Monday, February 25, 2013

The floors!!

The floor guys were hard at work over the weekend.  This morning, Matt emailed over these pictures, and I wrote back "OMG I just died".  I meant in a good way, like died and went to walnut-stained-oak-floor heaven, but he thought I meant I didn't like them.  He needs more lessons on how to interpret Blonde.

Welcome to our new floors!


Remember when they used to look like this?


Wow, what a change, right??  Scroll back and forth a few times.  I pretty much spent my whole lunch break today going back and forth between those two pictures.

Here's the view fromthe corner of the living room, facing towards the dining room and kitchen.  Even the railing in the loft got the same stain!


And here's the opposite corner, in the dining room, looking at the kitchen.  PS, the back of the peninsula will get a pretty white board so it matches the cabinets.  It's hanging out in one of the bedrooms for now.


All the flooring in the rooms above were old floors, restained.  The flooring below is all new.  I can't tell the difference, can you?

Here is the master bedroom.  The door on the far wall goes into the master bath.  I love all the light.


 This is the loft area.


And finally, this will be my office, on the second floor off the loft.  See the ceiling fan inthe background?  That hangs over the living/dining rooms.


I honestly can't believe that step is done!  They need to do a couple of coats of poly, but this is a HUGE step!!

xo

Friday, February 22, 2013

Mid-week updates

Big surprise, it's supposed to snow this weekend (again).  Thanks, February, you can stop now.  They did just downgrade the amounts, so even though earlier in the week our apartment in Andover, MA was supposed to get 6-8", and the house in Acton, ME was going to get 12"+, the whole region is forecasted to only get 2-4".  Not too bad.

On to the pictures!

Here's our ghetto temporary mailbox.  The previous owner had removed the mailbox (along with all the copper pipes and kitchen cabinets), and we didn't get around to digging a hole for the mailbox before the ground froze.  The lovely ladies at the Acton Post office reprimanded me and said they couldn't keep holding our mail for too much longer, so we went right out and fixed up this temporary solution.


It has probably already been knocked over by a plow or stolen by teenagers.  But we did try.

The floor guys were working hard this week installing the new hardwood floors in my office...


...which continues into the loft...


...and they also patched the hole inthe flooring where the pink tile was underneath the old wood stove.  See how you can tell the old, shiny, orangey hardwood from the new, lighter wood?


And they also installed all new flooring in the master bedroom, where there used to be carpet.  That door is rotted out, since there are no gutters on the back of the house (that's totally getting fixed this spring), so the door below is getting switched out for a pretty new french door.


Have a good weekend, and I hope it doesn't snow too much!
xo

Monday, February 18, 2013

Matt was right

We took a drive to Ikea yesterday (in the snow), and Matt was right - it was a good thing we took his car, because everything we bought would definitely not have fit in my car. 

Saturday (also in the snow) we drove up to Acton for the day to check on progress. 

Here's a pretty view of the fan in the great room.  The electrician reworked some of the switches, so we will now be able to turn on the light AND the fan!  (Seriously, who puts in a fan with a light and then doesn't connect the light wires to a switch?!)

This is the view from the living room looking up at the loft and over towards the kitchen.  See, the paint is all done!  The railing in the loft will be stained when the floor gets stained this week.


This is the fireplace wall when we bought the house:

And the same wall now.  We will be putting in a gas fireplace insert and a stone surround.


The wall on the left faces the road at the front of the house, and the wall on the right faces the yard.  The sofa will go in front of the window on the right.

Also, I am LOVING the white trim.  I kind of drool a little every time I see it.  It looks so much nicer than the wood trim!

Before and after - standing at the front door, looking at the kitchen, with the stairs to the loft on the right:

Kitchen from the hallway:

Kitchen from the dining room:

Cement board is up, so we can have the backsplash tile put in (after the countertops):
Since we ordered the cabinets right after Thanksgiving, I had forgotten about all the cool extras we got!  If you look at the picture above, the cabinet to the right of the stove spot has a built-in cutting board!  So handy to have a cutting board with the knives.  This drawer was getting its face plate reattached, but it goes to the left of the dishwasher,so it's next to the dining room, and it has 2 cutlery trays.

This cabinet in the peninsula has a pull-out shelf for pots and pans and lids.  No more everything falling over!
This week the floors are getting patched, sanded, and stained.  I can't wait to see the results!
xo

Sunday, February 10, 2013

Snowed in

We didn't make it up to Maine this weekend, and it was nice to have a weekend off to sleep in and relax.  We have been up to the house every weekend since we got back from Long Island at Christmas.

So we got a bunch of snow at the apartment in Andover.  And, miraculously, we did NOT lose power!!



That's Matt trying to get the shovel out of my car (in the garage) so he could un-bury his car (not in the garage).  Notice how the snow drifted nearly up to the handles.  We got just about two feet total.

And how did the house in Acton do?



Our painter sent us that photo.  The plow guy cleared the driveway, but there was about 3 solid feet left on the walkway.

Some other fun things - here's the corner hutch for the dining room that we bought at the Black Friday sale at the Mill Store:



And this is a wall unit that Amy built about a million years ago that has been over her couch (ie, Aunt Cathy's couch) in 3 different apartments.  She decided it was just too big to take with her (it's taller than she is, seriously) when she and Bryn moved to Seattle last year, so I took it.



I'm really glad that I'll have something that was made by one of my friends.  PS, Amy and Bryn have been gone for a YEAR, y'all!  WHAAAATT??

I'm also kind of in love with the oil-rubbed bronze spray paint.  The ceiling fan in the living room was looking a little dingy and boring, so I decided to ORB it up.  Before:



And after spraying it to match the doorknobs, adding a pretty ceiling medallion, and a smaller matching medallion right over the lights so you can't see how ugly the "inside-the-lights" part is when you're standing in the loft:





So that's a little update, despite not being up there this weekend.

Tuesday, February 5, 2013

Cabinets are looking good!

The carpenters were hard at work this past weekend putting up the crown molding on the tops of the kitchen cabinets!
 








I also finished painting my office, but it's yellow and doesn't have any windows, so it doesn't photograph well, so I'll have to keep trying for a picture.