The Neutral Kitchen

1. Drake Pendant Lights

2. Toasted Marshmallow

3. Butcher Block Counters 

4. Conversion Dishtowel

5. Door Handles

6. White Cabinets

7. Samsung Appliances

8. Le Creuset

I am in love with everything we have picked out for the kitchen. I choose not to pick anything large be bright colored so that I would be stuck with it. I prefer to rotate my pops of color. So in the spring you'll see pink peonies and maybe some light green dish towels and the summers will be filled with fire engine red bowls.

And of course, I got my navy blue pendant lights. Since navy was considered a custom color they were a bit more expensive than I had planned on. But they will be totally worth it. Navy is totally my color. I am looking for some tartan inspired tea towels. 

The Ceiling

The ceiling in the living room was pretty uneven, years of settling and remodels over the years will do that. 

So we made the decision to drop it just enough to hide the blemishes. It will be worth it to have an ever straight ceiling.

Here is is all drywalled in and partially mudded

What the grid looked like up and ready to have the last of the lights installed. 

With all our new lights on! The one in the center is going to be our ceiling fan. We are loving this whole room, and cannot wait to see it filled with our favorite things. There is absolutely nothing we can think to do with the pole, its not really condusive to the space to make it even bigger or add a second. At least when we have parties I can run streamers from it. 

Its amazing how fast our construction crew moves. they have knocked out both bedrooms and living room in a week or so, plus taken care of all the bathroom work!

Weekend Purchases

Saturdays are officially our Home Depot shopping days. Duke has been such a trooper, we go armed with necceseties to keep him entertained in the stroller, an iPad and goldfish. 

We ordered doors, floors and so many electrical outlets and switches.

I love the look of these Jen Weld doors. We had originally thought to get a six panel door, but I decided I liked this simpler look more. We were going to get the model with a full sized mirror on the back but it made the door hollow, which is what we didn't want. So we skipped it in favor of a solid core door. We have no idea yet what kind of handle we want. Knob or handle? 

We chose Prefinished Maple Hardwood Flooring. The color is called "Maple Amber". We could have absolutely choose to put in the engineered flooring, but we have that in our current apartment and we really don't like it. Its cracked in several places and some areas feel as if they will soon be splintery. So we opted for real 3/4 inch hardwood floors.

When we were at Home Depot about a month ago, we spotted these Legrand Adorne light switches and outlets. They are so fantastic. We are totally saying adieu to boring and dull! We bought these for every light switch and outlet. Even though we chose white switches and white gang plates. I was drooling over the white trimmed plates, but they would have killed my entire budget. 

I love getting to pick out our finishes. Its more fun than buying drywall screws, let me tell you. We could have put standard wall sockets and switches in but we absolutely love the look and feel of these. It will be hard to leave them one day. 

Everything Out and Everything In

Sorry for the delay we spent all weekend shopping for finishes and freezing our tushies off in this weather. 

Just when I thought we were making progress and was looking really good. Everything open and empty, like this picture below. 

 But then our wall repair guys started on Saturday and our place filled up FAST with materials. But look what a wonderful job they have done in just one day. I cannot wait to go back and see what they did today. 

Not so scary fireplace anymore! I cannot wait to build this out! I am sorry to say that the brick in there has to get covered up. It has so many cracks and is very uneven. But like I have said before it is no longer a functional fireplace, so there is little love lost.

The enterance to the nursery was closed off and sealed. So long to our thoughts of a secret bookcase door! (maybe for the next renovation...) 

The awkward walls in Nursery Wall were cleaned up. You can still see that the mud is drying still. I fought tooth and nail to keep the archway from being closed up. I am the only one who appreciates it I suppose. 

While the Master and the Nursery were drying, all the materials were in the living room. Boy was there alot. We ended up taking off the baseboards in the two bedrooms just to make ourlives easier. They were in terrible shape and were not worth saving. 

Yikes. 

I honestly think there are at least six ladders in the apartment right now. 

Layers of plaster, and drywall. The apartment definitely went through a "Blue Period" I have found blue paint in every single room. 

I counted at least 4 layers of wall paper by the "old door" 

Vintage wall paper, under blue paint. I wonder what this once looked like. 

Super faded wall paper. I have been trying to chip off some of the blue paint to see what the design was. 

The apartment was wired at one point! We were pretty surprised, this is all old cloth covered wire! We have uncovered several receptacles throughout the apartment. I bet if we took off the layer of drywall around the place we would find most all of them. But someone decided that all the electrical was no longer worth it and just covered it up. 

Bags and Bags of Joint Compound. And it still wont be enough.... 

More to come on our weekend purchases!

Electrical Progress

From the beginning the electrical was terrifying. We knew that new (safe) electrical work was our number one priority. I don't know if becoming a parent or just being a logical person that opened my eyes to suspicious junction boxes and some exposed wires being "hazards". I'm going to pat myself on the back and call it being a logical parent. 

The previous tenant, left an enormous electrical bill behind, so we practically sent every verification possible to Con Ed to get them to turn it back on. Just to prove it wasn't us who left the bill, which is completely understandable. I must say even though they required a lot from us they were absolute peaches about getting it back on, and quickly too. (Thanks ConEd!)

Mike, our electrician has installed some temporary outlets and lights so he can work much faster. To be honest getting the stuff put in behind the walls is not my idea of  a fun and exciting renovation.

But for the first time ever, I saw the apartment with lights on. The whole place felt big and open and maybe for the first time a little happiness started to shine through. 

These lights are only temporary, they will become recessed as it goes along. I really pushed for recessed lighting in the kitchen and living room. It made the project a little bit more expensive but it will be worth it. 

Who knew a little light bulb could make me so happy! Even though I am shuddering at the thought of having to close up all these seams in the ceilings and walls. We are hoping to have all the electrical work sewn up by next week. Unfortunately its only one minor check off my list. We still need the plumbing done, the bathroom updated, the floors installed, cabinets ordered and installed and so much more.... 

From The Beginning: The Nursery

I love this little room. it has the coolest features out of the entire space. More pocket shutters, crown molding, big fat baseboards and a special archway. 

Like I said, not very big. But, it is big on beauty (under the paint that is). If we didn't have Duke, this would be an amazing closet. 

This side of the house used to be the living room at one point in time. And is gorgeous arch was was sealed up. At least someone was smart enough to minimally cover it up. 

From The Beginning: The Master

We are thinking it should be dubbed the "Blueish Purple Room"

Conduit trying to "blend in" and failing. But really, the crown molding in the two bedrooms made up for everything bad on the walls and floors. 

I know there is something good behind that wall, its hollow. My money is on a fire place! 

All sorts of ugly. Lets be honest. 

Grossest carpet ever. I mean EVER. ick. I'll spare you the gross details. 

All of the windows are pocket shutters! Unfortunately they have been caulked shut (eye roll), and when they put new windows in they were built in so the shutters will not open. I was very disappointed. But they are still very cool. If you ever go to a really good restored brownstone they should have them. Its just a cool feature. Everyone keeps saying we should just cover them up. But I will not hear of it. 

From The Beginning: The Living Room

This one is from the original listing, back before Con Ed shut the power off. Don't you love the support pole? What can you do with this? 

Another one from the listing. A winning shot of the ugliest AC unit ever. 

More crooked electrical, but doors to the BEDROOMS (yes, plural bedrooms) 

To the master. This is another example of the picture doing the place a disjustice. those hardwood laminate floors are awful. But those ceilings are really really tall.

Duke thought all of this was very boring, so he took a nap.