RUSTIC INDUSTRIAL KITCHEN

There's something about this kitchen. For a long time, I wasn't sure it was going to work out. Early on we discovered half the room had no foundation, and then there was the fireplace fiasco, and we seemed to hit a dozen other speed bumps along the way. And now somehow, in the blur of the past 6 years, we're done and everything is legit! 

We still need to install the pulls on the cabinet doors under and flanking the range top, but for now I'm just thrilled that all the tools and dust are finally gone. (The kitchen has been our makeshift workshop--again--for about 6 months now.) 

In addition to having floor drains, which allow for easy cleanup, we also have a ceiling outlet hanging over the island. It's not the prettiest thing, but so very useful!

I made the little sink skirt out of a canvas drop cloth last week. I'm still undecided about whether I like it or not, but I thought some prospective buyers might not like seeing exposed plumbing. It does add some softness to the room, which is kind of nice in relation to all the concrete and stainless steel. 

I didn't do the stained stair runner as planned, because I didn't know if that would be universally liked, but I still love how this staircase and pantry corner turned out.

I know it's not everyone's style by any means, but I'm really happy with how it turned out overall! What do you think?

AT LONG LAST: A PORCH RAILING

First of all, let me wish you a very Happy New Year from our little corner of the world. I hope you've all had a fantastic set of holidays! Ours had some highs and lows--one of the lows being a late-night trip to the ER and a diagnosis of croup for Johnnie (who is thankfully feeling 100% better now), and one of the highs being the long-awaited completion of our front porch railing.

This railing was such a challenge. (Ez requested that if anyone asks how long this project took us, I should tell them anything but the embarrassing truth.) The brick, selected to match the house's original chimneys, is quite soft, and finding a way to firmly anchor the newel posts without cracking the brick proved difficult. Our first attempt, using the standard black metal newel posts (shown here) that matched the railings, failed because it required sinking four screws for each post, and a few of the bricks cracked during the drilling. As a result, we had to have the brick man come and replace six bricks--this time with one big hole pre-cut into each one. This new method necessitated a different type of post that could be anchored with one long threaded rod sunk a couple bricks deep. Our only option was a chunky pressure treated newel, which we happen to like exponentially more than the metal newels.

Hooray for Plan B being better than Plan A in every way! Once the wood newels are stained to match the logs, I think it will look just right. In addition to being the far sturdier solution, the wood newels make a more substantial statement visually than the dinkier metal ones. I'm so glad Plan A didn't pan out. Plus, the house looks almost done now, right? So much improvement with one project! (Also, SAFETY! WOOHOO!)

FYI, all the railing parts were off-the-shelf from Lowe's. Note #1: because this seems to matter more and more to blog readers nowadays, this post was not sponsored and we purchased everything ourselves. Note #2, and a tip: for a project like this one, you really need two people. One person can do it, but two people can do it three times faster.

Finally, for those interested, my Christmas/winter decorating took about 15 minutes (including screwing in the hooks for the door garland). Since our only evergreen tree (i.e. my source of free holiday decor) fell in a tornado last year, these decorations cost me between $25 and $30 in pine from the local market--$18 of which was just for the pre-made wreath. It's definitely not the fanciest house on the lane, but I think it works and looks like we at least made an effort this year. :)

Pardon the in-progress mess and oversized light bulb (it's dark way out here in the sticks)... 

I especially love the window boxes. I was going to just take them down until spring, but instead I chopped up two $4 pine swags and jammed the branches into the soil. Boom. Done. This is not the best photo, but it's my favorite thing. 

So that's the railing. Can you believe we finished something? It's been awhile since we've gotten to cross a project off the list. Let me tell you, it feels WAY better than falling down the steps.

BRICKED

Well, sort of. The brick man got started on our foundation yesterday, but clearly it's still a work in progress. It's almost shocking to see bricks there after seeing exposed styrofoam for so long--but in a good way, of course. He still has to install the final ledge at the top, which will be angled so water will flow right off. (Speaking of water, we're still waiting on the gutter man...)

This is not the same angle, but here's a good look at the front last year, before bricks:

Embarrassing in so many ways.

I do wish we could've matched the original stone foundation so it could be uniform all the way across, but that turned out to be a next-to-impossible task. Not only were the original fieldstones really tough to match, but building a new foundation under an existing structure AND incorporating stones that matched was sort of a pie-in-the-sky idea structurally, financially and otherwise. So we'll work with what we have here, and I think it'll be pretty good.

