The Lake House Renovation: Flooring and Paint Progress

While the kitchen is the major project, we are also working on some minor fixes on the whole first floor and the downstairs bathroom.

A lot of progress not in the kitchen has happened in the past week.

This progress has meant a lot of discomforts for me. I've been a baby and I've been complaining a lot.  It is so silly for me to complain, because we are so fortunate to be able to do this.  I know at the end, it will all be worth it.  I'll barely remember washing my dishes in the bathtub.  Or having to hunt to find a bathroom that was usable. 

The moment I almost lost it was the moment I went upstairs to use the bathroom and take a shower only to discover this.

I need to grow up and be grateful. If I complain anymore, just slap me across the back.




We finally found our flooring.  For real this time.  It's not going back.  The tile will go in the guest bathroom and the mudroom.  We are not touching our master bathroom for now.  I have no idea what it's called, but here it is. 

Our hardwood flooring will go in all the other living spaces upstairs.  It's called Hitching Post, and I think it's by Armstrong.  We ended up getting it from The Floor Depot.  Their saleslady is really good, but we really believe we are getting a good product.  It really just came down to Michael and I both really being driven to this particular one.  I finally figured out what I was liking so much about certain hardwoods.  It's the beveled edges where the two planks meet each other on the short ends.  This sample shows it well. 



I am kicking myself for not taking more "before" pictures.  Most of the pictures I have that are from before are ones we took when we were touring the house for the second time with Michael's parents.  If I haven't told this before, the house was never on the market officially.  We purchased it after hearing that the previous owner was moving and needed to sell quickly.  So, there are no good online pictures or anything.  These are ones I just snapped quickly while we looked at it.  That said, I'm going to post a few before and afters so you can see some of the big changes. 

Have a great week!

Living Area Before


Living Area Midway (Trim is done, but paint is not on the walls.)



Living Area Midway - Lake View Windows



Living Area - Street View Windows





Downstairs Bathroom Before

They still need to add another coat, but you can see the dramatic change now that the wallpaper is gone.



I like the color with the shower curtain.



The Lake House Renovation - Paint Color, Lighting, Appliances Purchased, and a Flooring Update

Yesterday, we got a lot accomplished.

We started the day by checking out flooring at The Floor Depot.  Of course, I totally forgot to take pictures.  We found some great options.  They are coming to our house Monday to give us an in-home estimate.  I'll try to take pictures.

This is the one picture I did get.  I love this tile, but I'm not sure if it will work in our house (mudroom and bathroom) or not.

The Floor Depot is right next to Seth's Lighting which has some incredible light fixtures.  We saw a lot of great options that will help us achieve the look of our inspiration kitchens.

Here are some of our favorites that we saw.  We are also hoping to find a coordinating one that will work over the dining room table that will be to the right of the kitchen.  

So many choices!  So much money!  ERR!  Hopefully we can find something we love that's not too expensive.  

We also finished shopping for our appliances last night.  And yes, we went with Frigidaire, but we decided to go with Frigidaire Professional.  We are very happy with everything and did research to make sure we were getting what will best suit our needs.  We also got the Sharp drawer microwave, which I am so excited about!  

Lastly, I think we confirmed our paint color choice last night for what we will paint the majority of our house...

I believe we are going with Edgecomb Gray.  It's technically Benjamin Moore, but Lowe's can match it.  It's the middle one.  I do like the green and blue color for possibly the restroom or a bedroom, but overall, I think we are going to use mostly the gray.

Have a great long weekend!

The Lake House Renovation - Frustration with Flooring and the Gigantic Island

UGH!

I have to express my frustration over our flooring.  We thought we had made a decision.  We ordered our flooring on December 22.  It was supposed to be in the following Tuesday.  After getting the run around from Floor and Decor, we were finally told it would be in yesterday, January 8th.  We called the store and they said it'd be ready by 4:00.  We got there.  Guess what?!  Still no flooring.

They told us to look around and see if they had something in stock that we could use instead of the lost flooring.

We found some other flooring we liked, but it was way more expensive.  They refused to discount it any, which would have been the right thing to do, so we refunded the whole order.

Here's those two floors...

It's all for the best, because the more we looked at the flooring we had purchased, the less we liked it.
We are going to look around a little more.  We are headed to Flooring Solutions this week!

Onto the next issue.

Our big island.

Originally, our island was 132 inches wide.

That's 11 feet of course.  Turns out, most granite comes in slabs of 9 - 10.5 feet.  So, the solution is to put a seam in it.  Unless you are me and completely OCD about that sort of thing.  Because the island is just going to be one big fat piece, a seam would be way too noticeable.  So, we are going to have to shrink our island.  Sad face!

Our new island will be 10 feet long.  This will open up our granite possibilities.

I went by Stone City this weekend to see exactly what our options would be.  For me, I want the granite to be more veiny rather than pebbly if that makes sense.  I also want the overall look to be more white/silver than beige.  

Here are the ones Stone City has that I'm interested in right now.  The slab size is noted on top of it with the Markup setting on the iPhone.

We were told that the slab needs to have an inch and a half on each side for the ledge/overhang.  

This one looked better in person.  It didn't photograph well.

This is my least favorite. I like it, but I just don't know if it goes with the rest of the house.  

I like how this looks like the moon.  It's very peaceful.

I really like this one, even though it is beige, but it's only 9 feet long. (It's called Fantasy Brown.)

So, the good news is that we've settled on all white cabinets again.  I was really hesitant to do that, because there were definitely some things in our old kitchen that drove me crazy about the white cabinets.  But, the overall look is beautiful.  My previous post has some of the kitchen inspirations I'm using to make my decisions.

Feel free to share your granite and flooring advice!

By the way, here's the current look of the kitchen.  So far to go!

The Lake House Renovation - Decisions Decisions!

So, we need to decide the color of our cabinets.  Like, today.  They could take 6 weeks to get in.

I'm down to deciding between these two cabinet colors.  Really, the choice is whether or not to have an entirely white kitchen or have a kitchen with white wall cabinets and gray, dark brown, or black cabinets on the island.

This whole time, my inspiration kitchen has been...

But, the more I thought about it, the more I worried that the gray was just too dark and too modern for our house.  Also, our dining room table and mirror will be next to our kitchen.  It has a lot of silver in it, so adding gray cabinets might be too much.

Here's our dining room set that will be next to the kitchen...

I still love elements of the inspiration kitchen.  I love the island, the fixtures, and the arabesque backsplash.  I also love the decorative pieces that are attached to the cabinets on both sides of the cooktop.

So, I've started looking all over Houzz for more options that would achieve the overall look without having the gray.

I think I've decided to go with white for all the cabinets, then have silvery accents.  I want the countertops to be an icy-silver look.  

What will look best in this space and what should we do with this beam?