The Entry

BEFORE

This is not a true 'before' because it doesn't show the parkay flooring or the blond colored paneling - with plastic shelves lining the walls. I believe I tore the shelves down within mere seconds of taking ownership of the house. The white walls are new drywall we installed. Also, you can see the old porch railing (wasn't original) before the wrap around porch was put in.

The parquet flooring was removed down to the tar paper, which you can see above. Then we got to thinkin' that perhaps there was another layer beneath the plywood. Hmmmm. We suspected that the room was probably a covered porch that got closed in at some point, so we really didn't know what we'd find.

Ta da! The classic porch gray paint confirmed our suspicions of this once being an outdoor porch. The entry is off from the living room so we painted the walls the same color and also matched the casement window to the large casement windows in the living room (all new Marvin windows). So the rooms although separate, blend well with each other.

Here is hubby (the cutie pie that he is) putting in the last of the base trim. You can see that the floors have been striped and refinished to match living room floors. Also, there's a new door (Simpson) and a new window (Marvin). The window has a great view of the mountains and countryside so it's a nice preview to the larger windows in the living room.

After...

I found this old Victorian hall tree on one of my excursions into the 'big' city. I was originally looking for something a bit more informal but it was such a good price and such a fine example of great Victorian craftsmanship, that we decided to get it. It's also pretty cool that you can look into the hall tree mirror and see the view that's outside the window.

The entry is nice and sunny thanks to a large picture window.

The Dining Room

BEFORE

This is my best before picture. Ignore 90% of this photo that is showing mostly the kitchen. The dining room starts at the orange carpeting and blond paneling which is just around the corner there. This is what it looked like when we bought the house. This room was an addition put on probably in the 70's or 80's. We actually think it was an old porch entry that they lengthened, therefore resulting in a long, narrow structure.

Here it is from the exterior. As you can see, there was a bay window at the end of the room which we referred to as the 'portal'. It's the submarine look that was all the rage in the early 1970's. On better days, we referred to it as the 'nook'. Nook I've learned is a quaint way to describe a very small room that serves of very little use.

Well, if you can believe it, we were actually going to keep this little appendage thinking that putting in a few new windows would make it feel bigger. But as it goes, it was rotten through and through so in the end it had to be torn down. The contractor in the above photo is holding a beam that mimicks where the new roofline will be with the new addition. The width of this room increased significantly.

This is the new structure going up. Minus the added cost, the up side was that we were getting a much larger dining room (translates into a nice size room that is very useful), completely transforming our eating experience.

The expansion also allowed room for large french doors (I'll show in later post) that open out into an outdoor patio/courtyard (which is still being built). We also put in another set of french doors separating the dining room from the kitchen. Although we have them flanked open most of the time, it really gives it a nice separate but connected feel.

After...

This isn't a complete 'after'...more photos to follow. The fir floors are new and stained to match original fir floors which start at the threshold. The table and chairs were my Great Great Grandparent's dining set. The table is 55 x55 and wouldn't have fit in the original structure - so that was an added bonus. When you're going through the expense (especially unexpected expenses) of renovating a house, I've learned that it is important to remind oneself of these 'bonuses.' : )

Here it is with new chandelier. More photos to follow...

PHOTO UPDATES AS OF SEPTEMBER 2010

You can go HERE to read the post that goes with these latest 'after' photos.

Go here to see more of the outdoor dining patio.

The Kitchen

Before.....

Horribly overexposed before photo.

Where the dishwasher on wheels use to be.

Looking from living room with view of old overhead cabinets.

Looking towards old dining nook.

Although we knew we would be remodeling the kitchen at some point, we were thinking that we could live in it 'as is' for awhile. So how does one go from the 'as is' status to a full blown gutting? Well, it all began with the stove. The original owners accidentally removed the stove that was there so I began to look for a cheap temporary stove. Well, we started thinking that if we're going to spend $200 on a cheap stove, we might as well spend a bit more for a permanent one. We took that rationale with about everything that followed and so it goes, we ended up gutting the kitchen on one lazy summer afternoon.

Holes from electrician and plumber.

Taking up flooring.

As a note for safety, I would like to add that we sent out samples of all of our flooring. We were lucky in that the layers of linoleum were all asbestos-free BUT some linoleum squares used to line the cabinets, did test positive and were removed using extra precautions.

After peeling away several layers of flooring, hubby discovered the original fir floors - never used, although did sustain thousands of staples from flooring above it. Once the cabinets were out (donated to our local Re-Build It Center), the electrician came, creating huge holes in the original plaster so we used dry wall to patch holes and then re-plastered the walls.

We hired a cabinetmaker just up the road to build our cabinets. It was important to us for the cabinets to be free from the chemicals used in most modern cabinetry. We also wanted to recreate a nice old country kitchen that would allow for some more modern conveniences (dishwasher, stove, etc. )

The cabinets are inset (like the original cabinets were) and mimic the Shaker paneling of the built-in pie safe we chose to save and use as a pantry. It took forever to paint all of the cabinets.

This is the interior of the old pie safe, which I've since learned is an old California Cooler. See bottom link for more on that. We didn't touch the old interior shelving. All they needed was to be wiped down with a damp sponge. 

Go here to read about the old pie safe (California Cooler). 

We ended up finding some great butcher block from IKEA which was only $80 for one long slab. We needed three, so we ended up spending about $240 on our counter materials - great deal. We bought food safe stain from the Environmental Supply Store to bring out a nice rich hue in the wood. The product we used was by Safecoat, the color we chose was cedar. 

After...

Photo updates: 2010

Note: This was all completed the first year we owned the house (minus the Marvin window). It was several months later, after we hired the contractor for Phase II of our remodel, that an engineer arrived on site to establish our structural support needs for the the new dormer upstairs. A real sweet old-school engineer from the Midwest showed up (adorable man) and during our first round of talks, suggested that we carry the dormer load on a support post that would run from the upstairs, through my brand new 'old-fashioned' kitchen, and down into the basement.

This was a blow as you can imagine. So when I turned to him and said, "there must be another way, I don't want to run a "large beam through my kitchen," he responded with an innocent query as to whether we'd be "updating" it soon anyway. At first I was offended as obviously (or not), we just did that! They found another way to support the dormer, and in the end we decided that it was a complement as we apparently had pulled off our goal of making the kitchen look original!