And once the bricking is done and the stones are repointed -- unfortunately not today since April is living up to its rainy reputation -- we can start getting some vegetation growing out there. (Mom! Help!)

PROGRESS!

From the office, looking down into the master bedroom

It's been awhile since I've posted half-decent photos of the master suite, which -- I'm happy to say -- is looking better and better all the time. Every day I get a little more excited about it. Paint and doors have made a huge difference in making these spaces feel more visually tidy. (The master bedroom itself is decidedly not very tidy since it is serving as a workshop right now, so I couldn't get a good photo this time.)

The office from the other direction.
Doors, left to right: Laundry room, walk-in closet, small closet

It's a good thing I'm not in Africa right now, as I had planned. It's looking like our home appraisal (necessary for refinancing) will be scheduled for about a week from today -- much sooner than we originally thought. We're quite close, truly. However, I've spent 30+ hours priming in the past two weeks, and I still haven't done the master bathroom. (It's not quite ready yet.) If my trip hadn't been postponed, there's no way Ez could've done all this priming himself on top of all the other things he needs to do. 

I've said it before and I'll say it again: ENDLESS PRIMING! 

Over the past couple days, Ez, my dad and my father-in-law have worked on the following projects while I continued priming my life away: 

• Installing interior doors, trim and hardware (not an easy task in a crooked house)
• Installing toilets and other plumbing
• Working on the kitchen stairs and pantry (railings, trim, etc.) -- this is the biggest task we have left
• Cleaning the reclaimed ceiling beams that have ancient grime and new spray foam insulation on them
• Cleaning other reclaimed lumber for use as trim throughout

I will not bore you with the list of 100 small things we still need to do, but we'll be trying to tackle everything systematically over the next week. The race is on. 

Now for my favorite part: the master bathroom! 

Toilet! Too bad my father-in-law forgot the seat.

Loving the tile, brick and wood together...
Note: Staining all the wood floors will happen at the very end.

Shower fixtures are halfway in; waiting for the shower head to arrive.

Lest you think everything has a moderate amount of calm and cleanliness, check out the dining room. It's pure chaos and scrap wood in here, and every time I walk through there (a million times a day) I feel pretty overwhelmed. However, THREE COATS of primer later, the walls and ceiling are looking nicer at least. Some chinking, trim and light fixtures are all we really need to finish it off. Oh, and a concentrated effort to clean and organize.

We've been busy, you guys. Can you tell?

BREATH OF FRESH AIR

One of my favorite things we've done to this house is to peel back the many layers of crusty old siding and shoddy fixes to reveal its original beauty. I don't know who would want to put cheap siding over hand-hewn logs, or why you'd ever want to slap a coat of paint on stone, but I know the house is breathing a sigh of relief to be free of these things.

Though the logs have been exposed for a few years now, we finally borrowed some sandblasting equipment last week so Ez and his buddy Chris could go to town on the stones. They have the most beautiful, sparkly veining, and I'm so happy they are finally seeing the light of day.

Prepare yourself for a scary trip down memory lane... Here are some older glimpses of the sloppily painted stone foundation (among other things):

Egads!!! (ca. 2009)

The horror!!!

Looking a little better...

Still improving... (earlier this year)

And, now that we're all exhausted from looking at these old photos, here are the stones now after sandblasting:

They look a little scraggly, sure, but it's nothing a little TLC won't fix. Hopefully soon our brick man will come and repoint them -- in other words, repair and renew the mortar between the stones. It will look SO GOOD, much like the way repairing the chinking between the logs made an instant impact.

Now I need to go lie down. I truly just had a small panic attack looking at those old photos.

MASTER SUITE: NOW WITH WALLS!

Master bedroom ceiling, with beams salvaged from the attic

Last Thursday (the 19th) we finally got a call from the drywall guy after several days of silence following our missed appointment. He said he was finally sending a crew on Sunday to hang the sheetrock in our master suite. The timing was not ideal -- we were scheduled to have out-of-town friends coming to visit this weekend. However, not wanting to miss our window of opportunity, we said we could make that work. After all, our guests were scheduled to leave relatively early on Sunday, so it would only disrupt the visit a little bit.

