Tile and a Tree

You know there's a party coming when we go to a pottery sale, cut down a Douglas Fir, hang exterior lights, install curtains in the kitchen, decorate the entire Christmas tree, and install glass tile backsplash in the kitchen all in one weekend. Progress pics...






More photos will be uploaded tomorrow of the fully decorated tree and the grouted tile.

Holiday Par-tay

Chances are good that if you frequent this blog, you've already received a copy of this invite...

But in case you haven't, all of our friends (online and off) are more than welcome to join us for food, drink and dance next Saturday, December 19th starting at 8PM. So bring your holiday spirit and a friend, and celebrate the season with some of the best company in Columbus!

(Click to enlarge.)

The Wait is Over...

Just 11 short months after buying the walnut for our counter tops, a friend who runs the wood department at work came over and helped me finally install them atop our cabinets. Here are the progress pics:







And the final product:










Now it's time to order the tempered glass and find someone to install the 1" clear glass tile along the backsplash...

Dining Room: The Grand Reveal

As I look through the old photos of the dining room, I am overcome with a sense of nostalgia. I can actually remember the first time we walked through the house, and the musty scent of the wallpaper. I can remember how the walls felt and the way the sunlight had outlined the picture frames on them. And I can remember standing in the kitchen, talking to The Millers about purchasing the house.

Removing the wallpaper (three layers again).

The strange part is that there is really no reason for me to feel nostalgic or "attached" to these old photos. We had never lived there or created any of our own memories in its previous state. Yet there was something inherently familiar about the house as soon as we stepped through its doors. While the wallpaper was dated and worn, we could tell that the home was always well cared for. We could tell that it had been loved.

Now, eighteen months later, this house really feels like our home. We absolutely love it, and we hope you do to.

Full dining room table, with new chandelier, window coverings,
blinds (thanks Dad!), and reupholstered seats.

Votive candle holders from a shop in London, Ohio (thanks Mom!) and a bottle of celebratory bubbly from our neighbors (thanks Erin & Dave).

Turning Old into New

I had a chance to look back through our blog entries today, and it's fun to see how far the house has come since we first bought it. Exactly one year ago, we were getting ready to re-install the then newly-refinished kitchen cabinets. Ironically, it has taken us nearly 11 months to have the counter tops officially installed (that happens tomorrow) - but we have obviously been working on other projects since then.

The tricky thing, we've found, about renovating a home is the "good enough" syndrome that sets in. It seemed much easier in the beginning to take on huge tasks because leaving them unfinished literally meant we had no where to shower or no kitchen to use. Nowadays, putting off a project usually means that a room or piece of furniture is functional even though it may not look exactly how we want it.

Lucky for us, we're hosting company and another holiday party at the end of this month which means we've got some motivation to tie up those pesky loose end projects. One of those projects was reupholstering our dining room chairs.

Last month, Joann Fabrics had a great 50%-off sale on their entire inventory of fabrics. As usual, we found something on the pricier side and that needed to be custom ordered. So we took our measurements, placed the order, bought some new 2" foam, and waited for our shipment to arrive.

This past weekend, we picked up the order and got to work. Below are some progress shots of the process:

Chair with the old 1980's pastel print and piping.

Old foam and wooden seat beneath the fabric.

All of the cushions stacked up together.

New "leaf" based fabric to soften up the room.

View of the entire pattern.

Laying the seat atop the foam upside-down.

Tracing the shape of the seat onto the foam with a permanent marker.

Making sure everything is aligned and oriented correctly.

Electric carving knife from Blair's dad. These things work incredibly well; we highly recommend using one if you plan on cutting your own foam.

The final seat cushion, trimmed to size.

After looking through our photos, we realized we didn't take any progress pictures of us wrapping the seats with the fabric. We did them ourselves (I promise!), but it was a two-person job and there wasn't anyone else to document while we worked. In case you are interest or want to reupholster your own chairs, here's a link to the video we used that showed us how to complete the project (thanks ReadyMade!).

Photos of the finished chairs will be included in the final dining room reveal (to be posted tomorrow!)...

Photo Updates

In an effort to get the place in tip-top shape for our appraisal, we solicited the help of friends and family - particularly Brandon, who helped me pretty much all day last Thursday. By 4PM, the place looked AMAZING and it was apparent we couldn't have done it on our own.

I also realized we had accomplish more in 3 days than we did in the past 3 weeks. Here's a list of things we knocked out in under a week:

• Primed and painted all of the trim in the family room
• Primed and painted the fireplace tiles white
  
• Repainted all of the walls to a new color (which is so much more comforting and inviting)
• Scraped all of the individual panes on our front and veranda doors
• Lots of yardwork (including planting mums, mulching, edging, mowing, weed wacking, and raking)
• Hung artwork (big thanks to Aubs who let us borrow a few fantastic pieces)
• Installed miscellaneous switch and outlet covers that we had ignored for months but took 2 minutes to complete
  
• Mopped floors, cleaned windows, scrubbed sinks, etc....
  

It's funny how deadlines turn potential into productivity so quickly. Now on to the photos!

Front door with new fall wreath.

Porch with Adirondack chairs and new ceramic planters.

Shot of the front yard with new mums (thanks Mom!).

A few of our kitchen accessories.

Kitchenette area with IKEA table and Urban rug.

Yet another shot of the sink (but with countertops!).

We decided to paint the wall between the counters and the upper cabinets until we install the glass tile backsplash.

Looking from the dining room into the kitchen. (Hint: we'll have a new light fixture in the dining room very soon!)

Freshly painted fireplace, window frames, baseboards and walls.

Another shot of the family room.

The colors of our pillows don't exactly match the painting above the bed, so we're thinking about repurposing them in the office (the last room we need to redo).