Merry Christmas 2017!!

I remember posting a picture of our renovation house Christmas tree last year...it was taken from the outside.  This year I decided to capture it from the inside.  Cozy:)

Things really got done on all aspects of the house this week which is good because, for the most part, next week will be a time of rest.  Steve concentrated on getting the downstairs bathroom completely installed.  Success!  The shower is tiled, the floor is in, the sink and toilet are set and functioning, and the molding around the window and all along the floor is gorgeous.  Mark installed my crazy light fixture which came all the way from China, and I added my little touches this evening and voila, we have a beautiful room.  Just waiting on the sliding barn door which Steve will make and hang once the hardware I ordered comes in.

Matt sent me to Utica almost every day this week to pick up more ceiling white, primer, and several more gallons of my colors for touch-ups.  It felt like old home week at Urbaniks whenever I walked through the doors!  All the rooms now have 2 coats of color and the 3 rooms that will be wallpapered each have a coat of tinted primer so that if at any time in the future the paper separates, the color will show through the cracks...not white.  Here is a sneak peek of some of my bolder color choices.

coral in the formal parlor

pink in one of the guest rooms

blue on 2 walls of the master bedroom

red on 2 walls of the guest bathroom "Mondrian" style

Last night Joel and I ordered 1770 square feet of interlocking Bamboo flooring for the entire 

downstairs.  It will be delivered in 2 weeks and needs to cure for 2 weeks which definitely fits into our time frame.  We will be able to salvage the original hardwood floors in the 3 upstairs front rooms and hallway with the help of Brian, the wonderful man who refurbished the floors in our Arsenal House project years ago.  The rest of the upstairs will be carpeted and tiled.

Joel and I wish all our family and friends a very blessed Holiday!!

Bring on the Color!

The moment I have been waiting for has finally arrived!!  After 6 trips to the paint store in Utica, accompanied by my parents, Joel, and sometimes the dogs, I have gotten all the primer, ceiling white, AND color paints up to the house and Matt has finished the downstairs bathroom (cotton tail white) and the first coat of gray on the kitchen walls!  I am beyond excited to see how the rest of the rooms turn out as each will be a distinctly different and bold hue.  Check out the cute little temporary sink that Matt is using to clean his painting supplies.

Steve has just finished tiling the downstairs bathroom's shower a subway white and is in the process of laying the rustic wood-grain tile on the floor.  We should have a working bathroom by early next week:)

Dennis did an amazing job of rebuilding the Den mantle piece which had been charred by that long ago fire.  In addition to shoring up the original wood, he had to create a new box-like structure to transition the mantle to the walls.

Last but not least, the other exciting thing that happened this week was that Steve installed the transom windows in the garage.  I think they look great!

My apologies for the delay between posts...

There is no excuse other than life has been extremely busy lately.  But, moving forward, there is a lot to report on regarding house and garage progress!

Steve has brought in 2 brothers to get the garage ready for winter while he continues to work inside to get us one working bathroom and all the sub floors ready for hardwood and tiles.  The garage roof is on and some doors and windows are already in place.  Joel is ordering the garage doors next week and Steve has the transom windows for above the doors on order as well.  I have always wished for a house with transom windows.  At some point we thought we could put one over the front door, but being such an old house the ceilings and beams were too low.  So, Joel came up with the cool idea of transoms in the garage.  I am very excited!  Matt is almost done with the third go-round of mudding and sanding, and I just went to get him a 5 gallon tub of primer so we should be on our way with wall colors soon.  Meanwhile, Joel worked on 2 big jobs last weekend.  He stained the back stair risers and treads and finished staining the ship lap boards for the Rustic Room ceiling which he then installed, much to the chagrin of his neck muscles:(  Here are some photos of all of the above.