Finished Kitch

The famous Duvall Design Duo... Now if we could just get them their own HGTV show!

Sneak peak at the "sunset window" - isn't that great? The window faces west and creates a panorama of the sunset each night. The window is formerly known as the "weather window" because you can see the ominous mountain rainclouds headed toward Denver, but I think I like "sunset" better.

Finished kitchen! (minus granite countertops - those will be installed next week, and tile backsplash... which will happen after the countertops) This is a view from the new addition, looking through the living room into the kitchen. The lovely 1980's "vintage" tv on the left will (hopefully) be replaced by a wall-mounted flat screen sometime in the near future. :)

Cute dining nook with the bench dad created. Mom's friend Julie is sewing a custom-size cushion for the bench, but pillows will do for the time being.

We kept the north wall window and opted for a galley kitchen, and in hindsight we're happy to have the extra sunlight. We had to remove the one window on the west wall (exactly where the stove is) and then also move the backdoor, which is where the "sunset window" and dining nook now is. 

Look at those beautiful refinished floors! Mom and dad had a custom stain mixed at Sherwin Williams to match the stain in the living room. The floors turned out even better than expected!

The ceiling and all four walls have new, smooth drywall, which looks great! The living room and back hallway are still textured walls (they were that way when we bought the house) so we'll probably need to get those smooth-skim coated at some point.

We found that microwave at an appliance outlet warehouse - it matched our existing stove (that came with the house) so that was a great find! 

Our new cabinets and kitchen layout doubled our cabinet space. Hard to believe - but we don't even own enough kitchen items to fill up all of the new cabinets! I told Chris I probably need to get to shopping.... Also, bonus storage space inside the bench! The lid lifts to reveal bonus space!

Picture this with beautiful Fluresta Verde granite counter tops and a fabulous tile backsplash....

This is a view from the back hallway looking into the kitchen. The sink is on the half wall that faces the living room, so Chris can do dishes and talk to me while I watch tv in the living room... haha! Chris and Dad created a neat wine bottle - glass - cooler space above the refrigerator.

We purchased this Kohler sink at a suburbia garage sale for $30 - apparently these go for more than $300 at retail price. The fancy faucet was included too, what a great find!

Fridge is the next to be replaced... anyone have a stainless steel fridge they are needing to get rid of? I'll keep scouring Craigslist until I find a gem.

Space above the refrigerator for our wine cooler, glasses to hang, and spots to show off other trinkets.

View from the kitchen looking down the hallway. Thats the new location for the backdoor, and newly refinished hardwood floors!

At the end of the hallway on the left is the door to the second bedroom. At the end of the hallway on the right is the old closet (that was our bedroom closet previously). The closet is home to a new wall that Chris built (we'll paint this white - and it's just asking for some coat hooks!) and also a place to store cleaning supplies (behind the wall) and Chris' bike!

View of the outside - the new backdoor. Chris is going to build a patio in this space - maybe if we get another warm weekend this fall, or sometime next spring.

View of the other side of the house - where the backdoor used to be. We'll finish the siding and give it a fresh coat of paint next spring.

The plywood and "sunset window" is where the backdoor used to be.

Floors = Done!

Jim 1 and Jim 2 (father and son) came to sand, stain and poly finish the floors in our kitchen, hallway and back closet. In preparation, appliances and kitchen bench were moved to the living room. I've lost track now of how many different home items have been stored in our living    room at one  point during our home renovation... probably close to every item in the house!

Kitchen floors before - old 1923 floors (that had been painted light blue in some areas... classy!) and some new pine boards that dad added to replace rotted or torn up old boards.

Is this what they call a "shabby chic" look?

FLOOR BEFORE (middle of kitchen)

FLOOR AFTER (middle of kitchen)

Isn't this incredible? I doubted whether it would be possible to save these floors, but wow, don't they look great! Like new! More photos to come in the "finished kitchen" album...

The Omahamas

Last weekend we made a quick trip to Omaha with our friends Dave and Kate Stone. Kate is from Omaha and we split our weekend between staying with The Tyler Danforth and staying at Kate's parents house on a lake. We had a great weekend, with great (old and new) friends.

