Dining Room Demo- more stone walls

The plaster was in such bad shape on the old exterior wall, that we had to take it down.  Behind the plaster was more rock!  We just left it in place... they will sheetrock over it.

Framing was put around the pipes... they will get the same treatment as the pipes in the family room.

The other side of the room looks slightly better!

View from next to the radiator

Reverse- view from hall doorway

 We had to remove the top piece of the baseboard moulding.  The drywall guys got super thin sheetrock that they will put right over the plaster.  We'll then replace the top piece of moulding with a thinner one.

They need to patch the hole in the ceiling from where the cabinets were.

And they need to replace the section where the water damage was...

Dining Room- New Light

Last summer, my mom & I saw this ceiling medallion at a yard sale.  I had been eyeing them at Lowes & Home Depot, so knew they could range from $40-$100 when bought new.

Since I had already been planning to put one in the Dining Room when we get a new light fixture, I just couldn't resist asking how much the guy was asking.
Only $8 (woohoo!)

So I snapped it up & put it away in the barn until we were ready for it.
It took a while, but we finally found a light fixture we fell in love with!

Old Fixture

Our first step was removing the old fixture.

I didn't really mind the old light, but since the plan is for this room to eventually become a formal living room (see the floor plans here), we wanted to replace the chandelier with a semi-flush fixture.

Once that was taken care of, Mike used Liquid Nails (left over from installing the paneled molding) to attach the medallion to the ceiling.

The light fixture itself took a couple of hours (spread over two days, due to the frustration factor!)
Nothing is ever as straight forward as it should be, when working in an old house!

Finally, we got it installed, and I proceeded with hanging the crystals off it...

New fixture with ceiling medallion

I absolutely LOVE the fixture.  It's the perfect size for the room (we got the 5-bulb... they also make a 3-bulb, but I was worried that wouldn't give enough light).

From the Foyer Doorway

From the Kitchen Doorway

I still need to decide which pictures are going back on the walls, & where.

(I find it hard to add nail holes to freshly painted walls, unless I'm sure... like with the round mirror!)





Even though we can't call it done yet... here's a Before/After for we stand now....

Dining Room Paneled Molding

There was already a chair rail in our Dining Room.  After thinking about it a bit, we decided we wanted to add some decorative molding below the rail.

We first picked up some of the pre-made moldings from Lowes.
But none of them were the right proportion, so we returned them.  Mike decided they would be easy enough to make himself.

After measuring the different sizes we'd need around the room, he started cutting.

We stuck them to the wall with Liquid Nails.

They started to slide a little bit, so I then went around with painters tape and secured them while the Liquid Nails dried a bit.


Since our plaster walls are anything but flat, there were some gaps.
So after the frames were adhered to the wall, we went around with some caulk and filled in the areas that needed it.

Once the caulking dried, my mom & I primed the bottom half of the room, and then painted with semi-gloss white (also giving the window & doorway moldings a fresh coat of paint).  Meanwhile, Mike painted the ceiling with flat white paint.

For the tops of the walls, we knew the yellow had to go. We had purchased a new creamy beige color months ago, so we were all set to keep going!  

(I have to look up the exact name- unfortunately I don't remember!)

The curtains are sage color- we had them from our old house.

The room feels so much bigger- I don't know if it's the white on the bottom that pushes out the edges, or if it's just because I haven't put the frames back on the walls yet!  

The pictures don't really do it justice... plus it's looking really bland while I figure out what's staying or going decoratively!  (Especially since three of the frames from here were used to finish up the hallway!)

If you look close at the photos above, you may notice that something else is missing... 

More on that soon...

Foyer- Before & After

We're not completely done... but with the holidays quickly approaching, I'm calling it "done for now" and will update when we get the finishing touches in place!

