Mud Room Countertop Time

  We have installed the cabinets in our new mud room so the next step = countertops....well, *one of the next steps anyway. We really love our quartz countertops in kitchen - no maintenance EVER = the right plan for us. Plus, some stones, like granite, have TOO many LARGER swirls and patterns that are a little bit too busy for me. Just a personal preference thing.
  So! Off to Stone Countertops Outlet for us! After exploring several different companies for stone counter tops when we did the kitchen, we already knew where our one stop would be. We visited their Edina location...

we love looking through the huge granite and quartz slabs

these were a few of our favorite natural stones - WAY to expensive and busy for what we need, but we really liked the cool textures - We especially like the option on the top left - it was really cool and kind of had this birch bark effect. SO cool!

Some of the many quartz stone options - this red and green options are nuts!
The green is REALLY bright. I couldn't imagine who would ever pick them! Yikes!

We narrowed down to a few, simple colors - low contrast - not too busy

and we decided on...

This lovely lighter gray quartz - called "Ajanta" (which I looked up: Ajanta Caves are these 30 some rock formation caves in India - Cool!) Those of you who remember the stone we chose for our kitchen, shouldn't be too surprised.
I guess we just know what we like!
This quartz is not too dissimilar to that of the kitchen, only this is lighter and a little lower contrast...
The lighter, whiter options were just TOO white - and to sit atop our new white mudroom cabinets, we would end up with a whole lot of white...

Can't wait to show you how the mudroom cabinets and countertop turn out! Stay tuned!

Downstairs Progress Report #3

Let there be floors!
   We've added heated floor coils under a portion of the new tile in the office for us to use in the winter. There is a heat vent in the room, but adding the heated floors will help warm the room and ensure that we will want to use the space year round :)

   Tile in the office, mud room and backdoor entry area has been laid and grouted - finally! - with a little line of tiny slate tiles to "separate" the spaces - just wanted to add it in for fun since we decided to use the same large tile in both rooms.

   We've begun getting the bedroom closet ready for, well, stuff. Our friend, Brian, is moving into the downstairs bedroom this weekend, and he is *probably going to need a place to hang his clothes. We purchased a 4-wire basket 'drawer' organizer from IKEA for the base of the new closet cubby space. 2 or 3 shelves will fill the space above. At one of several Menard's trips last weekend, we picked up a super tall closet shelving unit - the kind that can be incorporated with all sorts of other closet storage tidbits - we  attached a few closet rods + mounting a large mirror on the wall! (a mirror that was on the wall at the top of the stairs upstairs when we moved in...)
   We painted Brian's Room and closet (one coat of paint in the closet) "Silver Sage" - a lovely blue/gray color I swiped from Restoration Hardware. We had it matched at Home Depot of course :)

Up next =
- door frames + doors (that reminds me....we need to buy door knob hardware still....)
- base trim (Kevin stained and poly'ed all the trim + doors/frames already - currently taking up the entire garage - now it just needs to measured, cut down and installed..._
- new blinds for the office and bedroom - all added up = we need 8 sets of blinds (the 3 windows per bay window really add up fast)

Downstairs Progress Report #2

We're still making progress downstairs!
  - Drywall is up!
  - prepping floors for tile
  - ready to repair the ceiling from all of the new wiring...

2 views of our new office with a snoopy onlooker lurking in the soon-to-be mud room

On the left: Because this spaced used to be a garage, there was a pretty drastic slope on the concrete floor - a gradual 2" decline that would have Kevin's office chair rolling away with him on it! So we've poured a self leveling floor to make up most of the difference - the rest can be made up when tiling.
On the right: in order to get the new lighting all wired in, we had to take a few sections out of the ceiling - but we plan to patch them right back in and respray. A lot of people get upset about popcorn ceiling, but whatev - we don't mind.

On the left: we've added a little inset cubby in the office to sit a bookshelf into.
On the right: our new hallway closet is coming together.

Finch the Foreman is inspecting the work. So far so good.

Next steps =
  - adding the heating coil element and thermostat to heat the office floor
  - start laying tile
  - get the dry wall taped and mudded
  - respray the ceiling

More to come!

Downstairs Progress Report

We've been back at it again this past weekend! Here's the progress report! 

   - carpet gone

   - walls framed up

   - wall of cabinets removed

   - starting on wiring

   - planning for recess can lights

this is where the whole wall of cabinets lived previously...

our new little hallway closet...

