S is for Soapstone

One of the biggest decisions (in my opinion) that I had to make in this whole process was what to do on the counters in the kitchen.  There are so many amazing options available, and I knew I wanted to do something a bit different.  Don't get me wrong. I love granite. I love solid surface material.  But I wanted a different look. I would describe it as I wanted something simple. Something that would look like it could have been original to this house.

So I started to read and research.  And soapstone caught  my eye.  It has many interesting qualities, but what struck me most was I LOVED HOW IT LOOKED!  Think back to the days of the black tables in your science class. They were most likely soapstone.  You can hardly do a thing to it...except scratch it.  And the amazing thing is the scratches make it look better. I know that does not make sense. But really they do.  Maintenance is a breeze.  You need not worry about what you use to clean it.  I wax mine with a special wax and my gosh it just makes it look even better.

So if you are in the market for something new on your kitchen counters, I encourage you to look into soapstone.  May not be as easy to find and does not come in a zillion colors like the other options.  But it is so cool!

Here is a slab of soapstone. The guy who worked at the stone place wiped water on it so that I could see what it would look like when it was waxed.  It comes to life with the water/wax.

And here are some pics of the finished product in my kitchen.

You can almost detect a green tint.  It is very subtle.

Love the streaks of white.

Feeling crafty

Thought I would share with you what I believe is one of the more clever things I have done.  I wanted to display a chalkboard in my kitchen.  I really wanted it to be magnetic. I had looked online and was not thrilled at the idea of paying well over $100 for such an item.  Thankfully I have clever friends. This clever friend suggested I make one.  I was not completely convinced I could until I looked in the corner and notice a picture we had not yet hung on the wall.  Had a really ornate gold frame with a picture in it that I was not all that much in love with anymore.  So my wheels started to spin.  I asked David if I had permission to dismantle said picture.  I did.  So I got to work.

I love spray paint. It can transform just about anything. I selected a barn red color to paint over the gold.  Easy.

This is when it gets clever.  My friend suggested I use sheet metal as the background. So off to Home Depot to purchase sheet metal.  Be careful because they sell sheets of aluminum too.  Guess what?  Aluminum is not magnetic. You want sheet metal.  And I needed these high powered snippers to cut the sheet to size. Thankfully David assisted or I might have a few less fingers.

Handy dandy chalk board paint.  Comes in all sorts of colors but I stuck with basic black. If I did it again I might try spray chalk board paint.  

It was not completely easy to get it to cover smoothly.  So mine has a bit of a rustic feel to it.

It took several coats of paint.

Almost finished.  It had to dry for several days and then you have to cover the surface with chalk (using the chalk on its side) They call this priming it I believe. Otherwise when you write on it the writing will be etched into the chalkboard.

And it is now on display. The Lego Master loves it and has suggested we display a different Bible verse each week. This is his favorite.  I love how it looks!

Color, color and more color!

Those who know me, know that I love color! I  like lots of color.  Bright color. Vibrant color.  Different colors. I fully appreciate the beauty of neutral colors and muted shades.  I love other people's homes that are painted in varying tones of white and khaki. But it is not me. I could not wait to see what my color choices would look like on the walls.  And even more on the ceiling.  That was one of the question areas I had...what to paint the ceiling.  A dear friend is a talented designer and she is the one who first introduced me to the idea of painting the ceiling same as walls. I had tried it before in a previous home, but I had toned the ceiling color down a shade or two. She encouraged me to just paint the ceiling same as walls.  So I just went for it. I think my contractor questioned my sanity and I did as well.  I had some pretty bold colors selected.  How would it look?

In a word.  It looked...AMAZING!

This is the family room in Palladian Blue.  Had never used a blue as a living color.  Don't really even have that much that seems it would work with blue.  But I love it. It is light and airy and calm.  And the ceiling is blue too.

I have a rule for laundry rooms. They must be bright and fun.  So mine is Pear Green.  It is a happy color. We added the shelves which provide TONS of storage space.

This may be my favorite in the whole house. It is Galapagos Turquoise.  Set against the white wainscoating (we added that in sort of a Shaker style) it is stunning.  And look how the chandelier just pops.  And look at that ceiling!

