Wanted: Ceiling Fan

Wanted: Ceiling Fan

Brushed Nickel Finish with Ebony Wood or Brushed Nickel Blades

Base less than 8" Wide

Extendable Hanging Rod

Variable Speed, Reversible

Includes Lighting

Finding a ceiling fan for the master bedroom that is both stylish and functional is turning out to be impossible! Especially since the cathedral ceiling dictates that if we have a fan it also has to be our primary light source for the room. 



Acero, Restoration Hardware

Palmero, Hunter



G2art

If you can believe it, the leading contender is actually the Jellyfish by Quorum. I showed it to Dave as a joke but surprisingly he liked its quirky modern design. It would definitely stand out!


Jellyfish, Quorum



The search continues...

Amy

Belated Christmas Present

We could hardly believe it when we received a call from Derrick from Home Depot this morning letting us know that our windows were on the truck and bound to arrive at our house within 30 minutes!

It was almost as exciting as Christmas morning to open the wrapping to find four beautiful windows that were the correct size and colour!

Only 9 months and 3 days since we first placed the order...

Amy

Coming Out of the Closet

Ever since we started planning the renovation, I have been dreaming about closets. Beautiful, neat, organized closets.

In fact, the closet organizers were the first thing purchased thanks to a 15% off sale at IKEA in the spring. In order to create custom closets on a budget, we purchased IKEA Pax wardrobes which will be built into the bedrooms behind doors that match the rest of the house.

Not sliding doors. Not folding doors. Sturdy, hinged, panel doors.

Jeld-wen Rockport Doors

The master bedroom will have four boxes behind two sets of double doors. One side for me, one side for Dave. Although that may be open for re-negotiation since Dave does not own enough scrubs to fill his side on his own...

Ikea Pax Wardrobe

Master Bedroom Closets

In the spare bedroom, we originally intended to have three boxes, each behind its own door.

Ikea Pax Wardrobe

At the last minute (halfway through framing the closet walls) we changed our minds and opted to swap out the last box for a small built-in desk. The room will still have a 5' closet but now we get to avoid the headache of trimming the closet into the sloped ceiling.

Spare Bedroom Closet and Desk

It is exciting to start seeing all of our dreaming and planning start to take shape!

Amy

Progress - Day 72

We have been enjoying a break from the renovation in order to enjoy our first holidays in five years that Dave didn't have to work.

However, we did finally find our cameras and made it to the house during daylight hours to take some photos.

Amy

12 Days of Christmas

Twelve sheets of plywood

Eleven built-in speakers

Ten weeks of labour

Nine new windows

Eight tonnes to the landfill

Seven new closets

Six bags of sound batt

Five hundred square feet of hardwood

Four thousand square feet of drywall

Three hundred meters of electrical wire

Two new doors

One almost new home!

Wishing everyone a happy holiday season and all of the best on their projects in the New Year.
Merry Christmas!

Amy and David

I ♥ Sarah

I am not the type of person who is into celebrities, I have never had a favorite musician or actor. But ever since Design Inc. I have been a HUGE fan of Sarah Richardson. Must have something to do with our common love of neutral colour palettes...

Sarah has recently released a line of paint in conjunction with Para Paints available at Lowes. The line features 75 colours which make me wish I had more rooms in my house to paint... and that I wasn't so adamant about having white walls!

Sarah Richardson Paint

Even with my white walls obsession, I could see one of these colours potentially finding a home on the inner front door.

Ocean Liner

Flame

Spring

Sapphire

Orchard

Escape

Or possibly as the accent colour behind the desk in the office...

Robin's Egg

Lichen

We are still along way from painting walls but in the mean time I will continue dreaming of making my home as "Sarah" as possible.

Amy

Progress - Day 67

Two months into the renovation and we have hit a monumentious milestone - drywall is up!

After a week of late nights to get all of the last bits of wiring and framing complete, drywall was delivered last Friday and Dave and Wesley spent the majority of the week boarding. Like everything else, it took substantially longer than predicted but it is finally done.

I apologize for the lack of pictures, both of our cameras have managed to go missing in the chaos... 


