new fireplaces and 3 surrounds for the 3 fireplaces in the house. I will be checking on ordering a second family room couch now that we took the built in out in the family room we are going to add a couch to increase the seating from 5 to 8 in that room.

I am so happy with the work that Virginia Traditions is doing. Steven is amazing to work with and his guys are really nice and knowledgeable.

Last before shots on the morning of day 1: The calm before the drywall dust storm

porta potty truck greeting us as we drove away

Day 1:

Day 4:

In the basement

Basement beam they will tie weight into

middle built in is removed and room already feels bigger!

Day 5:

That's a lot of lumber!

This is where the new ceiling will hit the wall. The windows above the doors will be dry walled over. We will do a decorative piece on the outside.

The exposed ceiling will all be kitchen. The existing ceiling will be pantry and new foyer

In the basement

Looks so official!

Cabinets:

We are doing white Cabinets in the kitchen. I had picked a plain shaker cabinet a while ago but changed the edge I wanted on our countertop and felt that a plain shaker would be too sleek looking to match the new edge. At first I liked the top one, but there were 2 issues. The way the cabinet is constructed it is not as strong as the other one and will separate at the corners. I could have it filled with putty but it would make me nuts and especially visible in white. The other issue, I was afraid I might get sick of the look.

I decided on these cabinets but in Polar White (there are so many whites out there!) and will have different hardware. I felt that this looked better with the beaded inset of the cabinet itself. The door also has detail, but not too much. Still has the shaker look I wanted but not so sleek.

The office will be a Gray shaker cabinet. It will be a plain front, but I think the classic look will be a great piece in the pantry/office space. I plan to find a bright office chair to go with it. I forgot to snap a picture of that...

The bar in the media room was fun to pick out because it is only one cabinet. It is not a big bar and we have a dishwasher, beverage fridge, and kegerator to go up there. They will be shelves above to hold glasses and Movie snacks--movie candy anyone! I wanted something dark and gave some interest to the space. I decided on this cabinet and in this cherry color. I felt that it gave a masculine feel to it and would go with whatever decor we decide in that room.