Our house renovation continues to plod along, and yes, I think plod is an accurate word. I have not been thrilled as of late with the speed of the progress. There have been too many warm, sun-shiny days with only one painter there for my liking. The project IS getting very close to being done, so perhaps I am getting even more impatient. I still do think things could be coming along a wee bit faster...but progress is progress & I am excited about some of the recent improvements!
The kitchen countertops went in last week & I LOVE them! We chose to go with a dark walnut wood that is slightly distressed & I'm so excited! We have had granite counters in our kitchens for the last 11 years & I do still love stone, but I'm looking forward to changing things up a bit. I think they give a really warm feeling to the kitchen.
The sink is a copper undermount.
Oh, do you spy that old dishwasher, it works & we were going to keep it...BUT I found a stainless dishwasher this week on Craig's List for a great price! Now it will match our other appliances, yay!
The counters were doused with mineral oil & then covered with plastic wrap & paper to protect them. I think wood is going to be great! They are low maintenance, just apply mineral oil to soak in as needed. And if they get a ding or burn, we can lightly sand it out & just reapply mineral oil.
We don't have an island in the kitchen (I am hoping there will be room for an island "cart"), but we do have a great eat-in peninsula. We will have 4 barstools on the back & eventually plan to build in a little bookcase right there on the end--for cookbooks, etc.
The floors were stained this week & we are also really pleased with the way they turned out. After several trips to the house to see stain samples on the floor, I think we picked the right one! I have not actually seen them in person, but Jeff took this photo on his phone. This is of the dining room before the paper went down; you can see the family room floors are being covered up with butcher paper to protect the finish. They will do one last sanding & coat of poly right before move-in.
Oh, have I ever shared with you that we have lots of moss at our new house! I love moss!
And while the contractors have been busy at the house, we have also been busy with our own projects. My Dad has a couple of old mantles & we were hoping to use one on the family room fire place. We carried this one to the house to see if it might work for us...do you see that?
Pretty much a perfect fit! Again, SO excited!
We took advantage of the pretty weather & the holiday on Monday to start scraping the paint off & sanding it down.
We actually loved the true antique crackle finish, but it was surely lead based paint & was flaking off a little too readily...so we are stripping it down to bare wood & will go from there.
Drew & Darcy enjoying a little ride with Pop while we worked.
The original idea was to paint the mantle (not sure what color), but the wood is actually rather pretty, so we may go with a stain...any suggestions or ideas?