Dave also managed to install the new front door yesterday. Today we went searching for a new entry set. It only took 4.5 hours, 4 shops and 1 return to pick out one we could both agree on - who new hardware could be so complicated! We ended up selecting a simple sandcast bronze set from Emtek in a medium bronze finish. The colour is much darker than the picture and should compliment both the black accents on the outside of the house and the antique brass hardware on the inner door.

Sandcast Bronze Entryset, Emtek

On another positive note - we have been told our new windows are in Calgary! However no one is able to tell us when they will actually be delivered... the wait continues.

Amy

Living Room Inspiration

Both the living room and dining room will be decorated with the sole purpose of emphasizing all of the wonderful treasures we have collected through our travels. Wooden paddles and stone war heads from the South Pacific, metal bells from Thailand, wooden figurines from Africa and, of course, the gigantic ironwood table Dave brought home from Bali.

I am thinking a neutral couch, funky side chairs, splashes of colour and a vibrant rug, although a concrete design has yet to formalize... 

Apartment Therapy

Sunset

House Beautiful

Ideal Home

I am also still stumped what I am going to do with our fireplace. I loved the white painted brick when we had red walls but am scared it will get lost amongst the new white walls and am extremely hesitant to paint it any other colour. I am intrigued by the red brick that we found behind the painted brick but am pretty certain we could not expose it without damaging it.

Two other options I am toying with are to re-build a new mantle out of red brick or to build a new 'Arts and Craft' style mantle similar to what would have originally been in the house.

Decisions, decisions...

Amy

Bathroom

We have already renovated the upstairs bathroom once but it seemed a shame to have one room in the house that did not have spray foam insulation so all of our hard work got torn out and we get to do it all over again.

We were pretty satisfied with the original renovation so it will be reconstructed with only a few changes. First instead of the wood wainscoting, we will be installing 3x6" bianco marble tile on the walls. We plan to use bianco marble pencil pieces and 6x18" tiles to create a baseboard and top it off with bianco marble chair rail pieces. The grey marble floors tiles will be staying.

We will be reinstalling the Kohler Memoirs pedestal sink and Serif toilet.

And of course we will be reinstalling our beautiful clawfoot tub. However we will be replacing the faucet and shower with a set that also has a hand-held shower. After a recent incident involving our old shower rod detatching from the wall and separating the showerhead while Dave was in the shower, spraying the entire bathroom in water until I could rush in and turn off the water supply, we are adamant to find a much sturdier shower enclosure. So far these two "Hotel Quality" shower enclosures are the front runners, both from Signature Hardware.  



Thermostatic Hotel-Style Shower

 

Hotel-Style Shower



Current code requires that thermostatic faucets are installed but the thermostatic faucet is just not as pretty as the traditional cross handle version!

Amy

Front Entry

Although a measly 6' x 8', I am hoping that the renovated front entry will have a big impact on those who visit our home. It is all about first impressions right? 

Though really almost anything will be an improvement from the lack-luster pea green walls and worn finishes the room featured before (made to look even worse when the only "before" photo I have is mid-demolition).

The outer door was one of our splurges. A gorgeous Arts and Craft style door in a rich mahogany wood tone from Jeld-wen.

Jeld-wen Wilmar Door

The inner door is the original front door to the house and features an antique mail slot and turn-style brass door bell. We had wanted to restore the wood and stain it to match the new outer door but unfortunately the wood has been sealed with something that prevents it from absorbing stain evenly. Instead we are hoping to make the door a feature by painting it a vibrant colour. Right now we are leaning towards a deep blue.
   

Teal Tempo, Oceanside from Sherwin Williams

Originally I had been dreaming of a dramatic marble floor - either black and white marble in a checker pattern or a carerra marble mosaic rug.

In the end we decided a polished marble floor might be a little too slippery during the winter and selected a 8"x16" distressed travertine tile that we plan to install in a herringbone pattern.

Anatolia Antique Pewter Travertine

The light fixture will be a brass and glass pendant that we bought on a trip to Thailand four years ago (I hate to think what the customs agent thought when they saw two light fixtures and a large wood cutting board in our luggage).

When we bought the light fixture, I had planned to paint the ceiling similar to the ceilings in the Grand Palace where I had first spotted the light fixture. I am still contemplating it as an unexpected pop of colour.

Grand Palace, Bangkok, Thailand

There is one big challenge remaining... trying to find storage for all of our coats and shoes!

Amy