Believe it or not my Sooner husband agreed to an orange living room.   He made me promise that it would not be UT orange. It is Pumpkin Cream and is what you see through the huge window in front as you drive down the street.  We like to joke that our house glows. It is awesome!  We had the book shelves built.

This shows you how the living room/dining room combo look against one another. I love it!

Just so you can see I am not completely whacked out on color.  My entry and hallways are a lovely Weston Flax.  Still has color and not to be confused with white.

Hand Scraped Heaven

One of the things I looked forward to most was the hand scraping of the wood floors. It was one of the last projects to be done and I just could not wait to see what it would look like. I also could not imagine how one hand scrapes a floor.  Let me just tell you...it is not easy.  It is, in fact, a tedious process that is a work of art.  I think the workers thought it a bit odd that I wanted to stick around and watch.  But it was just fascinating.

These men would work side by side scraping the wood with these metal tools.  It made a horrific noise...think nails on chalkboard but worse.  They would switch positions with one another so that it did not look striped with one person's technique spanning the width of the room.  Pretty clever if you ask me.

And the shavings that they scrape off are significant.  It leaves behind quite a mess.  But then that shaving being removed is what gives the floor such personality and beauty.

I was lucky enough that the guy whose company did the floors is a friend. He knew I was excited and was kind enough to show me how gorgeous they would look when stain was applied.

And once they were done they were simply breathtaking.

Hidden Treasures

Hello again. It has been a while.  A long while.  We have now moved into our house and I could not love it any more than I do.  It is all that I hoped it would be and more.  The best way to put it is that it is ME.  It is a reflection of my personality and what home feels and looks like.  That is a very good feeling.  Eldest put it best when he came to take a look at the progress, and he said that he knew within a few feet of being in the house that it was MY house.  Success. So much I want to share of this journey.

As we demo'd the drywall in the kitchen we uncovered a pocket of space.  Open. Empty. Available. Space. I hate to waste space so I had to think.  What to do?  I remembered that we have a hutch that belonged to my parents and is one of my most favorite pieces of furniture.  As I mentally planned for where furniture would be placed I had not found a home for it.  So I figured out what to do with that hidden treasure of space.  It would become home to my treasured hutch.

We framed the space and then dry walled it. I was a bit nervous about dimensions and had I measured correctly.

You can see I did measure correctly. I could not wait to take a picture to share with my contractor to show him that it really fit. This is in the dining room and it is just the perfect home for my hutch.

What was old is now new

I decided to get a little clever and try something with the exterior lights of the house.  I really wanted to convert them to gas lanterns, but my practical side won as the expense is pretty high.  I liked the existing lights and thought I would see if a little elbow grease, vinegar, and spray paint could bring them back to life.

Here is a before pic:

And this is after I scrubbed them.  You can still appreciate their tired look.

And this is after a $4 can of black spray paint!

The wonder of wood!!!

I think the thing I like best about an old house is the wood floors.  I love the personality and charm that wood floors add to a home.  I do not mind the scratches.  I love how it feels to walk on wood floors. I love how it sounds.  The first real decision we made about this house was that we would put wood floors in as many places as we could.  That was a fact from the very  beginning.  We have a good friend who does the most beautiful wood floors, so we even knew who would install them.

Before the wood could go in, all the flooring that was in the house had to be ripped out. The carpet was no problem.  The linoleum in the family room and kitchen was an entirely different story.  I have never seen so many techniques tried for removal of flooring.  I am no expert, but even I could tell that it was near impossible.  The actual linoleum came out with some difficulty. It was the glue that was used underneath that gave the biggest fight.  They finally resorted to some sort of chemical that they poured all over the floor and let sit for some time. That did the trick.

Then there was the tiled entry way.  No big deal, just bang the heck out of it and the tile comes out.  NOT.  The tile did come out.  It was the underneath stuff that was quite content to stay right where it was.  But if you have the right tools and enough perseverance even the most challenging stuff has to eventually come out...and it did!  And finally it was time for the crew of wood floor peeps to arrive.  Oh happy day!!!

Later on they will hand scrape the wood and then finish it. The hand scraping will be an awesome touch as we have dogs.  You will not be able to tell what is an intended scratch and what is dog!