My Favorite Details

Here are several of my favorite construction and decor details! 

This "family" sign is above our menu wall in the kitchen. The photo was taken before my son's graduation party began.

Our architect and friend Louis DeLaura designed built-ins all the way to the window. We wanted to make use of the 4 feet of space from the front of the built-ins to the exterior side wall of the new family room. Most of the built-ins would fit until the stairwell along this wall. Our lead guy, Steve Croushorn of Countryside Construction Company, fashioned this closet and made the doors so that you'd never know it was a closet from the outside. Love this!

Our lower deck is a bit over 32 feet long. Enough said. But if you look at the top left of the picture you'll see a wood door. This crawl space has a concrete floor, light switches and outlets and we use it for storage.

I love the way Steve Croushorn fashioned the new banister to mimic the construction of the rails of our six year old addition which we call the great room. The french doors (above pic) lead into the great room. 

We wanted to put a dividing wall into this front room to create a proper foyer, however our budget was large enough with other priorities. Right now, I use a room divider to create a foyer and a play area for the boys. I love the fact that I can stand at the kitchen sink, see who is driving up and watch the boys play. 

See that mirror? Our old side door used to be there. I never liked entering the kitchen directly from the outside. Now this wall is a wonderful banquette that is perfect for serving large crowds. And I can look outside and watch the kids play basketball while I cook.  The cabinets are from Reico and give me much needed storage. With a large family, it's vital that we can spread out in the kitchen. I love the new granite. It took me a long time to decide how to coordinate with the older speckled granite. CogwellStone supplied our granite. They have great selections!

I see this picture (below) and immediately want to go sit outside. I love, love, love this look. I got the idea for the black paneled door from a picture on Houzz. The stone below the columns compliments the color of the Trex decking. Builder's Lighting did a great job helping me find the lighting that would give Craftsman-like character to this 1970s ranch. 

I decided that turquoise would be one of my accent colors in the new family room.

Most of our curb appeal pictures aren't wide enough to include the mud porch. What a needed area! This is our main family entry and I can set up a chair in the shade while the boys are on their bicycles! (This is an older picture, the driveway is now paved.) Thanks again to Jefferson Area Builders for a fantastic job on our project! 

Curtains from World Market and the sofa from Ashley Furniture. Table from Ikea.

Below is a $2 find at the SPCA Rummage Store.

Decorating our master bedroom was so much fun. The goal was to have a cozy and romantic retreat. Check out more bedroom pictures here:

From this 2 this:

The first stage of the house's face lift!

Original: 

This front room has been through many transformations. When we first bought the house, the carpet was gross, full of pet urine and ugly dark paint. Before we moved in, we laid new carpet and painted in order to use this room as our living room. 

Then we built our great room, changed the carpet to laminate and this room became our dining room. Usually the table was placed lengthwise but once this current renovation and the old "office/playroom" was torn down, we had to double the dining room as a play area.

Old dining room

For those of you familiar with home renovations, you know that when you have to create multi-purpose space for the duration of the project, life can get cramped. But oh well. 

This week they removed the old window and door (picture above). We had to put the dining room in the middle of the kitchen, move the portable Pier 1 island along a wall in this front room, create a place for the computer desk, as well as toys. But oh....I love the new window and door. I'm not sure when they'll put up the drywall, mud and tape, but in the meanwhile, my goal is to keep things clean and safe for the little boys, as well as give a semblance of space among cramped quarters.

New wall for future front entry room

Here are some inspiration pictures that I'm using to decide the paint color for the inside of the door, as well as decor. It will be a rather unorthodox foyer/front entry room because the whole area is 16 x 13. Creating a wall to divide the space for a small office was not in the budget. So I'm going to divide the space with a DIY shoji screen-of-sorts to make a place area/school room...future office, and still have sufficient space for a proper foyer. You can see  other inspirational pictures on my Pinterest boards: https://www.pinterest.com/tinacwebb/

The Plans

Showing the plans might be a good idea, huh?
Yeppers, just dawned on me.

Here they go. Done by a friend of the family.

Meanwhile it's a cold morning for this part of the country. Not sure if the framers are going to start this morning after all. C'est la vie!

Countdown

Walk with us as we venture into our 4th and biggest home renovation. Years ago at our townhouse, we finished a basement, turning into a master bedroom suite. Then we moved to this house and put in a great room addition, finished the walk-out basement and renovated the kitchen. 

So why do more?

We are a family of eight and currently the youngest children, ages 4 and 2 share our bedroom...not cool! We put our house on the market 4 years ago when I was pregnant with the 4 year old, but well, our house never sold. This past January we decided to stay put and make this house work for a larger family.

Hopefully this renovation will be done by Christmas, but since I've watched my share of DIY and HGTV I know that anything can happen when it comes to timelines.


 I'll be posting design, decor and organization ideas. With daughters that love aesthetics as much as I do, and little boys that love to makes messes as much as I don't, it'll be an interesting juxtaposition of practicality and artistry. 

Monday, Day 3

Well....here we are Day 3.  Enjoy the pictures.  It's kind of cool looking at the progress they made yesterday.  By the way...for any local person in need of a builder/contractor.  We totally recommend John Martin....he's one of those rare on-time, excellence oriented contractors.  He's a builder too...does houses and office buildings and small jobs (like ours) in the off seasons.

Okay, enough of the marketing.  Granite ppl come today to measure.  Chris and I go to Sears to pick up the new dishwasher.  Maybe at least the plastic can come down surrounding the kitchen by the end of the day.

We still have to get an electrician in here...hope that is not too costly.  Gotta order my butcher block top for the island from Ikea too. (note to self). 

Who knows...perhaps next month we'll have a buyer?


Good bye 1976 cabinets.

I wonder if there is mouse poop back there.

Our kitchen/dining room/control center

I feel like doing an HGTV show

Ain't he cute. Drew at 10 1/2 months!

The little guys before reno.