After the winter we've had, I get positively giddy thinking about a screened in porch. Sitting outside in the summer, with my feet up and a cocktail....ahhhh....it seems kind of magical. But then I come back to reality as I sweep the snow off the porch floor.
Screened In Porch - Before
The bones of the porch are really nice, but it needs some work to make it look as nice as the rest of the house. And it's a big outdoor space - 12 x 16 feet!
Screened in Porch - Before
First step, the guys put up a headboard ceiling. Wow, that nice bright ceiling makes a world of difference! It's so much lighter and brighter.
Photo: Houzz
I've purchased this incredibly cool ceiling fan by Savoy House to put up - I love how it looks and it will create such a nice breeze on a summer evening. It was a bit of a splurge, but so worth it! Oh, and the guys updated the wiring with new outlets while they were working out there. After all, you need a place to plug in the blender for margaritas.
Photo - Target
And I've always wanted to try an outdoor rug - but figured we needed a porch with a cover. I found this 'Distressed Diamonds' rug on sale at Target - I can't wait to see it on the finished porch! Of course we'll also have lots of seating and if the weather ever warms up, some nice plants.
Speaking of plants, the original boiler in the basement had this big copper holding tank. I thought it was way too cool to just send for metal recycling, so one of our amazing craftsmen cut it in half for me. I'm planning to put it back on the original cast iron stand and use it as a planter!! Definitely a conversation starter!
Once we removed the old screening and slats, we discovered the cedar structure was in nice shape. So we will just clean it up and re-oil to beautify the finish (once it gets warm enough to do that!). Then we can install nice new screening.
It still needs work, but is looking better!!
We'll keep the original cedar shakes that are up against the house and paint them a bright white, to contrast with the natural wood. And that french door could use a coat of paint. I'm thinking a pretty blue.
Stay tuned - hopefully it will warm up enough in the next week or so to do the work. Then we can push forward with all our plans! In the meantime, I'm curious. How important is an outdoor feature like a screened-in porch to you?
The house is coming together so quickly, I haven't had a chance to do a
kitchen update.And so much has
happened to this 1938 kitchen!You may remember that this was
a challenge to design – it’s a long skinny room with lots of doors and windows
(click here to see the design plan). But our final design really maximizes the space and gives a great workable kitchen.
It was a lot of work to get to this point. After gutting the room, we installed new, larger windows. We closed up the old back door and removed the wall to the living room. We removed the wall to the dining room as well. And of course we installed new insulation, drywall, electrical and plumbing. After all that, the
guys got to work installing all of the cabinets.It was a bit tricky, as some dimensions had
shifted with all the work we did.But it
quickly took shape and started to look like a functional room.
Kitchen 'Before
Kitchen - 'Almost After'
With the living room wall opened up, now you can see all the way across the back of the house - from the garage entrance to the home office. What a change in sight lines from our starting point!
I love the simplicity of the white shaker cabinets.They’re light and bright and with the
addition of a pantry cabinet, this kitchen has plenty of storage.And we included a large farm sink, which
provides style and function.
And with the removal of the wall to the dining room, we added a peninsula with cabinets and large worktop (plus seating on the other side!)
But while white countertops are very popular right now, I
didn’t want them for this kitchen.With
all of the white woodwork in the dining room, the white cabinets and the
abundant sunshine in the room – I was afraid you’d need sunglasses on a bright
day.So instead, I chose this marble
veined quartz from Silestone called Calypso.I love how it grounds the space and ties it all together.
Dining room looking towards kitchen - 'Before'
Dining room looking towards kitchen - 'Now'
The kitchen backsplash is primarily a basic white
subway.But to provide a focal point, I
installed this glass penny round tile behind the stove.It was a challenge to install, but I do love how it looks.Now I just need to get it grouted!
Glass tile is 'paper faced' - so you can't see it until after it's installed. Tricky!!!
But my favorite feature? The glass cabinet doors.