What a mess! So glamorous isn't it?
More to come!

Master Bathroom Finishing Touches!

  Back in July of last year, we shared the progress on our master bathroom project (see that post here!) - and we thought we'd share the results!

Our wall color is Behr "Sea Salt" - a warm aqua color, the color of water :)
We added our finishing touches on the wall above the toilet

Blue and aqua glass bottles and candle holders collected over the years tie in our wall color.
My favorites are the two ornate perfume style bottles that I collected from a garage sale last year, the light blue marbled glass candle globe that I purchased in Germany when I was 14 (I actually WATCHED the glass blower make it just for me!) + just love the framed illustration by Mary Kazura (purchased at the MCAD Art Sale many years ago + Mary and I used to work together in the MCAD admissions office) We call the print "Dancing Teeth"! - just some teeth out frolicking in a meadow. You know, the usual.

Four photos taken by Kevin, from the balcony of our Honeymoon cruise stateroom, of churning water near Honduras :) Its nice to add a little something personal to such a personal room...

Our metal rack (purchased a set at IKEA in Denmark - my very first IKEA visit EVER!) holds some of our everyday items: Tooth Brush, Q-Tips, a vintage blue Ball jar holds our cotton puffs, + Kevin's razor, nail clippers, and essential oils (my favorite natural scent: Jasmine).

We found this long blue laminate tray at IKEA - the perfect size to sit atop our toilet tank!
+ with a cute tissue box pattern from Up & Up at Target :)

We went simple with a brushed nickel framed mirror: kind of masculine, but not too chunky,
+ a simple three-bulb  lighting with white frosted glass bell shades.
We didn't have ANYWHERE to hang a hand towel, so Kevin suggested a hook right around the little 'corner' to the right of the sink. I really like how simple it is, and it's right where you need it.

And lastly, here is our shower - We love our big gray tile and our tiny gray tile, our big shower head,
inset wall cubbies to hold our shampoo and conditioner, and corner seat :)
The frameless glass with towel bar handle = adds no visual weight to the room. We love it!

Thanks for visiting our master bathroom!

Let's Head Downstairs!

  Our basement is divided into two sides:
     - Head down the stairs, turn to the right = our family room + laundry room area - in progress.Future home of movie watching and video game playing...
     - Turn left at the bottom of the stairs to go out the back door, pass the downstairs full bathroom, and head into the ??? room.
  This room used to be a 2-car tuck-under garage many, many years ago before the previous homeowners built an extra large detached garage space. The tuck-under space was finished off into a HUGE room with a HUGE closet, two big bay windows, a wall of cabinets, and a teeny-tiny sink. The previous owners used this space for a master bedroom, + office space + what seems to be a lot of ??? space.
  When WE first walked through this house a year ago, we didn't know what the heck was going on with this room, and ended up purchasing the house with plans to divide the room up into smaller, more functional spaces....
  Take a look...

Here are a few views of the room
Please Note:  Lovely load-bearing post right in the center of the room + the super attractive brass reading lamps that used to flank the previous owners king sized bed.
(They took the mailbox with them, but left us these treasures...)

Upper left =  cabinets with a little countertop area complete with little 8"x8" sink
(Note: the bathroom is right on the other side of this wall - not TOO far to go to brush your teeth...)
The other photos show the extra large walk-in closet full of the press board shelving the old owners built themselves... The closet space is SO large, that most of the space in here is pretty much wasted.
Unless we add center island to maximize the space, this space is pretty much just a big dressing room.
While that sounds very glamorous, we just don't think it's necessary...

Two big bay windows look out onto our driveway.
A perfect place for a certain someone to keep an eye on who is coming and going...

 
  FAST FORWARD to today! We are moving forward with remodeling this big ole' room! I have moved all of the unpacked boxes that used to live over here into the other side of the basement, and we're ready to start some demo!
 
BEFORE:

THE PLAN:

We plan to keep a portion of the space as our 4th bedroom, but we still have plenty of space to spare for a shared office/studio space, and a mud room. We are taking part of the huge closet, + adding a smaller hall closet space. On the wall where all of those old cabinets used to live, we'd like to install new lower cabinets and countertop that will include a designated home for Finch's kennel.  ( Like my diagrams?!)

So let the demo begin! That closet wall has got to go!

Nice work Kevin!

Closet walls are gone! Time to frame it all up! as our pal Brian looks on... he likes to "help"...

More to come soon!!