Renovation: The Family Room

Part of our recent renovation included replacing the floors in the family room, which were the same as what used to be in the kitchen. It's hard to see in the photos, but the wood was buckling in several places. There were also such deep grooves between the boards that we've been battling little sticks of polyurethane coming out for years. That and just generally looking dated, it was time to replace the floor.

 

 We also decided to remove the redundant sliding glass door, which we never once used in our nearly four years here. We only started using it during the kitchen reno, to let the dogs in and out. It was drafty and is always blocked by furniture anyway. I say redundant because there is a sliding glass door off the kitchen just a few feet away. So silly.

 

The Family Room - Before

The Family Room - Before
We never used this slider until a few weeks before it was taken out.

We decided to go with a pre-finished solid hardwood floor, for a few reasons. One was the price. We were able to get a wider plank (we chose 4") for a more reasonable cost than a traditionally installed hardwood floor would have been. It was also faster to install, and there was no mess or chemicals.

Ooooh! Shiny new floors!

A mid-painting view of the new double-hung window that replaced the door. (And a bonus shot of our most recent foster, Spanky Jones)

  It is so much cozier in this room now. I was always hesitant to paint this room because it gets such nice light, especially in the morning, but the primer white was getting old, and dirty. I picked a pale shade, Benjamin Moore's Olympic Mountains. It was quite a challenge to paint off-white over white. But after a solid second coat, it all turned out nice and even. Between the windows, fireplace, doorways and pass-through, there isn't a ton of wall space, so I managed to make one can of paint work. I thought I was going to have to make a last minute run to Home Depot, but I pulled it off. It's a big room, and I painted it all by myself. Then I celebrated with some much deserved bubbly.

I also finally hung the curtains I bought over a year ago. In my head they were a lot darker, but when I got them out I was surprised to find they were nearly the same color as the new wall paint. Once I clear out the Christmas crap, I'll update with a final photo. 

The Bambina

She takes up all of our free time (and most of our sleep), but we wouldn't have it any other way. She graced our presence two weeks and one day early, on the day of one of my best friend's weddings. (I was really looking forward to that wedding, dammit. I fully plan on guilting her with this later in life) Anyway, she is sweet and beautiful and perfect in every way. We got really lucky with this one.

Coming back!

and with big news! I've been a little busy lately, as you can see by my total lack of posts since last summer, but the blog is back in business. We're smack dab in the middle of a renovation project that has currently overtaken our whole house. In just a few weeks it will be complete, and it's going to feel like we're living in a brand new home. Right now the final touches are being put on the kitchen, and from there our contractors will move to the family room to work on a window/door replacement and will then tear up and replace the existing hardwoods.

All of this was spurred by the worsening condition of the kitchen and family room floors. The hardwood was splitting and bowing, making it difficult to walk on, and impossible to put a crawling baby on. Did I mention we had a baby?  The bambina is almost one, and we really needed to take steps to make sure she could get around safely. Where the kitchen was concerned, if the floor was coming up, then everything was coming out. Crooked tiles, brass trim counter tops (oh yes, brass trim), over sized soffits...all of it. Pictures of the final product to come soon!

While that has been going on, we've also been working on making over the powder room and creating a playroom in one of the spare bedrooms. I'm hoping to get the playroom wrapped up this weekend, with a little sewing help from my mom.

More to come! I promise!