The original kitchen had glass upper cabinets and I wanted to retain that sense of history - but with a bit of an update. I turned to the talented Jim Nutting from Maine Art Glass to make them for me.They have such a great
blend of antique style and the highlight they circular pattern we’ve used throughout the
house.
Kitchen - Before - Dark with only limited light from windows
Kitchen - Now - very bright with walls opened up and larger windows
First peek of original fir floors
And the floors?We
started with a dated, stick on tile, that had seen better days.When we removed it, we discovered original
fir flooring underneath.It took a lot
of work to get them sanded down, but look at the result!!!Kitchen floors are often riddled with water
stains and holes from old plumbing.But
these floors are gorgeous!
Of course we still need to install lighting, appliances and
knobs (and one missing piece of crown molding).But for now, I’m pretty pleased with the progress!
I'd like to think that custom touches are a hallmark of our projects. And we've really taken that to heart on this project. The guys have been busy and it's making such a difference!
One of the focal spots in the house is the dining room. A key part of the design is custom wainscoting around the walls. It's a big job, as they biscuited each section together (we used MDF, to minimize any shrinking/expanding from changes in weather). With the addition of trim at the top and inside of each section, it looks pretty fantastic.
Wainscoting around Dining Room walls
To give you an idea of the carpentry skill that goes into this project, check this out. The giant bay window features a gentle curved wall on either side of it. It's an elegant feature that we didn't want to lose. The guys custom made the wainscot trim to flow with the curve - requiring kerfing the wainscot and custom curves on the top rail. Impressive!!
The paneled walls continue above the fireplace - framing the new sconces that we've added. The bed molding that's used over each doorway is no longer commercially available. So they made molding to match on-site, to top off the fireplace wall.
And we also created a little mud bench with a place to hang coats and dry mittens as you come in from the garage. Once it's painted up, I'll be adding coat hooks, so it will be ready for use!
Foyer to Dining Room - Before
The new handrail and balusters to the 2nd floor are such a nice feature - so much better than the light blocking wall we started with - remember this before photo?
And the fir handrail ties nicely with the original kitchen floor.
Can you believe the difference????
Upstairs, the custom touches continue. The guys built custom radiator covers throughout the house. But in the master bedroom we took it a step further. We created a built in window seat between the closets. With the radiator directly below it, it's a cozy spot to relax!
Creating face frames for the radiator covers
In the front bedroom, we added a cute triangular bookcase, to provide some unique storage and display space.
So what do you think? I know I love these details, but will the buyers appreciate all these custom elements?
This will be a lovely house with a beautiful new kitchen and bathrooms and lots of brand new finishes. But the room that I'm really excited about? The office.
So why you ask, do I like it so much? Well, it's a great room off on its own - separated a bit from the rest of the house. It has 7 (that's right seven!) windows As well as built in, floor to ceiling bookcases. The sun pours in all day and it's just this great spot. Seriously, I'd be in here all day if it was my home.
But there are some issues. First and foremost, we nicknamed it 'the freezer', because I had stored some cleaning supplies in there and they all froze solid. Yikes! The radiator doesn't work and apparently there isn't any insulation in the floor, walls or ceiling (not to mention the drafty windows).
So it needs some updates (now we know why there were so many heaters in there when we bought the house!).
We quickly got the steam radiator working. It helped a lot, but it was still cold - particularly on windy days with the drafty windows.
Next, the insulation team came out. This was quite a challenge - there was no access panel to the crawl space, so we had to cut one into the siding. And poor Chris drew the short straw and got the job of insulating the crawl space.
Big smile when you're the guy handing the insulation to the guy in the crawl space!!
But we also needed to insulate the ceiling. To accomplish this, we cut an access hole in the adjoining bedroom. That let the guys blow in insulation to achieve a R-49 (modern building code for attic insulation) rating.
Paperback bookcase - 10" tall shelves!
And of course we insulated all the walls with the blown in insulation. See all the wooden plugs that they use to fill the blown-in holes?
And while the bookcases are nice, they have an issue that is one of my pet peeves. Each shelf is only 10 inches tall - that's simply not tall enough for your typical hardback book. This seems more like a paperback bookshelf.