We spent Friday exploring western Iowa wine country, and to our pleasant surprise, found some great reds that needed to make their way back to Denver. We spent some time chatting with the vinter/owner of Prairie Hawk Winery, learning more about himself and his wines.

Friday night we hung out with Tyler, Dave and Kate, Kate's sister Kalen and her boyfriend Bill. We did dinner downtown Omaha and explored Old Market. Omaha has so much to offer, it's a neat town with lots to see and do. The highlight of the night were the slides in a park downtown. Chris and Tyler had a friendly race, and according to Chris (contrary to what the video shows), he was the winner.

We were excited to be back in the midwest, the home of Quik Trip, and we made several visits during the short time we were in Omaha!

This is a view of the lake at sunset. We enjoyed a football-filled Saturday and lake-filled Sunday with Kate's family. They were so kind to host us and we enjoyed spending time with the fam. Overall we had a great weekend and we hope to visit Omaha again sometime soon!

One last full weekend of work...

The end is in sight! The newest addition to the kitchen, that Chris and I are most excited about, is a bench to accompany our white table! This weekend we primed and painted the kitchen - we painted the kitchen the same color the entry way, living room and hallway are, so pull the spaces together in one unified look since they are now all very openly connected.

Chris and dad are working on a special wine cabinet above the fridge, more to come! (You will notice we still have our white fridge, but the other appliances are black and stainless - we're planning to purchase a fridge at a later date, when a gem comes along on Craigslist!)

A fully functioning kitchen... kind of :)

Painting...

Painting...

More painting...

We checked to make sure the bench would be able to hold our important kitchen items... crock pot, mixing bowls, bundt pan! The bench will have a hinged top that will open for additional storage in the kitchen. Compliments of Bill Duvall Design.

This photo was taken Saturday - we put up plastic to contain the dust while Elwin, the sheetrock guru, sanded the walls smooth.

The Sweet (?) Smell of Sheetrock

Today we came home to the sweet stench smell of sheetrock :) If you've ever had your home under construction, you would recognize the smell anywhere! I don't mind the smell so much now, because I know sanded sheetrock means we're nearing painting time, which means we're nearing completion!

Chris and mom hung the drywall on the remaining wall on Monday, then dad, mom, Chris and I hung the ceiling sheetrock on Monday night. Elwin, our sheetrock guy, came today to tape and sand the screws, cracks and corners. Elwin will be back tomorrow, then we should be painting this weekend!

Dad has pulled up the flooring for the back closet and he'll be laying pine hardwood down, and the new hardwood will be sanded and stained to match the old hardwood.

This is a shot of the old and new hardwood together - it will all be sanded and stained to match, then will have two top coats of polyurethane.

Elwin's fine work.

Dad tore out the header that was over the doorway leading from the kitchen to the hallway - it really opened things up! Header before and no header after shown below.

This is the ceiling of our 1923 home - plaster lath, which to no one's surprise, had warped a bit in standing the test of time. Dad used large screws through a washer, bolted into the ceiling joist to pull the plaster up. Needless to say, we needed to put a fresh layer of sheetrock over the ceiling after this "Bill Duvall fix-it" technique (as my mom called it). I guess after 40+ years of working on old homes, you learn what works best!

Chris screwing in the ceiling sheetrock. 

Befores and Afters

I'm sure you all remember the cute little kitchen cabinets we had in our kitchen...

They've officially been removed and were sold to a happy new owner via Craigslist!

Remember the cute little window that was at the end of our hallway? (We swapped the chest out for bookshelves when we moved into our new bedroom and desperately needed a chest for tshirts!)

Well, the window is gone now (also purchased by a happy new owner via Craigslist) and our backdoor is now at the end of the hallway!

West side of the house before (while we were hanging the new siding last year):

And now with the siding and a hole cut for the door:

Remember our bedroom closet when we were a 1-bed 1-bath that became a storage closet when we moved into the new addition?

The closet is now home to the water heater, and will get framed in to become a back door landing space/mud room! You can see the backdoor open on the left side of the photo.

Remember our backdoor in our kitchen?

It's no longer in our kitchen and has been replaced by a new window!