The Upstairs Closet

Before...

The entire upstairs was very dark. This back gabled ell, which extends north off of the main house, has a low gabled ceiling so we thought it would make a great walk-in closet.

After framing, insulation and electrical.

The closet door. We rounded off the top and I think it looks quite charming.

After...

We looked into doing a closet organizer for clothes but it was really pricey. So I looked around and found a good deal on some large over-sized white dressers.

We got two, his and hers.

UPDATE: Photos added February 17, 2010

We used plastic covered wire racks that you can custom fit to your space. This ended up being the most functional and most affordable option. The only thing that doesn't fit in our closet are my dresses and Hubby's suits. Those are stored in our downstairs guest room closet.

Vanity is a matching piece to the two Empire dressers in our bedroom. The set comes from my Grandmother's house, which were originally purchased by her Grandparents.

My favorite part of our small closet is the wonderful window that offers a spectacular view of the surrounding countryside with Mt. Adams (way over in Washington state) as a backdrop.

Upstairs Office

BEFORE

This is the upstairs half story as it was when we bought the place. It was a seasonal space, perhaps used as a workshop or for storage. In Phase II of our remodel, we put in a large shed dormer (shed dormers are flat so allow more head room than a gabled dormer), transforming this space entirely. What you're looking at is the east side of the house.

Here is that same east end after the new dormer went in. Notice all the extra floor space to the right of the stairs. The framing you see is the beginning formation of the office. The threshold to the office is dictated by the massive support beam that had to be lifted by crane into our roof line and what will support the large dormer addition. Where the threshold of the office stands, provides the resting place for the beam above it. Ditto for the other side of the room where the bathroom was created.

The drywall, door, trim and new Marvin window start to shape the office.

After paint and new hardwood flooring throughout upstairs.

After...

We had to disassemble the old desk (another Great Great Grandparent piece) due to its weight and size. But once reassembled, it fit quite well in the new space.

The office is mostly used by me as Hubby has an office at work. My collection of antique gold frames rests against the wall waiting for the right piece of art.

The gabled portion of the room offers enough head room for storage.

The Entry

BEFORE

This is not a true 'before' because it doesn't show the parkay flooring or the blond colored paneling - with plastic shelves lining the walls. I believe I tore the shelves down within mere seconds of taking ownership of the house. The white walls are new drywall we installed. Also, you can see the old porch railing (wasn't original) before the wrap around porch was put in.

The parquet flooring was removed down to the tar paper, which you can see above. Then we got to thinkin' that perhaps there was another layer beneath the plywood. Hmmmm. We suspected that the room was probably a covered porch that got closed in at some point, so we really didn't know what we'd find.

Ta da! The classic porch gray paint confirmed our suspicions of this once being an outdoor porch. The entry is off from the living room so we painted the walls the same color and also matched the casement window to the large casement windows in the living room (all new Marvin windows). So the rooms although separate, blend well with each other.

Here is hubby (the cutie pie that he is) putting in the last of the base trim. You can see that the floors have been striped and refinished to match living room floors. Also, there's a new door (Simpson) and a new window (Marvin). The window has a great view of the mountains and countryside so it's a nice preview to the larger windows in the living room.

After...

I found this old Victorian hall tree on one of my excursions into the 'big' city. I was originally looking for something a bit more informal but it was such a good price and such a fine example of great Victorian craftsmanship, that we decided to get it. It's also pretty cool that you can look into the hall tree mirror and see the view that's outside the window.

The entry is nice and sunny thanks to a large picture window.

The Dining Room

BEFORE

This is my best before picture. Ignore 90% of this photo that is showing mostly the kitchen. The dining room starts at the orange carpeting and blond paneling which is just around the corner there. This is what it looked like when we bought the house. This room was an addition put on probably in the 70's or 80's. We actually think it was an old porch entry that they lengthened, therefore resulting in a long, narrow structure.

Here it is from the exterior. As you can see, there was a bay window at the end of the room which we referred to as the 'portal'. It's the submarine look that was all the rage in the early 1970's. On better days, we referred to it as the 'nook'. Nook I've learned is a quaint way to describe a very small room that serves of very little use.

Well, if you can believe it, we were actually going to keep this little appendage thinking that putting in a few new windows would make it feel bigger. But as it goes, it was rotten through and through so in the end it had to be torn down. The contractor in the above photo is holding a beam that mimicks where the new roofline will be with the new addition. The width of this room increased significantly.

This is the new structure going up. Minus the added cost, the up side was that we were getting a much larger dining room (translates into a nice size room that is very useful), completely transforming our eating experience.

The expansion also allowed room for large french doors (I'll show in later post) that open out into an outdoor patio/courtyard (which is still being built). We also put in another set of french doors separating the dining room from the kitchen. Although we have them flanked open most of the time, it really gives it a nice separate but connected feel.

After...

This isn't a complete 'after'...more photos to follow. The fir floors are new and stained to match original fir floors which start at the threshold. The table and chairs were my Great Great Grandparent's dining set. The table is 55 x55 and wouldn't have fit in the original structure - so that was an added bonus. When you're going through the expense (especially unexpected expenses) of renovating a house, I've learned that it is important to remind oneself of these 'bonuses.' : )

Here it is with new chandelier. More photos to follow...

PHOTO UPDATES AS OF SEPTEMBER 2010

You can go HERE to read the post that goes with these latest 'after' photos.

Go here to see more of the outdoor dining patio.

The Kitchen

Before.....

Horribly overexposed before photo.

Where the dishwasher on wheels use to be.

Looking from living room with view of old overhead cabinets.

Looking towards old dining nook.

