Sunday, October 31, 2010

The Never Ending Floor Refinishing...

After two weeks, and 5 coats of polyurethane, I am ready to live with a few imperfections! I'm not sure how Ryan will go on this one, I left it up to him to call the poor guy to come and fix the few blemishes that are still in the floor. I was so stressed over what stain to pick - our color in San Antonio was so dark that it showed every footprint, every speck of dust - it was a nightmare, especially the 163 times I cleaned it while our house was on the market. So here, I wanted a dark medium. I picked Rosewood by Minwax. I am very happy with how it turned out. These are just the pics of the stairs and the hallway. I will post more pics of the kitchen refinish when I get it painted and all my furniture back in there!






 

Monday, October 25, 2010

The Wood is Here!!!....





not finished yet, but here!
Last week it took them over 20 hours to take out the tile in our entry way that apparently the last residents wanted to stay in the house forevermore. I felt sorry for the guy, but so glad it wasn't me!
It looks like tomorrow or Wednesday they might finally be finished with the new floor, refinished floor, and refinished stairs (minus the nasty carpet runner that matched nothing else in the house.) Today they did finally put my stove and refrigerator back into working order, guess that means an end to - "oh no, I guess we have to eat out..." Claire will be glad to have my kitchen table  her tent out of the playroom, but she did enjoy the brief hotel stay with a pool that had water as warm as bathwater.

Monday, October 18, 2010

Is it still DIY if your Father-In-Law does it for you?

At our house this week we had our own version of "While You Were Out". While I was gone on my most relaxing trip to Florida with mom and sis, my husband and in-laws were hard at work here. They wouldn't send me a peek, they made me wait for the big reveal moment when I got home, and it was so amazing!!

Here is the room when we looked at the house, previous owners furnishings included:
(The cutie pie on the couch was included in the sale.)

Here it is empty:
(Hard to tell from the pics that the ceiling panels are painted alternating colors of green, a purply cranberry, and beige - eww!)

Here is is before I left:
(Notice the presence of the weird little kneewall that really serves no purpose except to close up this lovely room.)

And here is what I came home to:


Isn't she lovely!? Not nearly complete - but oh so lovely! My tall hubby still need to finish painting the ceiling and beams, and new furniture and furnitire arrangement are in this rooms future, for sure - but I LOVE the new built-ins. And all the white makes this room seem so light and lofty. I think my FIL logged over 80 hours working on these, a huge thanks to my MIL (the gopher,painter, and design consultant) and FIL!

Monday, October 4, 2010

Black Beauty

I had my eye on this black beauty at Pier 1 several months ago when I was still on buying restriction from the hub ( Why would you buy something just to have to move it across the country!? - Because it was on sale!!!) - they since put it on clearance and it was no where to be found. Last week I came across one that was beaten and battered and being used to display stuff. I asked ever so sweetly if they might consider selling it to me, and low and behold!, they had one new in a box. After finding out that it was apparently illegal in the Pier 1 hierarchy to sell it to me, I strong armed gently persuaded the sales lady to sell it to me, and now it is mine! All mine! Now on to finding some chairs....


Choice #1: Black and White Damask cloth, pretty but might make me cringe anytime we have company over for spaghetti, not that I often serve spaghetti to company, butcha' know what I mean.

Choice #2: More durable woven banana leaf.

Choice #3: Another more durable choice, might look like it will give you rope burn to sit down, but actually quite comfortable.


What do you think?

Liz