October 2011 - February 2012 Winter Workzone

As the temperatures dropped with Winter's arrival, we turned to the ever comforting glow of the hearth, and realized that it was anything but glowing. Surrounded by drab-colored ceramic tile and the recurring golden oak wood, the fireplace needed help.

Following the same protocol that we had implemented with the kitchen cabinets, Casey devoted 6 hours to filling the grain on the golden oak, and Vince followed up with spraying the wood with Greek Villa. While the "Spray Bubble 2" was up, Casey looked around and decided to throw in the 25-year old kitchen table and chairs and two 35-year old side tables (both hand-me-downs from Casey's parents) and have Vince give them a facelift too. When the bubble was dismantled, we had a new wall around the fireplace and new furniture too! The fireplace facelift continued with a new tile surround created from the left over scabos travertine from the kitchen backsplash.

Fireplace Before & After:









Kitchen Table/Chairs Before & After:





Side Tables Before & After




Casey's tiling projects continued in the basement. The existing bath was a nice addition, but the carpet was worn and the particle board vanity was falling apart. New travertine tile, granite-topped wood vanity and mirror increased not only the durability of the bath, but its looks too.

This tiling project, however, was admittedly not the smoothest. We ripped everything up in October and it took us 3 tries to get the concrete floor level. The bathroom then sat gutted for about 2 months before we had time to tile it, and even the actual tile-laying process was drawn out because we ran out of tile 3 times. But, it's done now. Thank goodness!









Up two flights of stairs, the hall bathroom needed tiling too. And luckily this project only took 2 saturdays: 1 to tile and 1 to grout. While we neglected to take before pictures, just imagine cream-colored linoleum flooring back-dropped by cream-colored paint. 18" x 18" travertine tile and new darker paint brought new dimension to the room.




(As you can see, Lilly's quite attached to this bathroom and was a big help during the project)

Belle, on the other hand, was never helpful:



And Pete just wanted to be left alone:


We made sure to take time to celebrate non-house-related things too: Thanksgiving, Christmas, our 1-year anniversary, and Casey's new job as a Project Coordinator for Travois, Inc.

All in all, it was a good Winter, but we're looking forward to Spring and the light at the end of the home remodeling tunnel (which is in sight!)