Foundation Finishing

There were still some things we were wrapping up, but it was weather dependent... one of those was the stone facing in on the new foundation.

Original house foundation

Our contractor ordered the stone that we all agreed would match the original house foundation the best.  I thought it would come in sections, but when delivered we found it was all individual stones!

First they had to prep the smooth cement of the new foundation, so that the stone blocks would adhere...

One thing I didn't realize was that you apply it from the top down, rather than from the bottom up.  I guess to keep from dripping cement on the pieces as you lay them.

Here we are with the left side stone in place

 At the end of the second day, we had the largest section done.  Here it is, with the grout not yet in place...

They continued to work their way around the back of the house, then came back a fourth day and did the grouting...

Happily, this is now completed!

You can see that the grass is filling in.  We have future plans for a patio, but we have to put more thought into that, so we just put down grass seed for now.

Next up is painting the exterior.  We've selected the colors & the company to do the work... they have us lined up for August (weather dependent, of course!)

Quick Coat Rack

I was hoping the addition of the hallway coat closet would eliminate the pile of jackets in the family room.  Unfortunately, the kids still drop their coats as soon as they walk in the back door- on the floor, on the couch, wherever!

We looked at some storage/hook/bench solutions, but the space is limited by the back door.  We needed either something really narrow to go next to the bathroom doorway here...

Or something really shallow to go behind where the door opens.  Mike came up with this really simple solution...

We had the left over trim and knobs from the cabinet installation.  Mike drilled out where the knob screws were in the back, so that it would be flush against the wall once assembled.  He then used heavy duty screws to attach it to the wall (since we knew it would need to hold heavy coats).

After these photos were taken, we grabbed the little can of paint that  came with the kitchen cabinets for touch ups. A perfect match, so we were able to wood putty and then paint where the screws were.

The boot tray is doing a pretty good job of keeping the shoes contained to one spot.  I hope to remove it for late spring/summer, but for now it's been handy to keep the snow & mud off the hardwood floors.

Kitchen Complete!

After almost a year of construction, we're happy that the kitchen is pretty much done!  There are still some small items that I'll detail in another post, but it's functional and we're loving it!

View from back door

View from Dining Room doorway

The windows let in lots of light!

View from sitting at the kitchen table.

Reverse wall of kitchen- basement door on left, dining room door on right

Kitchen eating area

View from the corner between stove & sink

Reverse- island seating

mudroom area & half bath

mudroom area

 Here's a quick look at what else we accomplished with this project:

Added a Butler's Pantry... so much storage!

Exterior... we plan to get the house painted this spring.

The old kitchen became the dining room...

We moved the laundry room upstairs... still a lot of finishing touches to do, but no more running to the basement to turn the wash!

We added a new master closet & bathroom...

There's also several smaller items that deserve mention...
-the addition of the coat closet in the downstairs hallway
-additional lighting added to the hallway
-we gained storage space in the attic
-the third floor stairway landing was expanded, which makes it much roomier
-the ceiling of the master bedroom was replaced
-the family room now feels bigger since we moved the piano into the parlor (the old dining room)

Kitchen Backsplash

We've been having a really tough time trying to find a backsplash that we love for behind the stove.

In my mind, I had wanted a natural looking stone back there.  I wanted it to look like a hearth.  We looked at SO many options at the home stores, tile stores, even fireplace stores- but  couldn't find the right one.  They were either too brown in color, or too thick in depth, or the rocks were stacked too symmetrically, or cut too thin.

Since the list of outstanding "to do" items is finally getting shorter, we knew we needed to make a decision.

That's when we found this:

We both decided it's perfect!  The color is just right to go with the gray cabinets and countertops!

Mike was able to install it himself that afternoon- so it also saved us the time, cost and mess of having the masonry guy in.

I also noticed that the pattern goes nicely with our new curtains!

I should really take a new "After" shot during the day... you can see it was night when I took this one, compared to the daytime "Before" photo!  

Maybe when I take the final "Before & After" of the whole kitchen... we have the electricians coming this week to finish in-cabinet lighting and swap some of the switch assignments.

Back Porch Railings

The back porch railings have been completed!

 Just in time, with the snowy weather that was approaching- this makes getting up & down those steps so much easier (since they get pretty slippery when wet or snowy!)

They also finished adding the bead board for the  ceiling of the porch.

The back light had already been installed, but it looks nicer now!

We got out there and hung up our little rooster bell.  

The boys love when we ring it for them to come inside from playing.  We had to decide between this rooster bell, or our other cast iron bell which has a little bird on it. The size of this one seemed better here.  We'll use the other one on either the well house, or maybe one of the barns (we already have a boot door knocker on the workshop!)


Here it is during the blizzard over the weekend! -->

Kitchen Window Trim

The week between Christmas & New Years, the contractor finished the window trim on the back kitchen windows.

We then got to work sanding them down (they were a little rough) and then priming & painting.

Once dry, we put the outlet covers on...

I was looking for white cafe curtains, similar to what we had in the old house kitchen.  Unfortunately, those curtains were too short to re-use (and had already been put up the well house windows- you can sort of see them out there in the pics above!)  I couldn't find similar ones anywhere in a store... I prefer to buy them in person to make sure I like the feel of them!  BUT- I did find these, which I decided to try out and see how we like them.  

There weren't curtain rods that were long enough to run across all 5 windows (we needed it to be over 9 feet!)  And I'm hesitant to drill into the newly finished trim anyways!  But I found these oil rubbed bronze pressure rods, and I got the little rings so that the curtains open & close easily.

I'm pleased with them so far!  I was worried the pattern would be too much, but I think it works brining in more blue to contrast the yellow.

Board and Batten in Dining Room

A couple of days after Thanksgiving, our contractor started work on the dining room board & batten.  It took him & his carpenter about two days to do.  Here's a pic taken at the end of day 1...

Once the wood work was finished, we got started painting!

We chose a chocolate brown color for the top, and a semigloss white for the bottom.

We decided that we needed an additional piece of molding to go along the top of the board & batten, so that I could safely display plates up there (without the risk of them sliding off!)

Mike took care of that himself.

He installed it after the first coat of paint, but before the second.

View from the main hallway

View from the parlor doorway-
looking through to the butler's pantry

Then we began the chore of emptying the china cabinet, liquor cabinet & buffet so that those pieces of furniture could be moved in!

I'll have the final before & after photos tomorrow!