The very next morning -- Friday -- at 6:45am, I was sitting on the couch in the living room, finishing up my morning quiet time and getting myself motivated for the day ahead. I glanced up to see two strange men out in the yard, peering up at the house and trying to see in the windows. Ez had already left for work, so I was on my own to figure this out and/or fend them off if necessary.

The guys hadn't seen me, so I crouched down behind the couch and got a good look at them as I assessed the situation. No need to panic, I thought. They look like harmless construction workers. Still hunched over and trying not to be seen, I stealthily made my way to the front door and peeked out at their truck. Definitely construction workers.

"Can I help you?" I called from the porch, realizing too late that I was still in my pajamas, bra-less and bewildered.

"Is this the place with the drywall?" one of them asked.

"Ummm... yes," I said.

And that's the story of how the weekend got a little crazy.

Master bedroom: now with walls!

They told me they couldn't come on Sunday after all, but they were free that very day if we could accommodate them.

"Ummm... okay," I said. And why not? A little construction project would only add to the excitement! (I kept telling myself.)

So we regrouped, with Ez (who was en route to work) giving me (who was still in my pj's) last minute instructions over the phone while the drywall guys got set up. The crew of two worked for 13 exhausting hours straight so they could finish the job in one day. They left a little after 8pm, just a few minutes before our weekend guests arrived, bearing smiling faces, good conversation and gifts of delicious microbrews (not to mention pumpkin cookie dough) all the way from Vermont. It was a good day and an even better night.

Doorways from left to right: laundry room, walk-in closet and linen closet

Unfortunately everything in the whole house was (and still is) covered in a fine layer of white dust, because as you can see, the guys had to make about 1 million cuts in order to work around the beams and roof pitches. Our guests were super gracious (thanks Zach and Melissa!) about the mess and how they had to navigate around the mattress and boxspring temporarily blocking the main hallway every time they had to use the bathroom. (That's why they're our friends.)

Office ceiling with exposed duct and beams

A lesser woman may have freaked out by the complete upheaval of our house and our plans, but since I'm awesome I had only minor feelings of shame and stress. (Excitement about another big task checked off the list will do that.) I can't imagine how many weeks and marriage counseling sessions it would've taken Ez and me to hang all this drywall ourselves. Many many.

Laundry room, with a planked wall just for fun

Now we wait for news on when the finishing crew will be arriving. I hope it's soon, because we've unplugged the dryer until this is all finished and I've got a basket of dirty laundry getting so tall it's threatening to overtake us all. Plus, as soon as the spackling is done, we can paint the walls, finish the floors and move our giddy selves in.

Office area

So that's the story of how we finally got walls in our master suite and how our house entered an entirely new state of disarray. But whatever. At this point, we'll do what it takes to keep moving forward and clean up the messes later.

Curb appeal progress.

Notice anything different and/or fantastic about these pictures?

The board and batten siding started going up over the weekend on the bottom half of the kitchen. We had to get the siding at least started on the bottom half so our new electrical box can be installed. We are still waiting for the top floor windows to arrive, so we won't be able to finish putting up the siding until those are installed.

Also, the new brick front porch has also been in progress over the past week or so! I'll write a separate post once it's finished, which should be really soon. The brick itself is so beautiful -- it matches the chimneys.

The porch is a bit narrower than I originally wanted (due to budget constraints), but now that it's up I actually think it's going to look great once it's all finished.

The roof is not a priority at this point, but here's the newest rough Sketchup of the plan.The roof will break up the lines a bit and give the entrance some extra dimension. And yes, there will be railings -- we just haven't gotten that far yet.

We are getting closer! The summer is flying by though. Only 4-7 weeks left of this crazy pace before the baby arrives! We're so excited and exhausted already. ☺

Wired

This is a first: electrical wires in the kitchen! I took this photo early on Monday when the wiring process had just begun. By the end of the day, these two little wires had spawned quite an impressive network of tentacles all through the ceiling and walls. All of the electric for this side of the house (including the master suite, laundry room, dining room, entry and half bath) is coming through the kitchen so it is quite a job. Hopefully it will be finished this weekend.

With all of the recent progress and updates to be excited about, I continue to love this fireplace the most. It really is my favorite thing about the house. I can't wait until I can come into the kitchen at night and enjoy it by the glow of our own electric lights.

Curb Appeal (?)

