Current State of Finished: Our Dining Room Renovation (continued)...

For those interested and following, we have continued to plug away at bringing our dining room to a state of completion.  It's been a longish process, considering we officially started working towards an end goal back in September of 2015, when we removed the large Buck Stove from the corner. From that point on, the room has been getting a little attention here and there and the progress has been slowly but surely moving forward.  All in all, the whole room probably would have taken a handful of months if we worked every weekend straight and didn't have small children to attend to.  But that's not our life;)  We are very lucky to have the blessings that we do have, and have learned so much in the process of priorities and doing what we can, with the time that we DO have.

Here are the links to all previous posts on the Dining Room renovation- for reference as to what the original dining room looked like and the process we have traveled to arrive at this.

Jan/Feb 2017

Jan/Feb 2016: Staining & Finishing Hardwood floors

Jan/ Feb 2016: Hardwood floor installation

Dec 2015: The Plan/ The beginning

The Antique Hutch

Current Projects: Dining Room Photo Progression

This past weekend we caulked, painted, hung crown moulding, installed shoe moulding....  And we finally cleaned things up.  The dining room table is no longer a work station, it's a place to eat again.  We unpacked a few boxes of photos and set them atop the picture shelf above the board and batten wainscot.  We moved the large, temporary bookcase over to where we will eventually be building in one of the floor to ceiling bookcases, as part of a window seat unit.  We mopped the floors.  And much to our joy, it looks like a dining room.  We've been admiring it every day... actually probably every time we pass through the room going up or down the stairs.  It really feels great to know that we did this!  It's amazing.

Check it out:

Our next project for the immediate future is figuring out what to do with the trap door.  We need to trim down to size, as the wood swelled during the summer.  We also need to figure out a handle situation.  

      

Here's a cool light fixture that we found at Lowe's.  Because our ceilings are abnormally low, we were limited to flush or semi-flush lighting (not my favorite).  There are so many amazing pendant lights out there that I would have loved to get, but we needed something that wouldn't be a hazard to people of normal heights:)  I love that it has both chicken wire and twine, with a rubbed oil bronze finish.  And it was super affordable. The chicken wire ties into the amazing Pottery Barn pendant light fixture that I have hanging over my kitchen sink.

This corner is the Laird's "Jungle Corner".  In our previous residence we dedicated our whole living room to be of the "Jungle Room" designation.  Unfortunately, in our home at Redwoodshire there isn't really a whole room fitting to be the "Jungle Room".  The "Jungle Room" in our old home was painted a bright jungle green.  The walls were covered with pictures and cool "gifts" we got on our travels to other places & countries.  Every time we went on a trip we would pick up a "souvenir" for the Jungle Room.  At Redwoodshire, we now have a Jungle Corner off of the dining room.  It's quite fitting that that portion of the room was covered with pine panels- something the Laird wanted to keep.  I got him to let me paint the areas surrounding the window white, in preparation for the eventual bookcase-window seat unit.  The pine paneled portion was very strange because it was only a portion of the room and ended at the wood stove.  It's hard to say the thought process as to why the previous owners who installed it this way did this, but then again there are a lot of details that make us wonder.  

This is a view from the Jungle Corner towards the dining area, and through to the kitchen.  The pictures up on the picture shelf are in temporary locations as we still have many more to unpack & organize.

This is a view from our kitchen doorway.  This shows Jungle Corner on the left & dining area on the right.  This is our current state of finished, but the intention for next winter is to finally build in 2 floor to ceiling bookcases surrounding the triple window area, with a window seat in between.  The bookcases will be about 26 inches wide (you can see where the white paint extends beyond the window on both sides.  The bench will serve as extra seating & storage, but I imagine will look amazingly cute.  That is a project for next year, so we will be able to dream up a design in the meantime.  We also need to unpack all of our framed pictures and figure out how to best fit them on the Jungle Corner walls.  That's a task for the near future.  For now they will hang out in their new home.

At Last! Progress on the Dining Room Renovation

Since last winter when we installed, stained and sealed oak hardwood floors, the dining room has been in a state of useable- unfinished.  Technically the dining room renovation began in the Fall of 2015 when we removed the wood stove.  Remember this?  Everything about this corner just made me cringe!  Though it's a process that is taking us the slow and steady route, I know we will be so grateful when it is all done.  It's so easy to forget what "was" the original dining room, because we get used to each stage and forget a few steps before we arrived at each current state.  Growing further removed from the original dining room- and I sure am grateful!

This is a photo after we had installed/ finished our hardwoods in January 2016.  

In the Fall of 2016, we were in our "unfinished" usable state.  And then on a warm day in October the mess began with demo- of the drywall and insulation.  Due to a few factors, it was worth it for us to replace the drywall.  We covered up the hole where the wood stove exited and saved ourselves repair of where the "rocks" were randomly stuck on the upper walls (for decoration?)

 A few weeks later the Laird installed new insulation and drywall- and that made a huge difference in not only the brightness of the room, but the overall "more finished" appearance.  We also installed a cool semi-flush chicken wire light fixture that fits our theme quite well.  More details photos to come as the room comes together.  I painted the pine panelling around the window with a stain block primer.  Eventually we will be building in floor to ceiling bookcases on both sides of the large window, with a window seat- storage bench between.  

