Art - It Makes a House a Home

When I start planning a project, I think about fabrics, color schemes and art!!!  Because to me, artwork really makes a room come alive.

When I attended the MECA (Maine College of Art) holiday show in December, I had the opportunity to meet Dietlind Vander Schaaf.  Her work was stunning and even though I hadn't completely decided on the design for the Vintage Colonial, I kept thinking about it.

And as the plan came together, I reached out to her, to see if she'd loan me a couple of her paintings for the project.  Thankfully she was happy to and we started to do some planning.

I met with her in her studio and was fascinated to see her work.  You see, she does encaustic paintings.  Essentially, it's many layers of wax, applied to create a texture and depth that you simply don't achieve with standard painting.  

So, instead of tubes of pigment, she has these wonderful cakes of wax in vibrant colors.

that are combined with base wax to create her palette

And of course she has to heat it all up, to 'paint'.  Here are a few works in progress, so you can get the idea.

The resulting artwork has this amazing silken quality to it.  Much different than what you would usually see with paint on a canvas.  It has a warmth and shine that I couldn't adequately capture in a photo.

And when she came to hang the paintings, well they were just perfect!

Don't you think they make the living room a 'wow'???

If you're local, come see them in person at the Open House, 77 Goudy St, Sunday the 29th from 11-3.  And if you could bring a non-perishable donation for the South Portland Food Cupboard, that would be fantastic!!  I'm hoping we'll break our 200 pound record donation!

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And Just Like That.....It's Done!!

It's been almost 5 months since we purchased the Vintage Colonial.  And we've had lots of fun (and surprises) along the way as we totally renovated it.  This house had fantastic bones, but it truly was a diamond in the rough.  It needed an infusion of the 3 things we focus on - quality, craftsmanship and love - not to mention quite a bit of money!

The activity level has been a bit frantic as we pushed to get across the finish line.  Yesterday we felt like we were on a reality TV show.  We had an advance showing scheduled for late in the day and I kept calling out to the team - 90 minutes!!!  We have to be finished in 90 minutes!!!  (I'm not sure they were amused....but we got it done!!)

So here are some of the photos.  I will have a lot more, plus all the 'Before & Afters' in the next couple of weeks.  And I'll share sources for the products as well.  But I couldn't wait to share some of them today.

The exterior has been updated with all new windows, trim, garage door and a bright blue front door!

The living room is a big room with this amazing fireplace as the centerpiece.

I think the dining room will be the most talked about room in the house.  The nautical charts, some of them 40-50 years old, were installed as wallpaper above the custom wainscoting.

And the kitchen?  Well the house waited 80 years for a new kitchen and this one is pretty fabulous.  The glass penny tile above the range and the custom glass doors are my favorite features.

We have a home office that is a really sweet space for checking your emails in the morning.  The sunlight comes pouring in the room all day long.

I love how the office 'glows' when you see it from other rooms in the house.

Original art - Dietland Vander Schaaf  

But my favorite space on the first floor?  The screened in porch.  We wait a long time for nice weather up here in Maine - and having a room like this to enjoy it is pretty awesome.

Upstairs we were able to create a Master Suite with lots of closets, a window seat and its own bathroom.

The front bedroom is a little girls dream with a dog inspired theme (because what little girl doesn't love dogs?).

Original Artwork - Julie Bernier of Earth Angel Arts 

And the back bedroom is so cute for a little boy.

What used to be a big landing at the top of steps is now the hall bathroom.  I just love the spa blue glass tile and the console sink.

And the finished basement has been gussied up and is a great space for the kids to hang out.

So what do you think?  Was it worth all that time and effort?  Is this a house you'd want to call home?

For those of you who are local, I hope to see you at the Open House this Sunday, April 29th.  11-3pm.  77 Goudy St, SoPo.  And if you could bring a non-perishable donation for the South Portland Food Cupboard, that would be fantastic!!


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Coming Soon: Newly Updated Vintage Colonial

Hopefully we can finish the exterior soon now that it's warmer!

After many months of work, we're almost to the finish line!  If you're local, mark your calendars, we're planning an Open House on Sunday, April 29th (unless we get another snowstorm or some other weather challenge, which seems kind of possible this spring!!).  The interior is almost complete and we're frantically finishing up the exterior details.

This house has gone through a major transformation and we're so excited to share the results.  As always, we've tried to incorporate quality, craftsmanship and love - and think we've succeeded on all three!

So here are a couple of sneak peeks:

Kitchen looking towards dining room - Before

The cramped, closed in floor plan has changed -  a lot.  Now there's a great circular floor plan - perfect for entertaining and family life!  Removing walls, like this one from the kitchen to the dining room, made a huge difference.

Kitchen looking towards Dining Room - After

We included so many special features.  Like this custom woodwork around the fireplace. In the dining room, we installed custom wainscoting and nautical charts were applied as wallpaper.

And the  kitchen includes new everything - cabinets, farmhouse sink, quartz countertops, electrical, plumbing and new stainless appliances.

Master Bedroom - 'Before' 

The house now has a master suite, with two additional new closets, a window seat and new master bath.

Master Bedroom - 'After'

We are still finishing up the exterior elements - as weather permits.  But hopefully we can share more sneak peeks soon!  And I hope to see you at the Open House!

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We're In the Home Stretch!!!

We've had so much progress in the last couple of weeks!!  At least on the interior - Mother Nature is still thwarting our exterior work (seriously, did we really need sleet and snow this weekend??).  Here's the quick update:

We had the floors refinished and what a difference they make!  The dark floors were nice, but the natural floors brighten up the whole house.

Look at that fir floor in the kitchen!!

John and Neal always do such an incredible job.  They put down two coats of polyurethane at this point.  You see, inevitably, we will ding them up a bit during the final steps of the project.  The last coat will be done right before the new homeowners move in, ensuring a picture perfect floor.

Dark floors were nice - but natural makes the whole house seem brighter

Look how the finished floor reflect all the sunlight!!

The floors were followed by my amazing painters - to complete the next step of the transformation.  They sprayed the trim, creating a beautiful sheen on all the woodwork.  The walls are a soft off-white, called Medici Ivory from Sherwin Williams.

With the painting complete, I started the task of wallpapering the dining room with nautical charts.  It's a big project - I had to figure out which charts go where and how to layer them, so they fit together well.

You need a gentle touch on the old paper charts!!

The charts are such a great compliment to the custom wainscoting that we installed around the dining room.

What else has happened?  Well, I'm almost finished all the tile work.  The bathrooms are complete, but I'm still waiting on the custom grout order for the kitchen backsplash.  I hope to get that completed this week.

Blue glass wall in master bath

The hall bath has a bright stripe of pale blue glass tile

We should wrap up the interior punch list this week.  Now we just need some warm weather to get the exterior work completed.  Then we're ready to put it on the market!

What do you think so far?


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