So here's the side-by-side...
Not all that dramatic a change, but remember, we weren't really unhappy with the foyer, nor wanting to re-do this space, until the ceiling fell down.
Then it became necessary :)

The renovation included the following:
-After fixing the plumbing, we sheetrocked the walls, and the ceiling.
-The walls have been painted gray ("Frappe" by Valspar)
-All of the moldings, doors & the radiator cover were repainted a crisp white.
-We switched out the light fixture.
-We replaced the light switch plates.
-The floor took a beating, so we bought a new, larger rug- to cover them up until we get them refinished!  (Plus it feels more cozy in the winter!)

More pics:

With the front door open

This is the view when you enter the front door:

2011- Before we moved in

After

View from the back door:

After

2011- Before we moved in

The detail shots:

Some Christmas decor

New light switch plates

Bells on the door for Christmas

The new rug!

To finish it up, we plan to hang some artwork... some ideas are being tossed around on that, though it'll likely be in the spring when we get it settled & up there!


In Progress shots:

Sheetrocking & spackeling

Painting radiator cover

New Light Fixture

Painting back door & molding

Painting front door & molding

Update: foyer wall decor

Corner Cabinet Complete!

The corner cabinet is completely installed & painted!

A quick recap...

After removing the plumbing stack, we had to come up with a solution to cover the pipes that did not completely fit into the ceiling & wall.

We bought the corner cabinet...

Raised it up 1 foot, and installed drywall above it...

In that space underneath, I hid the weekly local newspaper.  

I figure that will be a fun find for anyone that eventually removes the cabinet!

Mike made the bottom molding, and then I painted it all white...

We also spackled, sanded, and painted the ceiling... 

We're glad that's done, and we can now get decorating for the holidays.  

 The foyer is almost done too... 

Painting is just about finished, so now I have to get the furniture back in there.  

I hope to have pictures ready later in the week!

More Molding Painting

The molding just keeps on going... so I kept on going too!

We can add the little hallway to moldings that I've painted white!

Here's a pic... 

Please excuse all the doors, which now look twice as bad being that cream color.

They need extra TLC where the previous owners' dogs clawed & damaged them.

We'll get around to that sooner or later- it'll take more than a quick coat of paint!

(Previous details on this crazy little hall and our big plans for it are here and here)

Spackle, Sand, Paint- Repeat

In between cleaning up the yard after Hurricane Sandy, we decided we needed to get the living room corner cabinet & the foyer finished... 

It's been dragging on ENTIRELY too long!

So Mike spent last weekend spackling & sanding.  

It's pretty much his least favorite job, and I hate the mess (SO much dust!)  

But since it was needed to wrap up these rooms, we bit the bullet & got it done.

Right now, they really don't look much different from these pics...

Just add a coating of white dust EVERYWHERE.

Foyer

Living Room

The good news is that we bought the paint for the foyer & grabbed the almost full can we already had for the living room.  I'll post new photos as soon as we get it on the walls!  The plan is to work on it over the Thanksgiving weekend.

So, while Mike was sanding, I decided to work on the upstairs hallway moldings & banister balusters.  My mom had gotten a first coat of paint on them when she was here last, so I was able to finish it up in a single day!

They were all a creamy off-white color, but we decided to change them to white.  The pretty molding details should really pop once we get the hallway painted.

Check out the difference:

Before on the left;
After on the right

BEFORE

AFTER

BEFORE

AFTER

 It felt really good to have something to work on that showed immediate results!  

But I'm not going to lie... those balusters were a nightmare!  

I'm now dreading doing the rest down to the 1st floor, & up to the 3rd floor.

AFTER

I guess that's the biggest problem with trim work- they all run together & once you finish a section, the rest looks twice as bad sitting next to it!

Now the doors look
REALLY shabby!

We still have to decide what to do about painting the walls in this upstairs hallway.  

The stencil is really starting to bug me.  The problem is wallpaper that's under the existing paint.  We'll have to remove it, then more spackling & sanding (UGH!) before we can re-paint.

Oh well, little by little, we'll get it done...
(I'll just be keeping the lights low in the meantime!)