2nd house Updates! Dining room project

Moving on to the dining room space!

Check out the upstairs floor plan from the last blog on the house here to find your way around.

Last I wrote, we hadn't even started on the chair rail for the space (which by the way was originally a small bedroom, right next to the kitchen!).

First step was to address the intersection of the three doors at the top of the basement stairs.  Of course we left the exterior back door in tact, but the basement door and the door leading into the bedroom converted to dining room had to be taken down.  As you can see they just cause too much confusion/congestion to that space:

Then, I painted the lower portion of the wall which will be under the chair rail.  Here is the paint color I chose:

Yes, I love teal!!  When else am I going to get a chance to use this color???!??  :-D

Here you can see the effect of removing the doors as well:

I stopped the paint at 32" inches up thinking this would be a good height considering the "Golden Mean", a mathematical study of proportion found in nature, considering the height of the ceilings, window placement, etc.

Next, we installed the light fixture from Lowes shown here, inspired by my dear friend Andrea :)  I liked how the teal color on the wall is picked up in the light fixture.

Lit up:

Not lit up:

Still need to patch and repaint the area around the top of the light where it connects to the ceiling.

This is how the room stayed for a few months before we got around to actually buying, painting and installing the chair rail...

And then I finally took the time to stage it up a little bit to show how the chair rail looks in this small space!!

Same angle as above:

It really is a small space--probably too small for the table we have, but I figure it can sit against the wall most of the time--we were able to fit 6 around it for a meal with my family around Christmas-time! (which I was surprised about, but we angled it and made it work!)

The space has a dual function for us--the bedroom closet space fits our office desk perfectly.  So, I fashioned a curtain to cover the messy space for most of the time, pictured here:

view from the kitchen space

view from in front of the doorway to the hall

view toward kitchen space (can see back door in background)

view toward hallway

Couple detail shots of the table spread:

candlelight would be romantic in the evening :)

Framing Week!!!!!

Wanna see some progress??  Let me tell you, it is TOTALLY different.

We left off the second day of framing week.  Here are some pictures Tuesday:

It's getting more closed in again!

I really wish I could have been there to watch the progress...they were moving soooo fast!

Remember this a couple weeks ago???

This is also an interior shot, but taken after a few (all in view) walls were removed :)

The next day, Wednesday, the second floor got framed in:

The east side:

The master bedroom roof is being installed:

Then the master bathroom roof:

Gabe and I made our way out to the house that evening with a picnic dinner.  We met Mom & Dad there too.  They wouldn't let us up into the 2nd floor because the framers were planning on working until 8.  Man, it was hard to wait until they were done!

Here is the kitchen area!!!

Our new open floor plan, with the bathroom and stairwell in the background, and Dad and Gabe having a spirited conversation:

From the front:

The big picture:

We FINALLY got to go upstairssssss......

Stairwell                                          Master bathroom

It was getting pretty dark up there, so we will get better pics on Saturday.

The next day, the framers actually finished the job around 3:00 pm!!!  They weren't supposed to be finished until Sunday!!

A couple pics:

As you can see, they finished wrapping the plywood sheathing in Tyvek, so it is reasonably weather tight for now.

On Saturday, we went back to the house to get a few measurements and pictures.  We intended to stay longer, but we got invited to my aunt and uncles for dinner, so we took the opportunity.  It was a nice break.

I went a little crazy taking pictures of the upstairs.  I might be a little excited!  :)

From the Master Bedroom looking towards the stairwell

Rafters of the MBR, showing the old with the new

More old with the new:

This is how we are getting upstairs for now:

Here's a nice view of the MBR, with the BIG windows!

This room will be the bigger of the two bedrooms (about 10' X 12', one of them is temporarily a "study" until we get a bigger water pump for the house):

This is a view of the "study" showing through to the stairwell beyond:

Next you will find the hallway:

Off the hallway is a closet which will house the washer and dryer--delineated by the 2 X 4's below:

I've also created a video tour of the upstairs space:

And, not to leave out the downstairs, of course!  Here is a video of the downstairs too:

And thus concludes FRAMING WEEK!!!