We have some big decisions to make ASAP about the front of the house. It was difficult to finalize some aspects of the plan before we got to this point for a variety of reasons that I will not go into for the sake of everyone's sanity. (Suffice it to say, occasionally I still wonder if this house was a huge mistake.)

But here we are -- mulling over some of the biggest things that will affect the curb appeal. Screw this up, and we should've just left the house in its original funky state. The pressure is on.

Here's the latest contender for the plan, which I drew rather roughly with Sketchup. For the record, Sketchup was not as intuitive for me as I hoped, so please squint a little and be forgiving. We're looking at the overall picture here.

I wish we had the budget to consult an architect, but alas we're on our own. Most of my creative energy is going toward baby growing, so I don't have anything left in the tank right now to fully describe everything that's going on in this picture. But I will address any questions in the comments section, so ask away!

Check back in a few days for the final plan... until then I will taking it easy and praying that we make the right decisions. After all this, we'd rather not have a terribly awkward looking house. It'll never be totally without quirks and oddities, but neither will any of us I guess!

Slate Dining Room Floor.

Back in December I mentioned that I liked the idea of installing slate tile all throughout the entryway and the dining room (instead of trying to transition slate in the entryway to hardwood in the dining room without it looking awkward or breaking up the flow). Well, S forgot about this idea for awhile, then brought it up again the other day -- "What do you think about putting slate all through the entryway and dining room?"

Yes! I love when things come full circle.

The photo above is what caught his attention. Slate flooring can look stark, but we like the idea because these rooms are in the original log section of the house--so it will already be heavy on the wood. Adding a wooden dining table/chairs and hardwood floors could be just too much wood. Slate really seems like it could work, offsetting the rustic log walls in just the right way.

Here are some other images that I think confirm our choice, and I plan to add more when I stumble across them:

Thinking about the other (currently unused) side of the house gets me so excited. It's really going to have the nicest rooms. The other side has the original brick chimneys and fireplaces, log walls, etc. -- all the reasons why we bought this house. I can't wait until we actually get to enjoy them.

Image sources:
1. Designer Shawn Henderson via desiretoinspire
2. Feldman Architecture Inc. via houzz
3. Les Duves hotel in Belgium via remodelista
4. Kaweah Falls designed by Frank Lloyd Wright student Frank Robert
5. Salvinia Lodge in Poland via remodelista

Slate Entry.

I am in love with this simple entry I saw in designer Miles Redd's portfolio. I've been thinking for awhile that I need to paint a door black, but I haven't decided which one yet. And the black hardware is such a nice detail. (The only thing I'm lamenting here is the lack of a rug -- not very practical.)

What really caught my eye though is the slate tile. S and I are pretty set on having slate in our front entry area, and this is my favorite tile that I've seen so far. Does anyone know where I can find tile like this? I'm guessing it's quite expensive since they're so large, but I'd at least like to price it out.

We have already bought wood flooring for the dining room, which is adjacent to the entry area. (Check out the basic floor plan here.) All of a sudden I'm thinking we should consider running the tile through the dining room as well, instead of transitioning to the wood. That is, if the floor joists can hold that much weight -- and if we could afford it.

The walls are exposed log, so I think the tile would look nice in there. I'm just worried about how the two different types of flooring will meet up between the two rooms, since there's no actual "doorway" there to create a threshold. 

What do you think? Would slate seem too "cold" for a dining room? Even if that dining room had warm log walls and a rich wood table?

PS - I, too, am amazed that I managed to squeeze in an extra post before the holiday. Merry Christmas from my parents' house in Pennsylvania!

Kitchen Demo

So we hoped to have the siding all painted by now, but unfortunately it has been raining like crazy for the past two weeks. (Renovation tip of the day: You can't paint the exterior of your house when it's raining.) Instead we did more work on the kitchen.

Believe it or not, even after filling 5 or 6 of those giant 30-yard dumpsters over the past two years, we still have some demolition to do around this place. We haven't finished it all yet because some of the things that need removing are actually helping to support part of the house. However, since the foundation work is in progress in the kitchen, it's time to get going with the demo because the floor needs to be poured soon!

Saturday we tore down the little room in the far corner of the kitchen, to the left of the brick fireplace (which I also fully uncovered and cleaned up over the weekend). Check it out in the photo below. It was an odd little room, and we really don't know what it was for.

