Updates!

Less than a month until we will (hopefully) move into our house!  There has been lots of progress this week.  First, here is an updated photo of the exterior of our house:

Updates inside over the past few weeks include new Azul Platino granite countertops which we ordered from Home Depot.  The installation went smoothly and I love the way they look.

 

Just ignore the yucky wall.  It is looking much better these days since it has been tiled with this white subway tile:

In the kitchen we still have to reattach cabinet doors with their new hardware, install our over the range microwave, install the dishwasher, and paint trim.

We also found flooring for the lower level of the house this past week.    This part of the house is actually on a concrete slab and had been carpeted previously and used as a living room:

We want to use this room (which is adjacent to the kitchen) as a dining room and carpet was not really an option for this reason. Mom, De, and I went to Lumber Liquidators to look for flooring options.  Our options were limited to those that were considered "floating" or do not attach to a subfloor and something that would be resistant to high moisture. Floating floors include laminate as well as some bamboo flooring.  We ended up picking bamboo flooring because it is more resistant to moisture than laminate and can be refinished and touched up when necessary whereas laminate when scratched or damaged must be replaced.  The flooring we picked out is in the middle in the picture below:

The hardwood floors on the upper level of the house will be refinished and stained a darker color similar to this in the next one-two weeks.

Another big change in this room was removing the woodstove and some of the bricks around the fireplace.  Not everyone would have made the decision to remove the woodstove, you certainly can't beat the heat they provide but for us the location of the woodstove made it an eye sore very non-functional.  

The room now looks like this:

 

We still have a long way to go in here.  We love the changes so far, adding recessed lighting above the fireplace and a light fixture over the dining room table where the dining room table will eventually go as well as painting the fireplace white has made a huge difference in how light and bright the room feels.  We still need to sand and stain the wood mantle and mount it again to the fireplace, install the bamboo floors, as well as paint the dining table which was a $75 craigslist find.

I think that is all the updates for now.

xo

Steph