Happy For Small Victories:-)

Snow today!  We decided to stay in today and complete a few small projects.  We began the day with a man from Gardiner's furniture coming by to install the China cabinet shelves that were missing from our Broyhill delivery.  He also hooked up the interior cabinet lights, so now the cabinet is all ready to be set up with our china.  Now the dining room is complete, and I can't wait to host a family dinner soon.  We have to put a lot of things away in that room, but here's the cabinet among the boxes to unpack.

Then we spent a long time stringing crystals on the living room light fixture.  We had to lay all of the parts out on the floor to organize them.  Nosey Rosey had to see what all the fuss was about--anything new and she is on it:



Here she is with the large center pendant.  She thought it was a toy:



Comet didn't give a hoot what we were doing, but that didn't stop him from trampling all over the crystals.

Humphrey was just happy to explore. 

Because I can't stand on a ladder, Jeff hung the crystals as I handed them to him.

And voila!  Our light is complete.  One more item crossed off our To-Do List, which feels good:-) 

We also hung up our favorite painting in the dining room.  A room doesn't feel "finished" or cozy until the art goes up.  We were happy to get this finished. 

I'll need to start shopping for window treatments, too.  I'm thinking some neutral Roman shades would look nice here, and get matching ones for the kitchen.  The problem will the be 8 foot window in the front of the room.  It might be hard to find the right size, so hopefully I can find someone who can custom make them for us.  I'm not 100% happy with the paint sheen.  In person it is a warm beige and looks way better than in the pictures--in pictures it reads more golden.  It is Olympic's zero VOC paint in "Cracker Bitz."  It is the color of Ritz crackers so that's probably how they named it.  We tried to save money by using the same paint that we used in the kitchen, and it is semi-gloss.  I would prefer matte finish for the dining area.

Kitchen is almost DONE!

Well, the old threadbare bright RED 1950s carpet in the entry and dining room is now gone.  I sure won't miss that!  Everything looks great with the subfloor found underneath.  At some point the original floorboards were replaced.  I can't wait to get some moulding around that beautiful arch and to polish up the staircase.

The first layer of crown moulding in the dining room has been applied.  The stacked moulding should go in Monday.  We're still waiting for the ceiling medallion to arrive, but the chandelier was delivered on Friday.  I can't wait to see this room all finished!

The pillar has been framed and mouldings added.  Thank goodness we had enough leftover to do this and make it look more like an intentional design element.  I never wanted this column, but it was necessary.  I think it looks nice now as it meets the granite at the bottom.

And here's a preview of our soap dispenser:

Unfortunately with being sick this week, the communication breakdown has cost us something we wanted.  I went to see the sink and countertops for the first time today and noticed that Jeff told them to install the wrong sink.  It's the right shape and type, but the wrong size.  I wanted one that was larger to accomodate the larger pans that I cook with.  When I cook, I usually make several portions so that we have leftovers (don't have to mess up my kitchen to make dinner two days in a row), or so that I have meals that I can freeze.  One thing that hurts my back more than anything is washing these gigantic heavy pots.  I don't think two of them will even fit into this sink:-(

Dining Room Re-Do

Now that the kitchen is well underway we are focusing our attention to the attached dining room.  We will be painting it the same color as the kitchen, and the crown moulding will be the same.  We have the furniture on order to be delivered closer to move-in day.

The chandelier we bought will go over the dining table, and it features Swarovski crystals and looks so much like my mother's chandelier that I fell in love with long ago.  It'll be a nod to the home where I grew up:-) 

Photo from Estate Lighting

To make the chandelier a focal point we purchased a medallion.


 I love charming details like this.  I hope the room will look really nice when we are finished.

Custom Fretwork? Score!

There is a very large open space between the front entrance to our new home and the two-story hallway.  With the newly open floor plan between the dining room and kitchen, I thought there needed to be something to punch up the space a bit.  I wanted to soften the hard edge of the ceiling meeting the extra long support beam, so I started a price analysis for some gingerbread brackets to cozy up the place.

I finally found an artisan who makes some really amazing and intricate works to order.  Beautiful work!  However, I definitely needed to negotiate a lower price to keep costs down so I wasn't sure that I would be able to get these right now.  But I did:-)  I have some gorgeous custom Victorian fretwork on it's way.  I think this will be a very pretty addition to our new space.  I'm very excited!  When we renovate our two porches we will probably contact this seller again.

On a less exciting note... I forgot to include a toilet thingie in my harware purchases for the powder room, ie:  the flusher, or whatever it's called.  (Ok, so maybe a silly fool like me might be a little excited over a pretty copper toilet thingie).  It will tie the theme together.  It's like jewelry for your toilet!  LOL.

Photo from faucetdirect.com

Starting the Dining Room

Months ago we found the Mirren Harbor dining collection by Broyhill that we really liked in the Gardiner’s showroom.  We’ve been thinking about finishing the dining room as we complete the kitchen since the two rooms are essentially one space now that we have removed a wall.  We decided to make a purchase.  But as always with us, it was not without much ado.

I spent quite a bit of time researching prices on the internet and found an online store that had the best price, free delivery, no tax, and I was able to google a 15% off coupon from retailmenot.com (I use that site often to get deeper discounts).  We were all set to makie the purchase when Jeff decided to check up on the company’s track record.  It wasn’t very good and there were numerous complaints.  He decided against the purchase.  All of my hard work down the drain.  I wasn’t happy.  We were going to save so much!  I could have killed him.  I was so disappointed!

We made some calls today to local furniture stores who carry Broyhill.  We were able to finally purchase most of the set from Gardiners for about 60% off retail!  The store wouldn’t match the online comparison shopped price, but we’re very excited to make this purchase. 

This is our dining room furniture:



photo from gardiners.com



Unfortunately it was not in our budget to purchase my favorite piece—the china closet, but we did get the table with leaf, two end chairs, and 6 side chairs.  This table will seat 8 people very comfortably!  That means easier entertaining, and this furniture is very comfortable since it is upholstered. 

We also purchased a pair of bar stools for our future peninsula for the portion of it that extends into the dining room:



Photo from furniturecrate.com



Things are moving along nicely.  Now, onto window treatments and flooring.  This piece will just have to remain on my wish list a little while longer:



Photo from gardiners.com