The bar area between the kitchen and the main living area was lacking something….BAR STOOLS!
Over the years we have casually shopped for them. You can easily spend $250-$400 a piece for nice ones at The Billiard Factory or some other specialty furniture store.
We finally decided to buy some plain ones from the unfinished furniture store down the road.
Cynthia figured she could paint them to match the color scheme and make some custom cushions.
They came out very nice!
In our main living area of our home there is this triangular shaped section of wall above the bar. It’s pretty high up and has always been something Cynthia wanted to decorate in some fashion or another. At one time we had hung some pictures but you really can’t see them way up there. We had hunted for a larger picture but never could find anything suitable.
Years passed and Cynthia eventually decided to make a colorful quilt to hang in that spot. Over the last few months Cynthia started to put one together and completed it last week. It’s almost entirely made from fabric scraps she had laying around and I think her total cost out of pocket for the project was $8 for some dowel rods and the batting.
We were going to hang it last weekend before we discovered that the ladder we owned was not tall enough to reach the spot where the nails had to be placed to hang the darn thing.
This weekend I was able to borrow a suitable ladder and up it went. I think it looks pretty awesome.
One of the luxuries we afford ourselves in our home is having good art professionally framed.
We have a frame shop we use that is owned and run by a wonderful married couple from the UK.
It’s not cheap but it’s always worth it as they are very good at assiting us with choosing just the right matting and frame for our art.
We went to our framers today to see about having a mirror created for the master bathroom.
To our delight the pictures I gave Cynthia for her birthday that we dropped off last weekend were ready!
We were not expecting them until next weekend.
As you can see, they came out very nice.
The contractors finished up yesterday. For all intents and purposes, the remodel is complete.
Tile floors to replace the linoleum, tile surrounding the tub and reaching all the way to the ceiling, new fixtures, granite counter-tops, two wash basins instead of one and new paint.
Now it’s just a matter of putting in the finishing touches like mirrors and handles on the cabinets and so forth.
I think it came out very well, especially considering what it looked like before.
Great progress by our contractors.
We lucked out finding these guys. Their bid for the job was nearly half of what was bid by larger, more well known home remodelling crews. On top of that they are coming in on budget and going the extra mile.
The painting is mostly done, the recessed lighting is installed and some of the plumbing has already been completed.
Here’s the tub
And the new vanity that will have two sinks instead of the one that was there before
Last week we began the remodel of the master bathroom.
And by “we” I mean we hired a contractor to come in and demolish what was there and install the new one.
Here’s some shots of the master bath as it was when we bought the house.
Ugly, pale blue wallpaper with pink butterflies and the linoleum floor have to go as does the form fitting plastic tub/shower and the cheezy washbasin vanity. All gotta go!
I was happy to find no horror behind the shower. I fully expected water damage and/or termites but it looks good. There was an even uglier wallpaper under the layer we had removed. Yuk!
We’re installing a new vanity and a large tub and tiling the floor. Floating and repainting the walls as well.
It’s going to be spectacular.
We also had the kitchen cabinets refinished. It was done in the first week and that part of the house is returning to normal. The bathroom should be complete sometime in the next week and a half. It’s a very disruptive process but it will increase the resale value on the house not to mention the bubble baths.