So the guys pulled out the old shelves and we added them back with much more generous dimensions.
In addition, tan office really needs some closed storage, for things like printer paper and stuff that isn't attractive enough for open shelves. Chris custom built cabinet doors for each side and then added a custom radiator cover. Once all this gets painted, it will be a beautiful storage wall!
Ta da!!!
And we have new electrical outlets as well!!
For lighting, I bought this great flush fixture. The Edison Bulbs will look so nice in there!
Or course paint will make a big difference - but the room is already looking good and with our recent cold temperatures, it's still nice and cozy! I can't wait to see it all come together.
It's been 3 months, so it seemed like time for an update. And so much has changed!!! I can't believe how quickly things are moving forward.
We got electrical and plumbing completed and passed our inspections with flying colors. Now there are multiple outlets in each room, new lighting and 2 new bathrooms all plumbed up. Next step, insulating the house. And that was a really big job.
You see, when we gutted a few of the walls, we discovered there wasn't any insulation in the walls!! No wonder we were burning through oil at a crazy rate during the cold snaps! And insulating an old house isn't all that easy, but it was fascinating to watch the process.
Pink snow??? Nope, shredded fiberglass!
We used blown in fiberglass (which looked a bit like pink snow as they move the hoses around the house!). It doesn't compress as much as cellulose over time and it can be chopped up finer - which is important when you're filling an irregular cavity in an old house. Typically, it's done from the outside. But since it's so cold, the exterior siding was too brittle to be moved and we decided to have all the holes drilled from the inside (our drywall team was not amused!!).
Essentially, they drill two holes in each bay between the studs. That lets them fill from the bottom first and then the top.
Chopped up fiberglass insulation is pumped through the hose into the walls
Once the bay is filled with insulation, the hole is fitted with a wooden plug, so they can do the plaster repair. There are a LOT of plugs!!
We also added extra insulation in the attic and basement, to seal up the whole building envelope.
What I found most amazing was the dramatic difference in sound levels after the insulation. Suddenly there's a lot more sound deadening - the house used to have a bit of an echo and now it's dead quiet. You can't hear cars go by, the way you could before. And we haven't even finished swapping out the windows!
Next the drywall team moved in. And they really had their work cut out for them. Not only did they have to install drywall in the kitchen and baths, but also seal up all the wall plugs.
Special delivery!!!
'Pillowed' ceilings
And the upstairs ceilings and exterior walls had an interesting pillowing effect. The original house has long sections of drywall installed, with a plaster coating on top. But on the unheated ceilings, the plaster had sagged between the studs and created all these pillow-like areas. They were totally solid, with no cracks, so must have evolved slowly over the 80 years with no insulation. Essentially all the cold/hot seasonal changes made the plaster sag a bit.
Don't you love a guy on stilts?
But it took a lot of time and skill to smooth out the valleys between each 'pillow', to give us a smooth ceiling again. Add the work required to fill all the insulation holes and we've practically replastered the whole house. See the difference in the front bedroom?
The drywall has been primed and I thought it would be nice to share a few photos and a video. Enjoy the tour!!
Living Room - Fireplace is updated and ready to use. Wall to Kitchen is completely open.
Kitchen looking towards dining room, living room and office
Dining room with view towards kitchen (right) and living room (left)
Front bedroom - opening up wall to include additional window floods the room with more light!
Creating a Master Suite by adding a bathroom
Back bedroom
Next up? We have 28 new windows to be installed....the guys have gotten a good start on them, but it takes awhile! And again, the difference is remarkable. No more drafts wafting through the rooms! And they open and actually lock! Now that's fancy!
And the most exciting thing? With all this work done, we're ready to move forward with finish carpentry. We can start the kitchen, install the doors and get this place put together. Can't wait!!
See these boxes? That's the kitchen - including the kitchen sink!
First step, the guys put up a headboard ceiling. Wow, that nice bright ceiling makes a world of difference! It's so much lighter and brighter.
