It's about time I checked back in on the progress of our new house, no?
Since moving in at the end of January, life has been a whirlwind. Our amazing contractor, Byron Larson, finished the basement in record time and we've been enjoying the extra space immensely. If you live in Utah Valley or Salt Lake County and need work on your home, email me for Byron's contact information. He did an impeccable job.
Now that the basement is done, progress is finally being made upstairs! We've painted the entire upstairs common area and we're tackling the bedrooms this weekend. The color we finally settled on is Silver Lining from Kwal Paint.
I already told you about some of the improvements we made to the
outside of the house.
Now we're turning our attention to the little things that need updating on the inside. The biggest sore thumb (besides the horrible paint job) were these awful brass boob lights in the hall and laundry room.
We switched them out with these lovely lights I found on
Joss & Main for $30 a pop.
But once the light was up in the hall, I noticed a little something out of place. Can you spot it?
Nothing a blast of Krylon Dual in white wouldn't fix.
We also switched out the cracked light switches in the upstairs common area with
Allen + Roth plates from Lowe's. I also painted the front door black, but that's a story for another day.
In the kitchen, we updated all of the appliances to stainless steel. We also decided that until we can afford to update the cabinets and counters, we could at least switch out the hardware. Such a small thing has made a huge difference.
For the dining room, we painted the inset Silver Lining and put in a new outside door with a window.
It is amazing how the new door opened up the space.
Things still to do in the kitchen/dining room:- Paint new door - white to match the trim
- New tile or hardwood - we're not sure whether we want hardwood throughout upstairs or not.
- New baseboards - to match those in the basement
- Refinish cabinets - I would like to completely sand down and restain them. Maybe in the next few weeks?
- New counter tops - granite would be nice
It's crazy to think that just a few, short weeks ago, this horrible red wall was smacking me in the face each morning.
Now that all of the walls are painted, the room seems exponentially bigger. We still have a long way to go, but I'm happy with the direction we're headed.
Things still to do:- Hardwood floors - we'd like to put a dark hardwood throughout this front space including the hallway
- New baseboards - to match those in the basement
- Rug - I actually bought the perfect one and in a twist of fate (and my lack of "address confirmation") it is now in Temecula, CA. Anyone around there want to bring it to Utah for me??
- Room styling - this furniture is my parents. Better sitting in here than a storage unit, right?
- Cover pillows - blues and greens please
- Plantation Shutters - in the WAY off future
Slowly but surely!