This room is sooo not done yet, BUT we at least have the SPACE established now! Before we basically had two miscellaneous rooms off of the kitchen (a pantry, and a laundry room) that we wanted to combine into one purposeful room: a dining room. So we knocked out the wall in between (keeping the pantry shelves for storage but losing the built-in cabinet)
BEFORE pics, the pantry room
left side of laundry room
right side of laundry room (I want to use birthday money to find a frame for that mirror and place it above our piano)
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once we got down to the studs, it appeared that this wall indeed is not a supporting wall, so down it all came!
mid-project, obviously
the floor was really rugged where the wall previously was, so we brought up the big area rug we had used in the basement in CT to cover as much of the room as possible. Since we really have no big plans for this rug and it might be awhile 'til we actually finish off this room, we went ahead and cut slits in the rug to fit around the radiator on the left. Kevin did an excellent job! Oh and we took the pantry door off too now. There were doors everywhere in this house, so I think that's door #4 that we've taken down to open things up around here! I also dug out gold curtains I had made for our bedroom in
Virginia that I can modify to cover the shelves for now.
so now we have access to the dining room directly from the kitchen (see arrows), and I LOVE that!
Now that our room is bigger now we actually had plenty of space to set up a card table there too for when Kevin's family was here this past weekend. It was pretty impossible to fit 9 people all around one table, but this new space worked out great!
I was a little bummed we didn't get a family photo. Hannah went down for her nap before Kevin was done getting dressed in the morning. And then after church I was busy getting lunch ready, everyone quickly changed into play clothes, and the moment was gone. Oh well!
14 months on the 14th, so I guess this is Hannah's miniature golden birthday until she turns 14 YEARS! But please don't let that come too soon!
left side of laundry room
right side of laundry room (I want to use birthday money to find a frame for that mirror and place it above our piano)
mid-project, obviously
the floor was really rugged where the wall previously was, so we brought up the big area rug we had used in the basement in CT to cover as much of the room as possible. Since we really have no big plans for this rug and it might be awhile 'til we actually finish off this room, we went ahead and cut slits in the rug to fit around the radiator on the left. Kevin did an excellent job! Oh and we took the pantry door off too now. There were doors everywhere in this house, so I think that's door #4 that we've taken down to open things up around here! I also dug out gold curtains I had made for our bedroom in Virginia that I can modify to cover the shelves for now.
so now we have access to the dining room directly from the kitchen (see arrows), and I LOVE that!
Now that our room is bigger now we actually had plenty of space to set up a card table there too for when Kevin's family was here this past weekend. It was pretty impossible to fit 9 people all around one table, but this new space worked out great!
Using some birthday money, I painted the kitchen last week! I tried my hand at texture painting with the yellow (color pumpkin butter). You just slap it on with a brush doing random strokes. It's take quite a bit of time (the coat wall alone took an hour, but it was also my first wall and after that it did get much faster) but little paint since you're not completely covering the wall. In the end I really like how it turned out. It's pretty subtle but does make a difference. The "red" wall is just smooth. (it's really an orangish-red color, depending on the light throughout the day) I still have a lot of touch-up spots to do where the tape didn't come off too well and where it just needs a little more paint to cover fully, but for the most part it's done! Now I really can't wait to get new flooring (just a nice neutral color to help tone down color from walls) , but for now that's going to have to wait. And for the pictures (as you're rotating left around the kitchen)...
This view gives you a glimpse of our "new" dining room access. That's coming in the next post so stay tuned!
