Wood Floor Reveal

After almost exactly one year of living with plywood floors we were able to install our new bamboo flooring last week! We think it looks AMAZING and it feels like a whole new house downstairs!
Originally, our plan was to go with this flooring from Lumber Liquidators, but after reading too many reviews about how easily it scratches and dents we opted to upgrade to what's called a strand bamboo. Something about the "stranding" process is supposed to make the bamboo extra durable, 150% harder than oak is what they claim. The guy at Lumber Liquidators said you could drop a hammer on it and it would be fine, now that's more what we're looking for!

Installing the first row was by far the most time consuming (and nerve wracking!) to make sure we got it a straight as possible.

There was a bit of a learning curve to using the floor nailer (the hardness of the bamboo did have a downside when it came to actually installing it!), but once we got the feel for it it worked pretty well. By the end of the first day our floor looked like this.

It surprised us how well the floor blended with the log walls. We were actually hoping for a bit more contrast, but we'll still get that when we add the kitchen cabinets.

So after 3 1/2 days of pretty constant work by Travis our downstairs now looks something more like this

and this

and this.

Slight improvement wouldn't you say? It's so exciting to be getting to some of the more aesthetically pleasing projects versus some of the more mandatory, but less beautifying things like plumbing and electrical!

The Unveiling

I decided to tear myself away from admiring our fireplace and mantel for a few minutes to share with you some pictures of our almost completed fireplace (grout work is still in progress). We are thrilled with the way it turned out!
It's hard to picture how it looked before compared to the grandeur of it now! It feels like it makes such a statement in the room and Travis did a superb job on the rock work in my humble opinion!

It was a big undertaking in time and money (at least for us), but we're pretty confident it was well worth the investment!

Brick By Brick

Or in our case, stone by stone, our fireplace is making progress. It's been a huge project and we still have a ways to go, but it's getting there. And so far we LOVE it!

The last time you saw are fireplace was shortly after we installed it. It looks kind of bare and lonely. =o(

But since then Travis built and plywood frame around it following code requirements (we were able to safely do this since our stove is what's considered zero clearance), as well as built and installed a sweet mantle milling the lumber himself with his Alaska mill (more on that to come, but since it's Travis' project I thought it'd let him write it).

After wrapping the frame with wire mesh like this:

We (i.e. Travis) applied a scratch coat and we were all ready to start putting up the rocks.

Yesterday afternoon we got the tile laid on the hearth and our firewood pad, too. The tile is the same as what we laid in our entry way this spring.
We got our tile in the spring and the rock was given to us at a later date by a friend who had some leftover from his own house, but we couldn't have coordinated the colors any better. They blend perfectly!
As you can see we still have a LOT of rock to put up, but it's getting there little by little. And in the mean time we just sit back and admire our handiwork. =o)

No More Streaking

After months of contented living with our upstairs bathroom, we decided we'd had enough of the streaks and grim. It seemed foolish at first to put time and money into it know that one day it would all get torn down and redesigned. But then reality struck. True, it will all come down eventually, but that will likely be several years down the road and it currently looks like this.

Pretty horrid, right? To be honest, I'm not sure how we lived with it for so long. I guess we just got accustomed to it, or maybe it looks worse in pictures (wishful thinking...).

Anyway, we decided it was time to say to long to the streaks. But still not wanting to spend much money on it we bought a $12 gallon of stain sealing primer and snagged a $5 gallon of mis-tint paint at Lowes (thanks to the brilliant suggestion of the gal working in the paint department!). I was pretty excited about the color at first (when it was in the can). It seemed very similar to what we put in our hallway. Once it was on the walls, however, I was sorely disappointed.

In the pictures it doesn't look so bad. In real life it looks very pinkish brownish. Think swine. Not exactly what I had in mind.

I did do a little trim work around the counter top and the mirror with a pint of off-white paint we picked up (also a mis-tint for super cheap!) to try and add some character. Sadly, the off-white was a flat paint so I didn't want to use it much were it would get a lot of moisture.

As I keep reminding myself, the objective of this operation was not to produce a stunning, designer bathroom, just a clean, streak-free one. Mission accomplished!

Color Me Pomegranate

A few days ago I mentioned that we got the mudding and painting finished in our kitchen. Yay! Travis did a fantastic job on the taping and texturing in my humble opinion, especially for his first attempt. (Don't worry, Hon, there will be many more walls to practice on!) The actual sheet rock we put up way back in July.

As with any DIY project where we are unsure about what we're doing, we began by googling some how-to videos until we felt confident enough to tackle the mudding. I diligently watched the videos, but somehow I managed to be busy during the actually mudding and

texturing...hmm, how did that happen??? Compared to most houses we don't have a great deal of sheet rock to do in the house and so we opted not to invest in a sprayer for the texturing. Instead we used a paint roller to apply the mud. It gave it a nice fine texture, similar to an orange peel texture but even finer. Next time I think we will try a different roller to see if we get it just a touch heavier.

As for color, we went with the same shade of red that we used in the rest of the kitchen, Ralph Lauren Pomegranate. We love the color. It is a little dark right now having it on all the walls in such a small space, but eventually a lot of it will be covered up with nice light colored cabinets so it should balance out perfectly. For now it's a great feeling to be able to cross one more thing off the to do list!

You can click here if you want a refresher on how the color looks in the rest of the kitchen.

Down the Hall

Remember pictures of our hallway going upstairs? It had been our agenda to repaint it for quite sometime, though you maybe wondering how we could bear to paint over that beautiful mural and the amazing yellow, white and orange sponge paint job (yes, that remark may have been dripping with sarcasm)! We did repair the holes in the sheet rock prior to painting just in case you were wondering, but more on that to come later.
Just to make sure you get the full effect of the stunning mural that greeted us every time we trekked up our stairs, here it is in all it's glory. Can you image why we were eager to see it go?

And here is a nice view of the sponge paint job we got to view from our living room everyday.
Need I repeat that we were eager to see it go? We toyed around with the idea of going with some shade of green, but since our kitchen is a dark red we opted to keep it neutral. We didn't want it to look like Christmas down there all year round, nor did we want anything too dark since the hallway doesn't have much for lighting. We decided to go with the same color we used to paint the ceilings in the West bedroom - Ralph Lauren Cottonwood.
It keeps things light and neutral while giving us the option to add pops of color down the road as we get more of a direction for where we want it to go with the decor. But for now I am in love with having a SINGLE color on the wall. What a novel concept! lolDon't you just love the change a can of paint and a few hours work can make?

p.s. The ribbon on the beam is not permanent. It was just my meager attempt and some Christmas decoration a few weeks ago.

p.p.s. PTL the building inspection went awesome yesterday! The inspector was super friendly and easy to work with and didn't have any issues with our work-in-progress so far!

Inspector Gadget

Today is the day we've been slightly dreading and definitely procrastinating on. The city building inspector is going to be paying us a visit this afternoon to see how things are coming along on "the projects." It's a good thing. It's a little nerve wracking too, though. We know we have a lot that still needs to be fixed, but we are hoping he will be understanding and easy to work with! I guess we will soon find out...

P.S. We got our freshly sheet rocked kitchen wall painted last night. Pictures to come soon!