FINALLY we have bar seating!

I searched for months on end for bar stools that were in our price range, would be comfortable and would work with my overall design aspiration for our lower level bar area.  I stalked craiglist for months, but the options there were either too expensive for something used, they didn't have enough (we needed 3-4 stools) or they were just plain ugly!  So, the hunt continued for quite a while. 

While out on a recent shopping run, I came across a bar stool I thought might work.  At first, I thought about purchasing the slate gray color.  After contemplating the purchase and going home, I realized the blue would work much better.  I showed Frank to make sure he was on board with the purchase, and he approved.  So that's what we went with, and here are a few photos for you!

From the bigger open space looking towards the bar area.

Standing in the bar area, looking down the seating row.

 P.S. - don't mind the mess in the background.  Those are the stool boxes and the stairway is tarped and taped because of the construction upstairs.

Windowwwwwwws!

The windows are here! AND they're now all installed!! The crew's been installing this week, and since it took me so long to get to writing this post they're now all installed.  We're so excited!  The delivery came at the very end of May.  Frank and I were very busy the last few weekends though, with my half marathon, and traveling up to NJ.  Here's a glance at what the delivery looked like when the windows arrived...

Truck Delivery for the windows and sliding/glass doors!

Stack-o-sliders

Stack-o-windows

Once they all arrived, we had to wait for the window sills to arrive.  Frank and I went with a limestone will, to compliment a few other limestone installations we already had in the house (fireplace, mantle, etc.).  Once those arrived, it was time to install. 

Day 1: The crew installed the two master bathroom windows, and the side breakfast nook/patio door.

Window in mater bathroom from inside.

Side of the house - window in master bathroom from the outside, minus trim at this point.

Exterior view of the new patio/breakfast nook door!

Day 2: The crew moved on to installing the kid's bedroom windows, the breakfast nook back window, and the big front living room window -- that one was a beast!

Kid's bedroom - interior view of windows.

Exterior (front of house) view with two kid's bedroom windows in (far left and middle) and master bathroom window at the far right installed, minus trim.

Breakfast nook area - interior view of patio door and window.

Exterior view - living room "beast" window.

 Day 3: The crew opened up the new window between the kitchen and dining room, installed that new window and installed the dining room window and master bedroom window.

Back of house exterior - you can see where the new window opening is starting to take shape.

Here is the new window all opened up, and the dining room window in the back with the crew.

Interior view from the kitchen - breakfast nook window on the left and new window at the right of this photo.

Interior view from the dining room - new window on the left and dining room window on the right.

Interior view from the breakfast nook - all three windows (new on in the middle).

Day 4: The mancave window went in, as well as the mudroom sliding glass door, and the master bedroom sliding glass door! That's it for getting the windows in place!!

I came home to this! Standing in the breezeway, looking at new slider into mudroom.

Interior view standing in kitchen/living room - mudroom slider and breakfast nook patio door.

Exterior view - master bedroom slider.

View from the back of the house (prior to mancave window install).

So there you have it!  The windows and glass doors are in!  The interior doors arrived this week, along with a few other fixtures.  Things are really moving along here.  Next up, trimming all the windows and moving on to more of the finishing -- installing hardwoods, touch-ups and painting, etc.  Things are looking good for our July finish!

Houston, we have Flooring!

Things are in full swing at the home front, and our most recent check off the list was the flooring in our downstairs bar area!  You may recall that when we moved in, the bar area looked like this...

I must say, I kinda miss that minty green brick - NOT! Although this isn't the best picture of it, you can see how the floor behind the bar looked per-renovation. Also notice that pre-reno there was carpeting on the side of the bar where the stools would go.  In our opinion that's a big no-no if you ever really want to use that bar.  Between the stools being shaky on carpet, and the possibility of red wine or drinks spilling onto cream carpet, we both agree that whoever thought that up must not have had any friends to invite over for a party!

I recently posted a bar update, and we showed you the demo work that was taking place by the bar...
  

The second picture shows you what the floor looked like behind the bar after we removed the old tile and before the new flooring went down.  So now let's get to the good part of this post - the new flooring!  Here are a few pictures of how it turned out...

View from behind the bar (same as above pre-reno pic).

The tile runs into our storage closet as well.

A view looking out from the back of the bar - of course Tyson wanted to get in on the action too!

View of the outside of the bar area - where stools will go!

Standing in living space looking towards the bar.

The whole thing!

We love how it turned out!! It looks even better than we thought it might.  The wood-look tile was the perfect choice for this space.  We're planning to also use the same tile along our backdoor in this same room.  Honestly, we're so thrilled with this tile that is might just wind up going in another room or two down the road... we'll see.

Although we don't have any pictures to share just yet, we did put in the order for our bar counter top.  Hopefully in the next few weeks I'll be able to snap a few pics and post those for you to check out as well.  There's still a lot to do to this space before we can deem it "finished," but we're happy with the progress so far. 

That's it for now!

Bar update...

Not much of an update with the bar really, but a few things have happened. 

1. We ripped up the old tile floor - what a mess that was!
2. We demolished the old counter top - also a big mess!
3. We had the new stainless steel back splash installed around the cook-top - YAY!
4. We ordered the new tile & will be order the new counter very soon... so hopefully we'll be back in working order before we know it!

Here are a few pictures of the changes...

We've since taken down those boards holding up the stainless while it set.  I'll save the full view for the mid-way reveal once the flooring and counter top are in!  So for now, you'll just have to wait. :)

Man Cave Update!

