Shaping Up

Drywall walls are up and ready for the mudding and taping and sanding. Messy and dusty and messy some more. And wall patches have been placed in areas where big holes had to be made for rerouting electrical.

I had the plans altered to change this section from a full wall to having a partial cutout, so happy I did. The next phase of the reno will include opening this back wall and letting in light from the patio doors in the kitchen so this partial cutout will help bring in more light.

 

The future door of my home office, don't let the dungeon prison-tres chic vibe confuse you.

Standing in the dining room looking into the living room and very messy kitchen!

To be ready for this point, Kevin and I had to remove all the vintage grasscloth wallpaper on the long wall from the foyer to the dining room, sand it down and prime the walls so the drywall patches would take to the wall. We were always planning on removing this old wallpaper and replacing it with something updated but we didn't anticipate jumping to this step this fast. So now to add to my checklist is picking new wallpaper and finding a pro to hang it. (If anyone knows a good business or person who hangs paper at a reasonable price, let me know because there is no way I am going to attempt this myself!)

Progress is at a crawl but we hope it picks up pace soon

Not a lot of visible progress has happened lately that anyone would really want to see but we have gotten recessed lighting put in (3 along the back wall, 3 along the fireplace wall, 2 above the stairwell and one at the bottom of the stairs.
AND we had the hideous old ceiling fan that was in the middle of the living room torn out and hauled out to pasture.

After some delays, we had our rough inspection today and <drum roll> WE PASSED!
So the next step is drywall and some other plaster repair.

We did end up having to select a new flooring color so as long as that gets shipped in time, we should be back on track soon and hopefully I'll have more exciting photos to share by then!

PROGRESS!!

 Once the carpet is torn out, we plan to have Trillium Strand Bamboo Flooring put in. Strand is harder and stronger than traditional Bamboo Flooring. Sadly our flooring came in and its not what the sample looks like so <fingers crossed> we get what we picked soon, which is this streaked Exotic Walnut shade.

The red line is where our stairs will be. EEK!!

 Since we were tearing out the carpet and the room was empty, I figured why not spray all my ceilings white now without worrying about anything important getting hit by my handy 'first time using a sprayer' work... and Chairman Bob approves!

 going...

going...

Gone!

This is our Family Room, or otherwise known Acme Furniture Storage

Our foyer with its original slate flooring that we love and wanted to keep.

View in the living room where stairs will be

it's a hole!

yes, it is most certainly a hole!

we will have a half wall railing on the right and straight ahead is a partial wall 6'8" wall and behind that will eventually be another way into our kitchen and view of our patio doors to the backyard.

Memory Lane - Before the chaos

Now that this renovation is finally underway, I feel I can post some progression of before pictures. Now seeing these myself, the phrase "it's going to get worse before it gets better" was probably coined by someone who was going through a remodel lol.

Don't be jealous of my sweet carpet folks cause it's going bye-bye

but you can be jealous of my sweet cat!

And so it begins...

Hi!
Welcome to my blog. My husband and I are lovers of all things Mid-Century Modern so it was only fitting that we bought a 1955 MCM Atomic Ranch home. In this life my husband and I are both Graphic Designers but in another life I am sure I was an Interior Decorator/Designer because it is my second passion so I knew I wanted a real project house when we went looking for our next home... and we got one! This puppy needs love in every inch of the place so I am going to document this journey. :)

Sure, I wish I lived on the set of Mad Men from time-to-time and not a day goes by that I don't kick myself when I think of all the amazing retro treasures my grandparents owned back in the day that I had no idea I would come to love so dearly today and wish I had in my possession BUT with that said, as my husband and I remodel this house we don't want to walk into a time warp, we want a contemporary home that is infused with a lot of vintage awesomeness.

The ink is now dry on the renovation contract with a remodel company and we are about to begin our first big phase of our remodel. Currently, the only way to get into our basement is through our garage... (Yeah, we aren't too keen on it either.) So we will be adding an open concept staircase down to our lower level as well as new hardwood flooring through out the first floor and then finish off the basement ourselves to include my home office, a laundry room, a workout area, half bath and my husband's bar.

Let the games begin! I'll start posting before and afters as we go!!