2011 Update

So I guess this blog has been a little neglected while we've been busy with renovating, making another person, running a business, and the daily goings-on of a busy family of four. I have had this blog in the back of my mind for some time. Just because I don't update regularly - or even yearly - doesn't mean I haven't been taking pictures and recording the transformation our house continues to experience.

In the last year, we did a lot of work in the kitchen - installed recessed lights; a new countertop, sink, faucet and backsplash; new dishwasher. Our kitchen previously had a makeover in the 1960's. When we moved in, we really just painted, put in a few new appliances, and changed the lighting. That was a good bandaid for a few years until we could afford the sink, countertop and backsplash. I still would ideally like new mission style cabinet doors with hidden hinges, but for now that's just a "would like" and not a "need."


When we did the recessed lights, we also had the kitchen completed rewired. We had to put in a new electrical panel in the basement last year also. The electricity needs of a modern home is a bit more than they imagined in the 1920's. I hear there were no such things as microwaves, Keurigs, laptop and desktop computers, iPads and flat screen TVs in 1920's. I have no idea how they passed the time ;)


Here are some pictures of the living room in its current layout. I didn't like the previous flow of the room and thought the focal point in the room should be the fireplace, so we placed the TV above the mantel, flanked by two storage cabinets. Ideally, I would love for the cabinets to be built-ins (hanging rod on the bottom for coats, bookshelves above), but it's not really in the budget. $100 Ikea cabinets however, are totally in the budget! We moved the furniture around a bit, and there are now two seating areas - one across from the fireplace, another on the right side of the room in front of the windows. I need to post more before and after pictures, but the living room is messy right now (I'll blame it on the kids and their toys) and I don't have the time or energy to clean it up, photograph it, find the old pics, and post them. Someday maybe.


Here are two of the bathroom. I had previously posted some pictures of the bathroom in its' mostly finished state, but here it is again, completely finished.




Ralph and I looked into Alex's room this morning, the curtains open and sunlight streaming in, and remarked what a pretty baby's room it is. I realized I had never gotten around to posting what the room looked like finished. The baby's room is probably one of my favorite rooms in the house - while it's the smallest bedroom, it is the only bedroom with a large closet therefore it's usually the most organized. This was of course Jake's room when we first moved into the house, but he moved last year when Alex was born. He has a rock star bedroom. I need to take pics on a sunny day when it's cleaned up, because it is a really really cool bedroom for a growing boy. I had a lot of fun designing it with him while I was pregnant. I wanted Jake's transition to a new bedroom (and a new family member) to be a relatively easy one.




Finally, the room we spend the least amount of time in, the dining room. I'm not much of a chef or an entertainer, but it is still nice to have a room where we can have our family or friends over when we celebrate birthdays or holidays. We kept the furniture that Papa Joe had in the dining room. While it's a little ornate for my taste, it's actually in really good shape and better built than anything we could afford. We toyed with getting a new table recently (a slightly different shape would fit the room better) but I knew once we got a table, I would want a matching hutch and sideboard, and so the costs began to skyrocket. As an update, took the brass cross-hatched insert out of the hutch and we moved it to the other wall, and that seemed to work pretty well. Once our dishes were in the hutch, your eye went to the dishes more than the furniture.


We did replace the chairs - very simple clean lines. Took down the curtains in favor of simple shades, took down the wallpaper in favor of neutral paint on the walls, balanced with the pop of white woodwork. The re-done hardwood floors are one of my favorite things about the house.



I am excited that the next phase of updates will be to the exterior of our house - the new garage door will be delivered Monday, and we have plans for a new sidewalk. These two projects are really really needed, as both are crumbling. Do you see the hole in the garage door in the top right of the picture below? That's where the handle used to be. One day Ralph went to open the garage door, and the handle just came right off, with about a foot and a half of rotten wood attached.


We still need a new roof, a new driveway, and the entire exterior of the house needs a new coat of paint. We continue to prioritize the needs. When we bought the house, we found out that it was built in 1927. So when we moved in, the house was 80 years old. It's a good old house, with good bones, but not without it's share of upkeep. I guess all houses come with a lot of needs, a lot of projects to do. If any one still has this blog on their Google Reader, or happens to check in here randomly (Ade? You out there?), I hope you enjoyed the new updates.