re:read

i love books! love reading them, love being surrounded by them, love libraries, love bookstores. so, we decided to get these billy bookcases from ikea to make our den look and feel more homey, lived in, and loved. :)









this room still needs work, but this goes a long way towards the feel of the space. now i just love this room! one day these shelves will be completely full of books. :)

as you'll see, we left precisely enough room to the left of the unit to add one more of the single-wide bookcases at a later date to fill the entire wall.

window caulking & painting remains in progress.

happy thanksgiving!

re:cession

merry christmas!

so, i suppose my lack of posts over the last 2+ months indicates that we haven't done much on the house front. it's a recession, ya'll! we're supposed to be saving up for the next big thing - namely the stair & loft railing or the master bathroom, but between weddings, the holidays and the occasional $200 used-furniture purchase, we're getting nowhere.

so, to satiate your need for pics, i'll post our holiday decorations and furniture finds!

this is a simple holiday wreath i made with our christmas tree clippings and a few glass ball ornaments -



we have some modern christmas decorations in our modern living room -





and our traditional christmas tree is in the den -


we put up some of anthony's sketches from italy in the dining room, along with a few other frames with just placeholders so far -


table found at an antique shop ($190) being used as a kitchen 'island' -


dresser found thru craigslist ($40) and chair found at an antique shop ($70) in one of the guest rooms -


bedside table found thru craigslist ($15), currently being used as a side table in our den -


i hope in the spring we can make some progress on our other major house projects. in the meantime, we should be painting the window sashes on the interior and continuing with baseboards and door/window casings....

re:fuge

we spent an exhausting weekend repainting the den & office and the master bedroom, as well as finishing the stair installation. yay!

we filled the gaps in the mdf with a resin compound, let it harden overnight and then sanded it smooth...



and then we painted everything and installed the treads with construction adhesive and a few finish nails. we still have to caulk and touch up a few spots with paint.



as far as paint goes, i haven't been digging the 'fenland' we put in the master bedroom - it would be more well-suited to a den or office rather than a bedroom. so with this inspiration pic in mind -

[sorry i don't have source info]
...we repainted the master bedroom 'site white' with 'refuge' on the bed wall (all paint colors are sherwin williams). i love it! it will look even better after we get the trim & baseboards installed.





i also wasn't happy with the 'tony taupe' in the den - the whole room was looking rather drab because that taupe was absorbing all the light, so we repainted it a lighter color - 'alpaca' by sherwin williams. it reminds me of the color of my favorite starbucks drink - the chai latte. yum!


we also painted the office 'refuge' as well - so now you get these cool glimpes of the blue from the den and then a modern color combo with the 'wheatgrass' in the powder room...


(the office still needs a 2nd coat of paint)





and here are some more pics of the living room now that it's been properly cleaned -





up next will be the stair and loft railing. no plan for that yet...

re:pose

the wood floors in the family room / office / powder room are finished! we are conveniently going out of town for the weekend, so they'll have a few days to cure and then we can finally move into the family room! yay!



[i love that you can't even tell we had to infill some flooring]




the floor guys also prefinished our stair treads for us, so anthony and i are going to attempt to install them ourselves (along with the risers, trim, etc). this is no easy DIY task - so wish us luck!

re:location

it was a productive saturday! (with others doing most of the work - even better!)

the guys from the city's department of urban forestry finally made it over here to grind out the stump of the tree out front. it took them a few hours and was pretty impressive to watch...






(see the termite tracks through the center of the stump...??)


they left all the wood shavings for us -


so anthony relocated most of them to fill in our low mud-prone driveway.




i suppose we'll use the rest as mulch (or is this a bad idea for some reason i'm unaware?).

the wood floors guys also came today to sand and stain the family room, office and powder room as well.








the whole house smells strongly of wood stain right now, so we have windows and doors open and fans blowing to clear it out by bedtime.

they will apply the first coat of poly on monday, and hopefully get all the coats down before we go out of town next weekend, so they can cure while we're away. then we can finally move into our family room! we have our new 46" LCD still in the box ready to go up on the wall, and some furniture being delivered in about 3 weeks.

re:fill

our wood floor guys got to work today on the family room! they staggered in new boards where the old bathroom used to be and filled in a couple holes that were former supply registers.



i'm not sure if a sanding crew is starting today or tomorrow. stay tuned for sanding and finishing!