The Dining Room

On the other end of the kitchen, in the north corner of the house, is our dining room. We textured the walls with a fresco look by applying a coat of mud to the surface, then 'dragging' it with a trowel, after which we painted the entire area (including the textured ceiling) with a light beige color (again, the "jumpin' jiminy") then ragged three different shades of brown ("umber", "burnt seinna" and 'hazelnut") over the top.
It really gives a nice old-world feel to the room, adding some interest to the small space (10x14), while providing a neutral backdrop.

Next is the veiw into the dining room from the living room (facing the west wall).
The kitchen entryway would be just off to your left....





As, you can see, we have an ecclectic mix of old American tastes,and luckily, we both share that affinity. Our dining room table was not in *that* shape when we acquired it; Thankfully, Billy has an exceptional talent for furniture repair/restoration, so we repaired it, stripped it, stained it, waxed it, and now we both love it!! (that was one of our first projects we did together, and still one of my favorite pieces)
The chairs (we have six) were acquired seperately, but they are also of oak, and of the same time-frame. I reupholstered the chair chair seats with a reminent bolt of fabric I liked, on sale at Jo-Ann's.

The drop-leaf table in the corner is yet another estate sale find (working there had its advantages, too) And the "bar" in the opposite corner is actually a mahogany sheet-music chest that we picked up at a yard sale.




And, this is the wall where my built-in shelves will be (eastern wall, facing into the living room). As you can see, Billy has finished the framing for them, but they are an "In Process" project. We are planning four open shelves on both sides, as well as an enclosed shelf on the bottom with tin-faced door fronts.



And, finally, just a pic of the clock I am making to hang in here; when I finally break down and purchase the clock workings, that is.

Bathroom

SO, if you enter the hallway from the kitchen, Diagonally across the hall lies our only bathroom. Because its rather small,and also because of its proximity to the kitchen, we have used a similar color scheme throughout both rooms, but where we accented the cobalt blue in the kitchen, We've highlighted the hunter green in the bath, instead.


We've used the same floor tile,
as well as the threshold border tiles,
And, we added the ceiling beadboard and natural wood trim to the door and window frames in both spaces also.

ALthough we've left much of the wood stained only with golden-oak, including the chairrail and towelbars, we chose to pickle the beadboard on the lower half of the walls with a wash of green paint (Ralph Lauren, "polo green") prior to staining.

I used the same green paint for the sink cabinet, the interior door, and the linen closet wall, as well.

Because the tub,sink and toilet are white, we've opted to leave the linen closet shutter-door, and the interior window shutters white also (along with the window sash), and the sink fixtures have white porcilain handles that read hot and cold. (the handles of the kitchen sink fixture are also white porcelain)

The top half of the walls were wallpapered with paintable, textured paper, and then painted a nuetral color to blend in ("Jumpin' Jiminy" by Do-it-Yourself)

The shower curtain and the wallpaper border are what incorporate all the colors into the room, (green, maroon, blue,purple, beige, black and gold ~ yeah, I know it 'sounds'like alot in that space, but in reality, its not at all overpowering) along with the hand-crafted sealife metalworks made in Mexico and purchased at the Old-World Pottery Shop in St. Augustine.
(Aren't they just too kewl?! ~ I *especially* love my seahorse)

The dried flower arrangements, both the one on the floor and also that on the shelf above the commode, also help to tie all that color together.

And, so...looking in from the hallway, facing south from the front of the house, looking into it ~






~there's our bathroom; all 11 ft by 8ft of it. (Those dimensions are deceiving, however, because if you deduct the space for the tub and linen closet, its more like 8x5)

And, finally, a shot looking out into the hallway, and again, you can see thru to the kitchen. (You can also see that we haven't stained the interior doorframe in the bathroom yet, either!)

Shhh...but, I also want to remove the tub altogether and tile in a walk-in shower in that same space....another project for another day....

Kitchen

Since we started with the kitchen when we moved in (and it's *still* not finished), I thought I'd start there, here, as well.

As I mentioned, the first thing we did upon purchasing the house, was to gut the kitchen. Unfortunately, I don't have access to those photos currently, but when I do I will upload those at a future date. The previous owners had painted everything - walls & cabinets - flamingo pink. The cabinets were constructed of plywood, the countertop was a molded laminated pressedboard (also, painted pink), and the floor was a laminate ; white with pink flowers. That all had to go! We started from the ground, up; replacing the subfloor, and adding ceramic tile (12x12; Sand Slate) on the floor in a running bond pattern, and added a tile threshold to both interior doorways.


Billy custom built all the cabinetry, made from aged pine, wood which we purchased from a storage room at an estate sale Billy worked. Then we added a 4x4 tile (cobalt blue) & grout countertop and backsplash (2x2; dusty rose), a double stainless steel sink, and a gooseneck faucet (which I LOVE!)

We've added a shelf above the window & upper cabinet (which, you no doubt notice is missing doors. I am waiting to find some small, authentic plantation shutters to modify for that project, so in the mean time, they remain open shelving) We've also covered the ceiling in a golden oak-stained wainscoat & applied crown molding & finials to the corners.

We decided to paint the walls a neutral beige color (semi-gloss, enamel; Do-it-Best/ "Jumpin' Jimminy") that matched the lighter tone in the tile, as well as the beige in the border (watercolor tile print) that we chose.
As you can see, that made the room very...blah.




So; this past week I have spent in the throws of what it means to wallpaper a room. Remove all the pictures and paraphernalia stashed on those shelves. Remove the shelf. Remove painted doorframes. wash down walls, hang paper (make *extraa* sure the pattern is going in the right direction!) WITHOUT having to remove the border, which I intended to incorporate. AND...do allll of this in N.Florida's hottest week of the year! Ah...well,I survived.And, the room is coming along very nicely, if I do say so myself. But, since I'm not completely finished, I haven't taken any snapshots yet, but I will do that in the next day or two, and update this post at that time.
Until then, a pic of the pattern (vinyl, prepasted; 3 dbl rls; Village/ 587250):

9/2 Update: And, the (almost) finished project:

This first pic is the eastern wall, taken facing south from the dining room doorway.The second one is the southern wall, from the same spot. Yeah; we still need two doorframes and baseboards, but hey! Its coming along!!) The doorway on the left leads to the hallway, which runs the length of the house. The door on the right is the exterior door to the sideyard. (Isn't my little shelf cute?)

And, of course, this is from the hallway, facing the dining room.

(I just love my little plaques I picked up at BigLots...they go well, don'cha think?!)

I'm creating this blog, as a record for our home and property renovations.
We've been here 8 yrs.,purchased September 22. 1997. Built in 1944, and moved to this property in the 70's; 3 bedroom, 1 bath, single-family, framed structure, single level, corner lot. As we have done some renovation since the purchase, I can't provide for before/after shots of work already done - but that's okay...it's not much!! Mostly some basic structural repairs, we have replaced the floor in the kitchen (from the joists thru the subflooring, to the ceramic tile on top) and have 90% of the bathroom finished. We have also textured the walls in the dining room and have done some painting here and there. The house was empty for several years before the purchase, so there is ALOT of work to be done. We are doing 100% of the renovations ourselves, so it is slow going, but well worth the time & effort...a sense of accomplishment and pride (as well as the $$ saved on contractors) propels us slowly forward.

The plan for this blog: to create a space where I can SEE the ever-so-slow progress we are achieving. I expect it to consist of mostly photos, some explanation of what we have done, and perhaps the material costs. I also intend to add yard and garden progress as well.

So....until next time....