Although we knew we would be remodeling the kitchen at some point, we were thinking that we could live in it 'as is' for awhile. So how does one go from the 'as is' status to a full blown gutting? Well, it all began with the stove. The original owners accidentally removed the stove that was there so I began to look for a cheap temporary stove. Well, we started thinking that if we're going to spend $200 on a cheap stove, we might as well spend a bit more for a permanent one. We took that rationale with about everything that followed and so it goes, we ended up gutting the kitchen on one lazy summer afternoon.

Holes from electrician and plumber.

Taking up flooring.

As a note for safety, I would like to add that we sent out samples of all of our flooring. We were lucky in that the layers of linoleum were all asbestos-free BUT some linoleum squares used to line the cabinets, did test positive and were removed using extra precautions.

After peeling away several layers of flooring, hubby discovered the original fir floors - never used, although did sustain thousands of staples from flooring above it. Once the cabinets were out (donated to our local Re-Build It Center), the electrician came, creating huge holes in the original plaster so we used dry wall to patch holes and then re-plastered the walls.

We hired a cabinetmaker just up the road to build our cabinets. It was important to us for the cabinets to be free from the chemicals used in most modern cabinetry. We also wanted to recreate a nice old country kitchen that would allow for some more modern conveniences (dishwasher, stove, etc. )

The cabinets are inset (like the original cabinets were) and mimic the Shaker paneling of the built-in pie safe we chose to save and use as a pantry. It took forever to paint all of the cabinets.

This is the interior of the old pie safe, which I've since learned is an old California Cooler. See bottom link for more on that. We didn't touch the old interior shelving. All they needed was to be wiped down with a damp sponge. 

Go here to read about the old pie safe (California Cooler). 

We ended up finding some great butcher block from IKEA which was only $80 for one long slab. We needed three, so we ended up spending about $240 on our counter materials - great deal. We bought food safe stain from the Environmental Supply Store to bring out a nice rich hue in the wood. The product we used was by Safecoat, the color we chose was cedar. 

After...

Photo updates: 2010

Note: This was all completed the first year we owned the house (minus the Marvin window). It was several months later, after we hired the contractor for Phase II of our remodel, that an engineer arrived on site to establish our structural support needs for the the new dormer upstairs. A real sweet old-school engineer from the Midwest showed up (adorable man) and during our first round of talks, suggested that we carry the dormer load on a support post that would run from the upstairs, through my brand new 'old-fashioned' kitchen, and down into the basement.

This was a blow as you can imagine. So when I turned to him and said, "there must be another way, I don't want to run a "large beam through my kitchen," he responded with an innocent query as to whether we'd be "updating" it soon anyway. At first I was offended as obviously (or not), we just did that! They found another way to support the dormer, and in the end we decided that it was a complement as we apparently had pulled off our goal of making the kitchen look original!

The Living Room

Before...

This is our charming living room. Well, I should say that this is the living room as we found it back in the summer of 2006. This is also a good first introduction to the 1970's decorating phenomenon that took this house by storm...paneling.

North facing wall - the windows and door will be replaced.

As you can see, we couldn't wait to tear down the paneling.

Upon doing so, we discovered the original brick fireplace, the original plaster walls (painted pea green to match the pea green carpet), and the remnants of an old roof leak that we were already aware of. We had to hire a professional chimney repairman to remove stove insert and to restore fireplace and chimney to working order. Thankfully, it was in good shape.

As you can see, we covered up the bookcases that were on either end of the fireplace. We did this because we wanted the fireplace to be the focal point of the room.

Also, note in the photo above that the ceiling is exposed lathe. The plaster was removed and replaced with drywall.

The bookcases are gone!

The local craftsman who built our kitchen cabinets, also helped us design and build our reproduction fireplace mantle. It took a great deal of restraint to not pull up the ugly green carpeting immediately but after six months of hard work, and with much more hard work ahead of us, we peeled some away to help keep us motivated.

This is our Christmas 2006 miracle. After giving ourselves a move-in goal date of Christmas, our months of hard work finally paid off. Moving into a house with twinkling lights, adorned mantle and a decorated tree ended up being a perfect first day in the house. And I mean that it was literally our first day sleeping in the house. By then, we had chalked up about five months of living in the small one room apartment over the barn, working day and night on the main house.

We enjoyed a few months living in the house before Phase II began (see above). The contractor we hired said that we could remain living in the house while they did the rest of the work but I realize now that there are many definitions of the word 'living.'

This is Christmas one year later and new windows have been put in and the rest of the remodel has been completed.Can you tell how relieved hubby is?

Left to do in living room: buy a fabulous new couch and chairs...more photos to come!

UPDATES: February 17,2009...Christmas of 2009

Our new couch and chairs (Rowe Furniture) arrived just before Christmas of 2009. As you can see, we decided to brighten up the room with lighter furniture giving it a crisp, fresh look.

Once we bought our new couch and chairs, the paint color we chose several years ago looked a bit dull. After trying out several swatches of different colors, we decided to go with white. We wanted the room to be as bright and crisp as possible (living in the Northwest, this is especially nice during the rainy months).

We also wanted the outside views to come in, and the furniture and art to be more of a statement than the color of the walls. So white it was...

I found a mirror that was a bit more proportionate to the mirror we had over the mantle before. I also found a great deal on some old brass sconces that add nice extra detail.

The brick fireplace was painted because it was not original to the house. We believe the blond bricks were installed (probably due to repair) sometime in the 70's. I really love the look of stone and brick so perhaps one day, we'll reface it with something that would be more period appropriate.

As in previous years, it was nice to celebrate Christmas with our 'new' room. We had waited a long time (due to the expense of the remodel), to buy new furniture so it was a great addition to the Christmas festivities.

Here are more pictures of Christmas 2009.

Below, are pictures of the living room after Christmas.