Reveling in a Design Moment

Oh, I am SO happy. I must share this.

You may recall we've recently redone our house. Of course, there is decorating to do...which will undoubtedly last forever. For starters, this includes some relatively major kitchen decisions like cabinet hardware, backsplash and what to do with an entire blank wall across from the island. Oh, and stools for said island.

If you ever read this, you may have picked up that I am an Anthropologie junkie. I love their clothes, shoes, accessories...home stuff. Yes. Home stuff.

So...seeing as I get every catalog and email they generate, I clicked on the new email today and head through to the site. Well, whammo. I find our new kitchen cabinet hardware. ON SALE.

They are actually made of bone. Maybe that's a little crazy, but...whatever.

It fits all the criteria:

• Not boring.
• Not metal.
• Doesn't become the main focus of the kitchen.
• Haven't seen it before. I know...I have issues.

C bought in and we ordered 44 pieces. Score. Happy dance. No fingerprints on the cabinets anymore.

Renovation: Built, with Tyvek

Timeline: October 2007.

At this point it started to look like something that someone may actually live in again. The crazy thing was, we lived in it the whole time.

In this first photo to the right, you can see the roof is on, the Tyvek is on (boy, that Tyvek stayed on for a loooooong time). This is the angle that shows the entirely new space; there are two skylights intended for the first floor that aren't in place yet, and I like the way the roof angles around O's bedroom window.

This next photo shows the garage and front view of the new space (hey, and our old car!). Note how only a few of windows were punched out of the Tyvek. In case you didn't guess this already, this makes the house kind of dark inside.


Here's the side view...now officially evolving as our "front" yard as the new porch and front door space takes shape. Our deck is still attached to the back, and the chimney is not extended yet in this photo. But, you can see the change in roof angles from this elevation.

Inside, this is our living room/sunroom area that at this point, has been connected since the wall was knocked down. Our furniture is under the plastic sheet, and we've got more plastic between us and the elements. Thank goodness there weren't that many elements and we had temperate weather. The fireplace is to the right in the photo, also covered. Like our hanging electric? Yes...we had to keep a close eye on O.

This next one is taken of the space to the left of the sunroom area...soon to become part of our kitchen. At this point, we still had functioning appliances behind the wall to the left of the photo. You can see the new triple window and the new support beam across the broadened kitchen space.


This was when the outlook was rosy, we were still relatively on budget, and the tight living space hadn't started to wear on us yet. I'll try to spare the grisly details as they come up.

Renovation: Back Inside - Living in De-construction

Now. These photos are from October--I know, I know--but I'm catching up, aren't I? It's starting to cool down, but if you recall we had a rather temperate Fall around these parts.



First I'll give you a glimpse of how lovely our exterior looked once the majority of siding came down. Mmmm. House was built in 1945. Old. It should be mentioned that the second story to the above left is the master bedroom area, which was added in the early 90s.

The next three photos are: the family room (expanded and opened up to include the sunroom, which is where our old front door entered the house...do you see the cracks between the plywood?


...a wider shot of the now completely opened up sunroom area (our fireplace is to the right in this shot)....


And this little yellow room...what was that again?...oh yes, our KITCHEN. Still functioning. I think it was a rainy day when I took these. Cheery place to live, no? Ugh.


All I can think when I look back at this is, poor O. What a good, good sport he was.