Dining Room- Before & After!

Here are pictures of the finished dining room, and a comparison of when it was the old kitchen!







Cooking in here is already becoming a distant memory (thank goodness!)

View from the kitchen doorway- looking through to the parlor

I put plates up on the top.  It's going to be a lot of fun to switch them out for the different seasons.

Currently, I put up the "Colonial Heritage Series" which was a collection by Ridgewood Fine China Company, sponsored by the Early American Society.

The images are paintings of well know colonial houses.  My dad had bought them for my mom on their tenth wedding anniversary.

The second set is a fish set placed above the buffet.

I love the way the green pops agains the brown wall, and the way the brown comes out in the fish!  These my mom & dad gave us.  They are marked with Carrollton Pottery Company on the back- which was in business from 1903-1930.  There are also the little bone dishes to go with them! They are so different, I just love them!

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!

Master Bedroom Ceiling Done!

The drywall guys are out of here!  They've been super nice, but it's been a long haul.  We're ready to move back into our bedroom- as soon as the tub gets moved out of here!

View from the main hallway

They did some work on the walls too, which was really great of them.  

The electrician put the new ceiling fan in.

View from the corner next to the closet

As mentioned, we had quite a few guests arriving (and some staying overnight) for Thanksgiving.  I needed to get the bedrooms back into shape, but couldn't do that until we could get the master bedroom furniture moved out of the kids rooms.  Now we could get that started!

Dining Room Chandelier

Back to more pre-Thanksgiving posts! These photos were taken in the week leading up to Thanksgiving (which we were hosting... for ~30 people!)

We bought the dining room chandelier ages ago, and it's finally up!  At this point, the drywall was almost complete in the dining room- just drying before the finishing sanding.

The electrician had to run out to get the plate that goes on the ceiling, which was missing.  At least it was a quick & easy fix!

View from the window

During the sanding, Mike put a plastic garbage bag over & around the light to try to keep out some of the dust.  Then the drywall guy turned on the light switch and melted the bag to the bulbs.  Gah- had to run out and buy all new bulbs!

Butler's Pantry- almost there!

Here are some pre-Thanksgiving shots of the Butler's Pantry.  We painted the yellow, and were waiting for the floors to be finished before adding in the cabinetry.   It was as SUPER tight fit getting them in there... but they did it!

The window trim still needed to be installed.

I quickly got to decorating it- the fun part!  I put canning jars & collectible tins & bottles up on the very top.  I was worried that there wouldn't be enough room up there for displaying stuff, when we needed to lower the ceiling for the stove hood to vent outside, but there's plenty!

We're missing some top trim.
Not sure what (if anything) we're going to do about that!

I went ahead and decorated the top shelf!

I finally get to put out the canister set that I had bought at a NYC flea market about 10 years ago!  The center of the painted flowers are yellow- almost like it was planned!

Left side of cabinet counter

Right side of cabinet counter

I'm still fussing with the upper cabinets... figuring which patters & stuff to put in there.  I'm sure that's something that's going to change every season.

Here's a last shot that my sister-in-law took on Thanksgiving Day.  The window trim was installed the day before- which meant I had to re-clean to get the dust up, but I was very excited that it was finished for our guests to see!

I love the little tiffany-style lamp in there.  My mother-in-law bought it for me as a gift.  It has fruit on it, so seems perfect for this spot.  At night, I love having it on all by itself- just the right amount of light for a warm glow that leaks into the kitchen & dining room!