The Man Cave is still coming right along... Since the last post, we've insulated the room, and also put up the studs for the wall framing.  Here's a look:

We also have the closets framed up.  So now I can go and plan out the closet organizers! FUN!!

We plan to order new closet doors that will be like french doors - so we'll add those after we drywall.  Speaking of drywall, that's soon on the list.  We need to finish up a few things that go through the man cave ceiling up through the kitchen floor still.  Once those things are done, we'll be able to close the walls up in the man cave!  We are also planning to put a rug in here as flooring.  Still have to pick that out as well. 

More updates to come soon hopefully!

Now that's what you call an "Open Floor Plan!"

This past week was a great one for renovation progress at the house! One big thing that we were able to accomplish was cutting in the mudroom for our side entry.  The mudroom will be sunken below the rest of the main level by a few inches, and will be a tiled space.  We'll have some cubbies and hooks to hang coats, and places for shoes and mail too.  Since the side door is the main way that Frank and I enter, this will be where we put our things mainly as we enter and leave.  Since the mudroom is sunken, we had to do some work down in the man cave as well -- so framing started down there.  Here are a few pictures of how this all went down...

Mudroom cut-in, view from upper level - living room looking back.

 

Mudroom cut-in, view from lower level/man cave.

Sub-floor put into mudroom sunken floor.

Supports and sub-floor installed (from man cave).

Sub-floor installed, another view from top.

Mapping out where things will go with tape, haha!

That's it for now.. check back again soon!

Man Cave Progress

Not too much that you can see happened since my last post in our temporary master/second master in the future/Man Cave, but I figured I'd post a few pics anyway.  The carpet is now up, and all the tack strips are out.  Electrical work has begun, but is not yet finished.  We're also working on wiring a few walls so they're cable ready.  It's coming along though...

View standing towards front of the house, looking out towards the back.

Opposite view, standing at the back of the house looking towards the front.

Of course Tyson wanted to get in the mix too!  Apparently all this demo and renovating makes him hungry (he's licking his chops in the second picture, haha).

We'll be adding in some insulation and re-framing all of the walls next. Electrical work and wiring also continues.  So, things are moving along here too!

Temporary Pantry Installed!

Since we'll be using our bar area as our "kitchen" while we work on renovating the real kitchen upstairs on the main level, we decided that we'd need some extra room to store things.  So, my handy husband and I installed our temporary pantry!  Eventually we'd like to install more permanent shelving in there, change out the floor tile when we change the rest of the bar floor tile so it matches, and paint the walls a fun color.  For now, this is perfect though!  Here's a photo, minus the food and dishes...

We've since stocked it full with food and our dishes, but I forgot to grab a picture of that.  We're very happy with the extra, hidden storage though and all is working out great so far here!

The Bat Cave... I mean, Man Cave

Demo at the Prihoda residence has begun!  Right before heading up to NJ for Christmas, we started tearing down walls. Our demo started downstairs, which allowed us to do a few last things that would make the lower level fully liveable for a few months while we totally renovated the upper/main level. 

We had to tackle the back two rooms first (lower level) so that we could also accomodate the new mudroom we're adding for our side entrance (where we enter from the garage upstairs). We'll need to add in some in-floor support, so tearing down the ceiling in the lower level rooms was the best way to do that at this point.

While tearing down the back two rooms, we discussed plans of what we wanted to do with the space. When we first finish this newly expanded room, we're going to move in and make it our (2nd) temporary master bedroom.  There's also a bathroom attached, and we're planning to hopefully tackle at the same time.  This way, we'll have a nice clean suite to escape to from all the work that will be underway upstairs. 

Once the upstairs renovations are finished and we move into our real master bedroom, we're planning to make that back room downstairs a "man cave" for the man of the house -- Tyson! Haha, no I'm just kidding.  It will be Frank's man cave of course!  We have decided exactly what will go in there furniture wise just yet, but we'll defintely include a TV and possibly a pull-out couch for extra guests (in additional to a traditional guest room).

It's exciting to see progress in the renovation! Things are really coming along... here are some photos from the demo in the back two rooms (so far)...

Lots of drywall coming down in there!

Drywall aftermath.

More progress! We made it down to the cinderblock and cleaned up that big mess...

Ceiling is out now too... just about done with demo in here.

Once we take up the carpet we'll be just about finished with demo in here.  Then we'll move onto rewiring, replacing the window (to a more energy efficient one), replacing the flooring, dry locking the cinder, adding back walls, painting and decorating!  I'll keep you posted as this room evolves, but so far, so good in here!

Wash, Dry, Repeat

Recently we found a steal of a deal on a few appliances! Along with some things for the bar, we purchased a new washer and dryer. Since we'd been pretty busy, there wasn't much time left to install them. Luckily, last weekend was the day! Here's a look at what we had in place before:

Nothing wrong with them, just couldn't pass up the deal we found.  However, the white set is for sale now! So anyone who's interested please let us know.

And now for the reveal of our new duo...



Of course Tyson wanted to get in on the reveal action!  He loves hanging out in the laundry room while I fold clothes.  Such a good helper her is. 

The new set is great!  It's very energy efficient and washes and dries in less time than before.  Additionally, there's a ton of space inside to fill.  Check out the washer ...

... nothing sticking up in the middle means lot smore room!  Another fun thing about the set is that when the cycle is done, a pretty song plays to let you know.  Since we're not used to it just yet, we always think it's so funny when it starts to play. 

I have lots of plans for this room as we start working more on the lower level transformation, but for now I'm happy with the new washer/dryer set!