Board & batten in the dining room

Our house is old and has a lot of character...which is one of the main reasons I fell in love with it.  In the kitchen, there is a shelf going around under the windows & I wanted to continue that idea into the dining room.  Since I love the look of board & batten and the added dimension it gives to a room, it was an easy decision.  Board & batten, here we come!

First we put a 1x6 board around the room

Then we put a 1x4 board on top for the ledge 

Then we marked off lines for the vertical slats

Then we had to cut boards into 1x2 slats

And put caulk on the back

And nail them to the wall 

You can't really see it, but we added a lip to the ledge so things won't fall off

Then painted it white. Voila. Board & batten.  :)

I really love how it turned out & can't wait to find fun things & fun pictures to put around the shelf.  There's a lot of shelf space, though...so it might take a while!

Starting to look like a kitchen!

The last few days we've been focusing a lot on the kitchen and it's finally starting to take shape!  It's still dusty & not finished, but I'm pleased with the progress so far.  :)

This was the first paint attempt... but I didn't like the color.

They had to cut the cabinet to fit our sink

Then they installed the cabinets!  Looks much more like a kitchen now!

The other wall of cabinets.

Then we added 1x6 boards & molding above the cabinets

And we fixed the paint color  :)

We put the doors back on the cabinets

And put the knobs & pulls on the cabinets

I've been kind of obsessed with these pulls & I was so
excited when I found them on clearance! 

Adding fillers in the spaces

A very dusty/dirty version of our kitchen  :) 

And the other side.  The stove & microwave are getting delivered
today and it still needs some paint & a good cleaning but
I'm so excited that it's actually looking like a functional kitchen.  :)

I loveee our sink & faucet.  Lots.

We haven't had time to actually cook meals recently, so I can't wait until we can cook in it!

Fixing the hardwoods

One of the things I love about our house is the hardwoods throughout most of the rooms.  But when we knocked down a wall between the previous dining area & kitchen, there was only hardwoods in half of the new room.  So while I was nannying, Aaron & Jeff installed new hardwoods to continue the old ones through the whole room.  

This was the subfloor under what used to be the kitchen.
So this is where they had to add new hardwoods.

He had to cut the old hardwoods off in a straight line.

Stapling (with a really fun stapler!) the paper down.  

And this is what they finished with!  

The two sides should look alike once they're
refinished & restained next week. 

Welcome to our soon-to-be dining room.  :)

It's fun to go to work & come back to see all their progress!

Ballers, Shot Callers, Drywallers.

Lots of the walls in our house needed to be fixed.  So there has been LOTS of puttying & sanding & painting going on!  Aaron & I have spent the last 2 nights painting until midnight but all the walls are finally primed!  If you're in the neighborhood, we have plenty of brushes & we're happy to share!  :)  Here are some pictures of that process.

Hanging drywall for the new bathroom

Matt & Aaron mudding the walls

Lots to patch after the paneling came down!

Michael hanging more drywall

Removing the beams from the wall that used to be there.

And patching it afterwards

Micah & Virginia rode their bikes over to help!

Micah & Aaron fixing walls

Virginia is a nail-gun pro  :)

Then there was LOTS of priming to do in all the rooms!

Priming the new door for the laundry closet

Isaac helped prime ALL day  :)

And Aaron had tons of sanding to do!

This is what it looked like post-sanding so...

...mom cleaned up the sanding mess with the shop vac.

Done with priming!

Juice shop gifts are much appreciated!  Thanks Mom & Aaron Lee!

These lovely lights are awesome & enabled us to see
what we were painting at midnight!  Thanks Sara!

Now I'm ready for some real paint colors to go on the walls!