Indoor projects in the month of January is becoming a tradition.  We picked back up with steady work towards completion, and are seeing everything come together quite beautifully.

A couple weekends ago, we primed the new drywall.  Primer made everything look AMAZING!  We've never seen so much white in this corner (remember the awful dark wood stove?!).  It makes the room a bit brighter, which helps with such short ceilings.  

 

Always nice to have a little helper for painting!  Last weekend we revisited "Board & Batten" installation.  We loved how much it improved our stair well, with such little cost and work- we've planned to continue the B&B around the dining room when the time came.  And that time came!  Because our house is anything but level/ normal due the the age (built 1890 & lots of settling of the foundation), we had to measure & level every single board. This involved back and forth to the saw, to make things fit just right.

The Laird did an amazing job!  I painted the upper wall in a light grey color.  We still have to paint the B&B and the pine paneling around the large window.  But this is where we're at right now.  We will be adding a "picture shelf" to the top rail.  There is still quite a bit left to do, but we are making progress that is encouraging.  It sounds like it will be some time before we take on the task of the built in book cases & window seat.  But for now, I am beyond encouraged to be realizing our finished dining room.  It's been a very slow process, and I have to admit that each winter is has discouraged me to see our limited progress.  But I have realized that you don't really remember the unfinished once it's done, and all the work, steps, time it took to get there- you simply just enjoy what it is.  And it's nice to know that very soon we will be able to finally unpack all of our books, photos & "jungle room" artifacts and call this our dining room.

Board & Batten Staircase- Part 1

I absolutely love wainscoting!  It adds so much to a room that may otherwise be plain and simple.  Don't get me wrong, I actually love simple.  I am not much for decorations, though I love how other people's houses are decorated.  I just don't "buy" decorations to outfit my own home.  Our decor consists of family photos & momentos and "souvenirs" that the Laird gets when we travel.  In our previous house, our living room was affectionately called "the Jungle Room".  Painted bright green, the Laird's dream was to have every inch of wall space covered with cool pieces from our travels.  Redwoodshire does not currently have a great place to designate as "the Jungle Room", though we have a corner of our dining room that will be designated as the "Jungle corner".  As our family grows, we do hope to add on to this house, in which case we will add a room/ den to be the real Jungle Room.  For now the "Jungle Corner" will do.  One reason I love the wainscoting is that it is a built in stand alone decoration- there's no need for more.  Though decorations always make things look even better.  

Back to wainscoting.  During our kitchen renovation, we installed a PVC wainscot back splash.  It turned out great.  After that experience, I discovered that "wainscoting" is a broad term covering many different styles- bead board.... board & batten...etc.  And of course, they are all beautiful.  It mad me want to do wainscoting throughout every room of my house! Unfortunately, wainscoting comes at a price- both monetarily and time.  Thankfully, the Laird also loves the look. 

Wainscot project #2: Board & Batten along the staircase

We had to finish trimming/ enclosing the ledge of the new stairwell, so this project fit into the job at hand.

When we bought Redwoodshire, the stairs were quite different.  Check out Farmhouse Stair Renovation Part 1  and Farmhouse Stair Renovation Part 2 for the whole story.  We love our new stairs- they completely functional (not too steep & narrow) and cute!  After installing Bead board Wainscoting as a back splash in our kitchen, I discovered there are many different styles of wainscot.  The Board & Batten looked fairly simple, yet it adds so much to visual appeal.  I thought of just the place to test it out- our stairs!

BEFORE:



















There are a number of ways to do Board and Batten.  Our method involves using the wall without adding a board.  

Materials include:  MDF 1 x 4 (for both the headers, footers, and battens), cove moulding, Liquid Nails, & nail gun

Tools included:  Compound miter saw, level, angle finder (not sure what it's called), pencil, nail gun


The Laird attached base and head boards first.  He used Liquid Nails & a nail gun to attach each board/ batten. Our battens are 15-16 inches apart.  Along one wall, there was already a built in ledge.  We added a shelf and trim to finish the ledge.




MID-PROJECT:

At the moment, the board & battens are all installed. The caulking process is underway.  And we have yet to finish the job with paint.   There is 1 final batten to install at the bottom of the stairs- unfortunately the thermostat is placed in such a way that we would have to cut around it to install that batten.  After brainstorming ideas to get around the thermostat, without making it look terrible, our friend, suggested simply moving the thermostat over an inch.  Genius!  He instilled confidence that this was a job the Laird would do easily.  Trimming the stair ledge was last weekend's project.  The Board & Batten was mostly done this weekend- minus painting.   Board & Batten Staircase- Part 2 will include that final batten installed and finishing paint!  

The angle at the base of the rising battens was a bit tricky, but after a few trials, the Laird figured out the trick (they are all the same angle).  Despite the mini-challenges and that we haven't finished the job yet, we absolutely love how much it has already added to our stairs.  We love it so much, that we plan to do it around our dining room when it comes time for that renovation.