It needs to Get Worse Before it Gets Better

Tags

Construction, Home improvement, Load-bearing wall, Organization, Resolution

I don’t know if anyone has ever experienced this phenomena…. Before things get better, they have to get worse…   Well lets just say this year one of my resolutions is to get the house more organized.  With half our house still under construction, and some stuff still in boxes without permanent homes, this is not an easy feat. However I’m trying as best I can to keep our home organized…and though it may look like it’s getting worse, (random bins everywhere)  I tell my husband (and myself) that it’s getting better. 🙂

Now that the holidays are over we are going to get back in the swing of things, when it comes to construction.  Though I have not posted much concerning our home remodel, there has been some progress in the last couple of months. Most notable being, taking down a load bearing wall downstairs, and putting up a load bearing beam in its place.  Let me tell you it was quite the project, considering the peak of our roof rested on this wall.  Somewhere I have photos of the before and after, and even some action shots of the demolition. 🙂  I’m hoping to post about this some time soon, along with some of our other accomplishments.

Until then,

Elza

 

More Progress ..sigh..

Tags

Cast iron, Construction, Mahogony, Staircase, Wood stove

Today we finally set the date to get our staircase done.  “What! You haven’t done that yet??”  Well lets just say there were some order delays.  However, after some frustrating setbacks we think we finally got the right guy for the job. Also, we were going to try to work with the existing staircase, but have now decided to redo the whole thing.  (Our current one wasn’t built exactly up to code) Thus, in two weeks I will probably be living with my parents for a while. The stairs will be taken apart, taking away any access to the upstairs, which is the only livable part of the house.  I’m just glad that this will be over and done with before the baby comes.  I pray that we don’t have any other delays, because the baby is due in 47 days! That’s like 7 weeks! Crazy how time flies!…

So anyways this is how our stairs look now.

The stairs are in pretty horrible shape. They were completely carpeted before. We are going to be putting in oak stair treads, and staining them to match the up-stairs mahogany flooring.  The downstairs will eventually have the same flooring as upstairs. Also as I mentioned before the balusters are going to be cast iron, matching our cast iron wood stove.

This is my design inspiration for the actual railings.  However the wooden parts would be stained to match the stair treads and flooring. (mahogany color)

 Here is a picture of our new mahogany floors. (everything was orange carpet before.)  We splurged on the floors, because I really loved the look and durability of Mahogany. It has a high density scale so it doesn’t dent or scratch easily; plus I just fell in love with the color. In some lights it looks more deep brown while other times its more reddish. We figured it was a good investment.

On a side note.. We love the fact that our wood stove is positioned in the center of the house.  It heats the home up really quickly. We have been using it all winter, thus our heating bills have been really low.  Since our Living room has ceilings that open up to our second floor the heat manages to rise and heat our second floor along with the first.  This house was built to be energy efficient, that was one of the things we really loved about it.

Well that’s all for now.. Hopefully I can post some more progress in the near future.