Kitchen part III....sanding floors and painting walls

Our project which began late March, early April, hit a "little" city permit snag.  In case any of you out there are wondering, you need to pull a permit for every home improvement project except "sanding floors and painting walls".  We were not granted final zoning approval until early October.  Needless to say its been full steam ahead to get this thing closed in airtight for the winter.  Maybe in time for the holidays.....then again maybe not.

We added two skylights, and an opening for 5'5 ft by 5 ft window. 

Here's a shot from the front hallway looking towards the kitchen.



Here's the addition from the outside.  The shingles were finally finished a couple weekends ago.



Here's our new back door entrance/exit.



Another back view of the house.

Now how to design this new space.  I really hope you guys will weigh in.  mike & I aren't seeing eye to eye when it comes to designing our new kitchen space.....

Tackling the kitchen part 2.....adding on.

The kitchen is typical for an older home, small and dark.  We got a little creative with our ideas, including adding an island, a peninsula, or maybe even adding on to the kitchen itself.  We thought about making the full bath on this floor into a half bath, taking some of that space for the kitchen.  Then there was this L shaped porch/deck right off of the kitchen with a rotting roof.  Could we possibly expand there??  

Here's the back porch before.

 

Here's what it looked like during renovation.  We wanted the addition to have the same lines as the house.




We will eventually move this staircase.  As you can see its blocking the basement door.  This will be our new back door entrance.  



We replaced this patio door in the dining room with a window.



The demolition of this wall started where the original door to the back porch used to be.





Here it is.....well just framed in that is. 


The addition added about 120 sq feet to our original 100 sq ft of kitchen.  I'm envisioning a breakfast nook, maybe an island, creamy white cabinets, black soapstone counters, farmer's sink.......here I go with my ideas.



Tackling the kitchen...part 1

Where to begin with our kitchen?  As mike mentioned the tiles seen in "Entrance Hallway Blues" were also located in the kitchen. 

  We wanted to salvage the hardwood floors in the kitchen, but it was  impossible since the layout of the kitchen was not the house's original.  Our next thought was to install new hardwood floors and work around the cabinets.  

I wasn't a huge fan of the cabinets.  mike thought there may be spacing issues with the new flooring fitting in properly.  My Dad's initial thought was to take the bottom cabinets out, put the floors in, and re-install the cabinets.....but then the ideas started..........

 

And before we knew it we ripped out the entire kitchen..... 

No more peach....please!

Yes....peach.  Our predecessor painted our entire living room and guest bathroom a lovely shade of peach.  I walked into the house and three things popped into my mind.....floral patterns, rattan furniture, and a palm ceiling fan.  While nothing is wrong with this decor if you're vacationing in Miami, its not really the color you want in your living room up here on the East Coast.

 

Here's the before picture of the fireplace surrounded by the original mantle.



  

The corner fireplace makes for an oddly shaped room.



We removed a closet on the left hand side of the doorway. 
You can see where it was re-plastered.

  



This is the living room with staging furniture it it.


Here are some after pictures.  After buying a ton of samples we decided on the color Truffle by Benjamin Moore.



Here's a couple of after pictures of the fireplace.  We thought about stripping the mantle
down to the original wood, but decided against it.  For now we painted it the
same color as the trim.



Was there a closet there??

One wall has 1 window.

Another wall has a doorway.

Another wall has 2 windows on it.


The odd shape of this room will create a bit of a design challenge....but we're not quite there yet.  I do love the color on these walls.  Mike no need to stress.  These walls are fine just as they are.