Mr. Handyman

Today was Labor Day but there was no time for rest.  We spent the morning cleaning the kitchen and bathroom and trying to get things ready before we move in.

Mike kicked off a new life of yard work with a little help from H & P's mower.  Thank you!

More to come later this week...

Day 8

We're getting there...  Here are few pics with the stain down.  They say it will darken up a bit when the last top coat goes on.  Two more days and we're done (with the floors)!

New Project: Fireplace

The fireplace has some real potential.  But, it needs a design overhaul. Our initial thoughts are to paint the shelves white, remove the mirrors, paint the back of the shelves a darker color, add some lighting and maybe paint the brick and mantal white (but not sure of that yet).

Here are the before pics:

Here are some inspiration pictures that we may use to redo this area:

Painted shelves with lighting

Photo from madamepumphrey's

A clean, white paint look

Photo from Architectural Digest

New Project: Dining Room Buffet/Bar

We love the built-ins in the dining room and we plan on storing china and other dinnerware in this space. We also want to put in a wine fridge on the lower level and transform this area into something more our style.

A few thoughts... The wood siding on the walls is not attractive and looks pretty dated. So, we are thinking of filling in the spaces with wood filler, sanding it down, adding some dimension and painting this area white. Below are the before pictures and some pictures that we are using for inspiration. This isn't first on the list of things to update but definitely in the top 5. We'll post more pictures as we get closer.

Now:

Inspiration:

Photo from materialgirlsblog.com

Photo from newlyweddiaries.blogspot.com

Day 4

We stopped by the house today to clear out debris in the yard left by the storm. We can't be the messy neighbors before we even more in. And of course, we took a peek at the progress on the floors. It looks like they'll finish up tomorrow and then start prepping for the stain!

Bar area

Dining room

Guest bedroom

Master bedroom

Day 3

Tropical Storm Irene has arrived. There is lots of rain and wind and the lights have flickered here and there. We are at our apartment and we are really hoping the house is not flooding. We are not sure of what the house can handle but we prepped the gutters as best we could. Fingers crossed!

Update: No trees down, just some branches and debris. There was some leaking in one of the basement windows but all in all, not bad! Plus, we kept power all day long. I'll take this for our first hurricane as home owners!

Day 2

We hired Robert Brown flooring to install the wood floors throughout the house except for the kitchen and bathroom. They showed up at 8:30 AM on Saturday and got right to work. Jay (from Robert Brown) recommended that we install unfinished wood and then have it stained. This will allow us to refinish the floors more often than pre-finished wood. Plus, pre-finished wood can be more expensive to refinish. We picked White Oak because it's durable and easily maintainable.

Master bedroom

Hallway

Living Room - Jay sampled 3 stain colors for us to choose from.

Living Room

We picked Dark Walnut for the stain. We wanted something dark but not too dark to show dust and scratches too easily.