New Couches

The transformation of our TV room is almost complete. Today we had some new couches from Crate & Barrel delivered to replace the old ones that we had taken away yesterday.

The next thing we need is a new coffee table to replace Lisa's Conran's table that has been with us since New York City and may never leave the house.

Labels: couches, familyroom

Walkway

This week, we had a new front walkway put in. The old one was rapidly deteriorating and falling apart. In addition, it was just ugly with these old looking maroon "decorative" rocks that ended up all over the place. Having the new walkway sets the stage for us to update and fill in the garden in front of the house and the two little gardens to each side of the front door. More photos are here.

Labels: walkway

Basement

As mentioned below, we renovated the basement recently. And here is the end result of the work. While we sadly had to do away with the 1970's fake wood paneling and disco era wallpaper, I think the end result is a far nicer space. More photos here.

Labels: basement

Basement

This week, we had the basement dry walled from head to toe. That means that we got rid of the 1970's style fake wood dark paneling and the groovy wallpaper covering the staircase. I will admit that covering over the wallpaper was not an easy decision, as that was some of the swingin'est, grooviest wallpaper I've ever set eyes on. However, from a purely practical perspective, it was the right thing to do. From an emotional perspective, I never would have touched the stairwell and the wallpaper would have stayed.

In addition to drywalling the basement, we are going to get new carpeting to replace the funky, dirty old carpet that is currently there.

So more pictures are to come when the basement is more complete.

Labels: basement

Hallway Floor

This week, we replaced the 1970's style white tiles in the main hallway with hardwood flooring,. So now, the hardwood floor flows seamlessly from the main hallway into the TV room. We do still need to put in baseboards and just clean up the hall walls, as they are a mess with all the work done this past weekend. Replacing the tiles is something we've wanted to do since we moved in, and based on the difficulty in removing the said tiles, we probably should have done this before we moved in. Ah, hindsight. If you ever see a house that you like, and it has some ugly tiles that need to be removed, remove them before you move in. Trust me.

Labels: hallway

Unrest in the Forest

Its been a long while since I've updated this area of the site about the progress we've made on the house.

In the early summer, we had some trees cut down from the property outside. It really cleaned up the outside and let more sun hit the house and yard, but as the summer has moved on, sometimes I look around and it does not feel like we did a thing. I am already eyeing several other trees that I want to remove. We are really going to try to focus on the outside of the house to get that straightened out. It's a mess.

As for the inside, we've been doing little things here and there, but no big projects to speak of. I've been trying to clear out the basement to get that renovated from its 1970's dark wood paneling, and I made some great progress during the July 4th week. My big project downstairs is to clean the masonry walls in the unfinished part of the basement, paint them with a sealent, and then install lots of shelves so that all our stuff can be stored there. Not an easy task.

We really want to update the hallway and install hardwood floors, and update the 1/2 bathroom in the hallway, but that's a bigger project than we think. But apart from the basement, its the last fairly big project inside the house (the kitchen does not count, because that's a project that is off the charts).

Labels: outside

One Year Anniversary

So this week marks our first year living in our house. I suppose we can't call it "our new house" anymore...its just our plain old house. So what did mother nature do to help us celebrate? She dumped 2 feet of snow on February 13th. Below are some photos of our cars buried in snow in our driveway.

On the whole, our first year has been great. We have made an immense amount of progress in updating and renovating the house. We have really transformed the interior rooms from the state they were in when we purchased. The kitchen is the one space we would like to really overhaul, however as we all know, renovating that room requires a huge chunk of cash. The one space that still needs a great deal of work is the basement and we are still working on that.

So, happy birthday house. Its been a great first year. Here's to 29 more good years here (at least!).

Labels: house

Living Room

Here is the finished living room. The tables are there because we hosted Thanksgiving this year and we turned the living room into the dining room to accomidate all the guests/relatives/friends. The room ended up far exceeding my expectations. The bookcases and the wall color are great and I am just thrilled with it. And for a point of comparision, below is how the space looked when we purchased the house. Note that it only had one doorway. We broke through the wall to create a 2nd doorway to improve the flow in the room and the entire first floor. My previous post from 11.01.05 has some photos from when we were in the middle of painting the fireplace and some photos from before the shelves were installed.

Labels: livingroom