This little room did unlock many cool treasures though. When we pulled up the floor boards, we found hundreds of glass bottles and various other junk stashed in the dirt under it. I saved all the bottles that were still in tact -- one of which may be worth enough to buy the bar stools we want! My camera battery died so I didn't get to take any photos of our treasures in situ, but I will dedicate an entire post to them later. Perhaps a long-gone previous owner operated a little dispensary out of this room, because most of the bottles were medicinal. I wonder if I could research that somehow...

Anyway, according to the handy dandy kitchen floor plan we put together, this is the area where the stove and wall oven will go. I'm so excited I can almost taste it!

Great Minds...

S and I were a couple hundred miles apart over the weekend; I was in Pennsylvania having fun at an old friend's wedding, and he was dutifully helping Airlia and Greg move to their new place in Norfolk. When we both dragged our exhausted selves back to Maryland last night, we each had a "house inspiration" photo to share with the other after our travels.

This is the photo, taken in McConnellsburg, PA, that I wanted to show him:

And here is the one S took in Virginia to show me:

Needless to say, there might be something clinically wrong with us. After giving each other the signature side-eye -- whose various shades of meaning we have mastered after nearly 3 years of marriage -- we started to think we might actually be onto something with this porch thing.

We've been brainstorming for weeks, maybe months, about how our front porch should be built. We knew we wanted it to a.) be made of stone to blend in with the foundation, b.) have stairs that descend to the right, and c.) not look like someone just stuck it on there as an afterthought.

Rather than stating the challenges we're facing in designing the right porch, I will just show you a picture of the front of the house so you can envision it yourself:

Ghastly, I know, but a work in progress... Keep in mind the entrance on the left will be removed, the entire right section will be exposed log and we plan for the driveway to end at a parking pad along the right side of the house.

What do you think? Will our idea work?

Basement Explorations

While you wait for the big bathroom reveal (the anticipation is thick, I can feel it) check out our basement. It's mildly interesting... and since we cleaned out a truckload of moldy junk that previous owners left in it, it's much less scary than it used to be.

I recently discovered this "A.C. 1887" carving on the basement door frame. The records are a little hazy about which mid-1880s year our house was built, but if this carving genuinely was from 1887 little A.C. probably got a good whipping for carving his initials into his parents' new house.

Venturing inside, you see the big brick fireplace I mentioned in a previous post. Kind of hard to miss, as it is enormous and sits in the dead center. It needs some work, but I like it. It gives the house a sense of history and of real purpose, as this fireplace was a workhorse instead of a luxury.

The giant crack in the stone wall behind the fireplace clearly shows why all of our floors used to slope about 6 inches from one side to the other. Not to worry though; the guys poured a new concrete base and have the house resting securely on that jack. More structural work will be happening down here in the semi-near future, but I'm trying not to think about it...

So, while we'll never be one of those families with a pool table in the basement, there are some cool historical elements in this space that remind us of how much of history it has seen. And if nothing else, it will do just fine as a home for a chest freezer and some gardening tools.

Bathroom Preview

As we work on putting the finishing touches on our guest bathroom, here is a look back at where we started...

Notice the lovely grime on the floor, the plug-in heater and the overall cramped ickiness of the space.

Now here is a small preview of the "after" version. I don't want to reveal the whole thing until it's all finished... but I have to share a small slice of the finished product, as I'm too excited to keep it to myself.

Looks like it belongs in a rustic-yet-modern log house, doesn't it?

A Hidden Gem

I'm a little late in posting this, but several weeks ago we removed the false mantel and countless layers of plaster from the brick chimney that rises up through the center of the original log section. The huge fireplace it's built on is still in tact in the basement.

The chimney was in good structural shape, and after a quick corn blasting it looks fantastic. (Corn blasting is the process they use for cleaning and resurfacing logs... and apparently bricks.)

I'm psyched about this chimney and very hopeful that its counterpart in the kitchen cleans up as beautifully. I just love the color. I am getting a little tired of all of the white painted brick you see these days. I know it's not trendy to leave your brick unpainted, but some brick is just meant to be seen!

Here's the "before" picture of the upstairs portion, just after we tore out the attic. That's not an optical illusion--it does slant diagonally toward the top to prevent downdrafts. A few bricks need replacing, but I like that it will add some personality to the master suite.