It's Been a Long Time Coming...

I don't know how things work around your house, but here, sometimes projects get started and then linger a while before they are finally finished.  Not for any other reason, than something else comes up on the priority list.

Last March, when we returned home from Florida, we took down the wall between the living room and the kitchen.  Opening up the space between the rooms was high on our wish list when we moved into this house. (At least for me, it was!) 

Here's a look back at what the living room looked like when we moved in.

 

 The walls were a dark caramel colour which actually worked quite well with our brown furniture.

But then, shortly after moving here, our daughter purchased a house and we gave her this furniture for her new home.

 

Knowing that we would be making some changes (ie/ taking the wall down between the two rooms) we waited to purchase a new sofa and made do with just the two chairs in this room.

We came back from vacation with gusto and immediately took the wall down.

And it sat like this for the better part of a year, because the weather got warm and we decided to move outside to tackle some projects.

Fall came and we decided that we would tackle the kitchen renovation first and then the posts...

That renovation took us right up until Christmas so this again had to wait.

But I am happy to report that the columns are done!  We also tackled painting the living room.

Back in August of 2015 we purchased a new sofa for the living room...a dark charcoal grey Broyhill from Costco.  It dictated the change in paint color for the room.  Gone is the dark caramel color and now there is a new light grey that really brightens up the space.

We started with Repose Grey.

But it was looking a little too beige in here.

So rather than wasting the paint we had already purchased...we added 1 1/2 cups of Dorian Grey to each gallon and shook them up well.  Dorian Grey is the colour we used in the kitchen.  We knew we loved it so we took a chance and I have to say it really paid off.  It was just what we needed to give it a little more grey.
 

Here are the columns trimmed out and painted ultra white from Sherwin Williams.  It's a stock paint from their exterior paint line at Lowes.  I prefer using exterior paint for the trim as it seems to be a bit more durable than an interior paint and holds up better to scuffing and washes beautifully.

You can even see a bit of the old caramel colour going down the hallway.  That's the next project on the list, hopefully before the weather gets warmer and McG wants to head back outside to work!

He did an amazing job on the columns! I am so pleased with them.  We have some baseboards and crown molding to add in here before we can say that it's truly "DONE", but we are loving it!  The house is truly starting to feel like our "own" now that these two rooms are opened up and re-done.

 

This long, dark hallway (with seven doors) will be what we are tackling this weekend!!  Wish us luck...that's a whole lot of trim to paint and a whole lot of cutting in to do!!

At Long Last...The Kitchen Reveal

While it's not totally done yet, I wanted to share the great transformation the kitchen has undergone so far.  Here is where we started when we bought the house in August of 2014.

Oak cabinets stained dark walnut and great hardwood floors.

We took down the shelving on either side of the sink cabinets and took down the wavy valance that really dated the kitchen.

The layout and flow of the kitchen worked well, but we wanted to lighten things up.

Back in March we took down the wall between the kitchen and the living room.

We patched the floors where the wall came down.

We took down the wooden hood vent cover and opened up the shelving over the stove.  Next we ripped out the old counter tops and installed new ones, along with a new sink.

We boxed in the cabinets around the sink and moved and centered the light fixture and added new lights throughout the kitchen.  We also purchased cabinet doors from the Habitat Restore to finish off the ends of the cabinets around the sink.

Next we added bead board as a back splash and as wainscotting around the room.  The paint colour was changed as well to Dorian Grey by Sherwin Williams.

We also painted and added new trim. The room is so much lighter and brighter already at this point.

We sent the cabinet doors out to be sprayed and we painted the bases and crown molding.


AND HERE SHE IS NOW...(I apologize for the dark pictures...it's been cloudy and raining here for days!)

We added a new bank of drawers on the base cabinets.

One of the last projects was to add this tile around the stove area and around the window.
More on this project to come at a later date.

Projects still to come in the kitchen:

-   add drywall to the ceiling to cover the stucco
-   split the island in two and install cabinets on either side of the window
-   build a new island
-   finish up the columns between the kitchen and the living room

What do you think about our kitchen transformation?  I am loving it!!

Cheryl

Linking Up @:

Coastal Charm
Northern Nesting
Life On Lakeshore Drive
A Stroll Thru Life
Cozy Little House
Have A Daily Cup of Mrs. Olson
Lavender Cottage
Kammy's Korner

Almost There...

This past weekend I spent at the Flea Market in St. Jacob's and thrifting with my BFF.  We have been friends for 36 years and had never gone away just the two of us.  With life and husbands and kids it just didn't happen.  But last weekend we remedied that and decided to make it an annual event.  No great things were purchased, just some small household items, and no pictures were taken...sorry!

Back at home McG kept busy with work and projects in the back yard.  I came home to some significant progress and was able to help him work out there on Sunday.

He moved my fountain over to the back of the house where it could be seen better. This is probably my favourite of all the gifts he has ever made for me.

He added a brick border along the garden by the back door.  He and our son spent Saturday afternoon digging up the beach stone at the home of some of our friends.  They were re-doing their landscaping and were going to get rid of the stone.  McG and our son dug it out of their yard and put it into a trailer, brought it home, and then proceeded to  pass it through a screen box to remove the dirt and then put it into our garden.

McG loves a bargain even better than I do, and won't hesitate to do a bit of work to get something for FREE!

He extended the stone along the back of the house around the fountain as well.

We need to finish up this area this week by adding a bit of sod.

Last week, he also started to paint the garage and he added the "jewellery" to the garage doors that we purchased over at Menard's in Michigan as well.  This hardware is magnetic so there is no drilling into the doors!

This is as far as he has gotten with the paint, but you can tell already what a difference the darker colour is going to make!  I'm excited to get the project done, but it will have to wait...we are having our annual Labour Day party this weekend...and there is lots to do to get ready!!