Week 4

Week 4 was amazing! The shiplap went up, the entryway was tiled, the hardwood flooring went down, the lighting went in, and the electricity was turned back on! We also got to remove the plastic in the LR and could finally be in there again! The is the kind of progress I appreciate! :)

We were originally going to do the shiplap ourselves to save some money. Steven and his dad had planned to tackle the project once the kitchen was done, but when Lorenzo said if we'd buy it he'd put it up, who were we to argue? This way he could do all the molding around it and paint it, too. We were going to buy the boards and cut them ourselves when it was our DYI project, but when things accelerated and he was ready for them, Steven decided it would be worth it juts to go to Home Depot and purchase what we needed. So stress free that it was worth the extra dough. We see that now!

Walking in and seeing this was thrilling!! I immediately loved the look of it and I was pumped to see the finished product! It just brightens everything up and adds that extra charm I'm wanting.

This was going on simultaneously....also thrilling!! Getting that old tile out of there was like a breath of fresh air!

We played around with a lot of ideas for the tile and went (what felt like) everywhere to check out our options. We toyed around quite a bit with the idea of brick in there, but ended up going with an easy, cheap option we found at Supply Warehouse (of all places!). The grout is Silverado-a very light gray that we will also use for the back splash. Steven and I agreed on this tile, and we were just crossing our fingers that it would actually look ok once down. We were both really happy with the finished product!!

Final touches on the shiplap.

And here it is later in the week getting the first coat of paint! You can see the top right triangle is the primed portion and the rest has had one coat of paint.

And the excitement continued....here is the hardwood going down!! For the entire planning process we had decided to replace the tile in the kitchen with more tile. It was in the estimate that way and everything. But when looking for tile, we just couldn't find anything we thought would look right for what we wanted. So many of the ones I actually liked for the color pallet we were going with have a modern look that I was afraid I would dislike overtime and just didn't have the warmth or homey feel I wanted. My first choice was to continue the hardwood into the kitchen for a more seamless look, but I was afraid of putting wood in the kitchen (possible water damage??) and Steven also didn't think anything we could fine new would match the 30 year old hardwoods that are in the living room and dining room, so we ruled that option out from the get go.

But when the tile didn't pull together, we revisited the idea of hardwood. I asked several friends plus my mom about their kitchen hardwoods and got all positive feedback, so I decided to lay my worries of damage and durability to rest. Our hardwood is very basic, so it was easy to find at the big box stores-Gunstock at $3.99 per sq. ft.

But we were looking around and Southeastern Salvage and saw that they carried the exact flooring for a huge price cut-$2.49 per sq ft! So we talked to the guys and brought a sample home to compare. It seemed to match perfectly with what we have down already (well I say perfectly-the old stuff is in serious need of rejuvenation which we are going to play around with after the project is over). The cheaper wood is that way because it is seconds, but the guys assured us that this would not be a problem, and they were right. It looks great!

So shiny and new! You can see the difference between the old and then new here, but I honestly don't mind and really love that the hardwood is throughout now. This basic hardwood is hard to beat in my opinion. There are so many engineered hardwoods, tiles made to look like wood, and wood looking laminates, but they are all trying to imitate the original. It is hard to beat this classic look, and I'm really happy we went with it. So are the kids as you can see! They loved running around in the empty kitchen and sliding around on the beautiful floors.

Here you can see the recessed lighting on. I love it! There are 10 in all...switches turn 4 on in the dinette and 6 on in the kitchen. This was also a decision that progressed over time. We originally thought we might leave the lights we had and just add some recessed lighting. We also almost added pendent type lighting to the space above where the bar will be. But in the end, I wanted to seamless, sleek look of recessed lighting only and felt that it would be plenty bright with these alone. We are really happy with this decision!

Lastly, I just had to take a picture of a spot  that looked DONE! Just the switch plate on the wall gives that finished look and makes me so happy! I get a glimpse of what is to come when it is all wrapped up and complete! I can't wait! But it seems I will have to...the guys left on Friday having wrapped up all they could do. They are at a standstill until our cabinetry is ready. They have been ordered, but we do not know how long it will be until they arrive. And so, we wait.