Silk Purse: Part 2

So, where were we? Ah, yes.... here....

Its quite a mess. It's a room in transition... and hopefully moving on towards a new, improved look! It can't get any worse... right?

The painters have now started to apply colour and based it on the new cabinet layout, they needn't paint everything. Just where it will actually show. So that should explain the apparent 'hit and miss' paint job! There are some small patches going on as the electrician made new holes to fish more wires to where they need to go.

So now that the really messy work is done, my hubby and carpenter Tom can work on the new floor. It took two days to complete as its a lot of banging and tapping hardwood boards into place. We have officially stopped removing things and now replacing them!

Some weeks ago the carpet was raised and the two men 'floated' a mudding compound in the low spots to level the floor. There had been some settling near the wall that is shared by the living room fireplace. This particular weekend they first laid a layer of cushioning underlayment (that also acts as a vapour barrier) and secured it to the old floor We had 20 cases of an engineered hardwood called 'imperial walnut' and at the end we had two full cases to take back to the store. Its nice when you can actually get a refund while doing work like this for a change.

The hardwood looks rich and the colour changes depending on the light and time of day. All we could go on at purchase time was the sample suspended on the flooring display and the small sample we bought and brought home. It was a rich golden brown. Since the flooring was going from kitchen and across to the dining room opposite, and with lots of light sources for the rooms, we thought we could take the darker colour!

With these two pictures above you can clearly see an interesting development ... the floor has a rich red undertone. Now I'm very happy that I changed the wall colour from my lighter shade to a bolder colour called 'Brandon Beige'. The floor colour would be a challenge for anything lighter!

So then on Monday morning Tom started to bring in the bases for the cabinets and lay them out on the floor.

Then by Wednesday, the room looked like this! After nothing in the room, it strangely felt crowded :)

The cabinets are all made from plywood with a varnished finish. All the European drawer slides are in place. Apparently Tom has been busy building all this in January before I had even packed a box! The room was filled with the smell of fresh wood, along with a touch of fresh paint. We also had a week of dry sunny weather while all this hardware was being carried in which was really nice.

The white bundles in the picture are the drawer and door fronts... we're getting closer!

This is the new centre island in place. We can now access the kitchen from two points now instead of the 'U' trap we had before. Doing anything in the old kitchen meant a dance behind the counters!

Just before we leave the kitchen this time, take note of the piles of doors and draw fronts all ready to go on next! If I was having to get up at stupid early hours, then at least there was something to look forward to now :)

Now as I mentioned in my last post, I had been hiding downstairs but since a ceiling repair in my studio was on the to-do list, I now had to clear half the room. A bit of back story: when we moved in and settling in, we had the ceilings in the house painted (amongst other things!) The painting was going well until we reached the far wall where the wood stove sits. On either side of the stove, two entire large sheets of drywall had been installed in the ceiling 30 years ago and had not been painted with primer. There was no bond between the stippling and drywall so when the wet paint went on, all the stippling fell down. Literally, fell down! So I had two large bald spots above my head for the past two years. They were about to be repaired...

Keith literally made a bubble room: walls, floor ... everything was sealed off. This meant all my sewing tables, warping board area and even some yarns stash had to be shifted over and clear the space. There literally isn't one room in my home that isn't upside down and looking like a thorough search has happened!

They would be working within 4 to 6 inches of my stash! but all was covered with plastic. I even covered my Louet Spring loom Lilibet just to be safe...

... and down the other end of the room.... my loom Emmatrude was free and clear and I wove while he worked. Fortunately it took more time to set up the bubble room then it did to re-stipple the ceiling. They neatly took all the plastic down and rolled the wet mess up as they went and out the door it went. There was nothing to clean up. *Nice* (for a pleasant change!)

I gave the area a good vacuum anyhow (dust happens) and set things back up. This is the warping/ winding section and I have added a new floor lamp nearby. You can't have enough light!

I took advantage of the situation to reorganise the stash, sewing area. It looks neater and more thought out now. Well, its the best it can be for now!

So we still have a lot of work to do: stairwell, finish off the kitchen, paint hall closet, new patio doors, new front and back door.... yada yada yada! But we took a large bite of the elephant!

Next time... more finishing work in the kitchen....and I'm nearing the end of my 'sanity' warp!