Saturday, March 10, 2012

House Tour Part 1 - Main Level.

Things are happening at the new house. Not as much as we had hoped due to the asbestos issue, but progress nonetheless. We are about to draw to a complete halt, though, until we can get the tile removed from the kitchen and the entire downstairs. Sigh.

In the meantime, I am going to give you a tour of our new house, one floor at a time. Today I am going to focus on the front of the house and the main floor. Enjoy!

The house is currently painted a sick looking brown/tan color. It either has too much pink or too much yellow depending on the light and the angle at which you look. The exterior lighting is both boring and not bright enough. One section of siding underneath a living room window was replaced at some point and neither the type of siding nor the paint matches. Lovely. The landscaping (what little there is) is a mess and at least one tree needs to be removed. All this to say...the exterior needs work. Eventually, we will get around to that.

Front of house 
Our new abode.

Deck
See the mismatched siding?

The entry way has a small coat closet which abuts the back of the fireplace. When we bought the house there was an odd, too-large shelf affixed to the left wall that was apparently made of stones from a Chinese monastery. Thankfully, the sellers wanted to keep it and it went to France with them. Straight ahead you can just see the centrally located stairs (that either lead down to the lower level or up to the bedroom level) and the door into the kitchen. The tile in this area is slate and I wish we could match it for the kitchen, but that seems unlikely.

Foyer
Looking into the kitchen.

Foyer
Looking at the front door.

The living room is large and has lots of windows. The fireplace is the main focal point and we can't wait to spend time in this space. The walls all need to be patched and repainted and eventually we need to reline the chimney and replace the can lights. All in all, though, this room is in great shape and one of the reasons we love the house.

Living room 
Fireplace.

Living and dining rooms
Windows onto the deck and entrance to the dining room.

Adjoining the living room is the expanded dining room that is on the back of the house. It also has lots of windows and is large enough that I hope to fit a breakfast nook into the far end. The addition has sunk a bit, but it seems to be due to typical movement and not related to stability issues. The can lights and chandelier need to be replaced and it needs a fresh coat of paint, but otherwise this room is pretty good.

Dining Room
Dining room.

The kitchen has two entrances: one from the foyer and one from the dining room. They both had doors when we bought the house but we have already removed one and the other is also leaving. I could give you lots of details about the issues in this room, but suffice it to say that from the magenta wall (???) to the late 80's vintage dishwasher, this room is a hot mess.

Kitchen 
View from corner (the doorway on the left leads to the foyer).

Kitchen
View from the corner again (the doorway on the right leads to the dining room). Note how the range is offset from the hood by a good 8 inches.

Kitchen
Don't you just love that pink wall?

Our original plan for the kitchen was to remove all of the cabinets and countertops, the sink and the dishwasher and to keep the current fridge and range. After discovering that the tile had asbestos and we would essentially have to gut the kitchen, we decided to go all in and start with new everything. The full list of items for the kitchen remodel now includes:

1. Opening both doorways to allow better flow through the room. The opening from the foyer will probably only widen by a few inches but the opening into the dining room will extend from the front of the cooktop cabinet to the front of the wall oven cabinet. I will post a rendering of the new layout soon and this will make much more sense.

2. Updating the existing electrical to bring it up to code (which means installing GFCI outlets) and adding can lights and a pendant over the sink. We are also going to add under cabinet lighting.

3. Replacing the asbestos tile floor (which will be abated by a local company) with slate or porcelain tile.

4. Replacing all appliances. We are going to install a wall oven/microwave combo and an electric cooktop instead of a one-piece range and put in a new dishwasher, all from Bosch. The range hood is from IKEA. We have yet to pick a new fridge because it is hard to find a counter-depth fridge that is rated well but has no ice maker/water dispenser in the door.

5. New cabinets, countertops, sink and faucet, all from IKEA. We were thrilled to find out about the 20% off kitchen sale at IKEA and managed to save a ton of money, essentially getting the range hood for free!

6. A glass tile backsplash. I wasn't completely sold on glass tile at first because none of the edging options appealed to me. But then somone (thanks Mom!) managed to find a bullnose edge finishing tile which solved the problem. Hurray!

7. New paint.

And that wraps the main level. Next up: bedrooms!

Be well,

Me

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