Dining room is back to normal (at last)

This is one of those projects that took a long time. It started with the foundation work we did in April, 2015; the house had nearly a three inch drop toward the street side and before we could make any other changes, that had to be fixed.

Getting started

Then we had to wait . . . and wait . . . until everything settled into the new position and any cracking that was going to happen did happen. So then we needed to find someone to repair the cracks, which we did in July. The guy we used suggested that rather than getting rid of those built in cabinets, we reuse them in the garage.

So we did.

Bye bye built in cabinets.

Repurposed cabinets in their new home.

Then we asked him to come back because we knew we were going to use the Billy bookcases from Ikea and wanted them to look as built in as possible. So he did.

Kent assembled the bookcases. 

You can see the framing John added around the bookcases.

Kent stained the framing
and put a coat of poly on too.

In a way, this project reminded me of the kitchen renovation we did when we lived in Crush House. That kitchen had a peninsula that just made no sense at all. We were stymied about what to do until one night (while on strong pain medication after major surgery), I told Kent he should just get out his circular saw and take that sucker out. He warned me we might have to live with the hole in the floor for a while, and we did; it was nearly a year later before we were positive we didn't miss the storage and had a good idea of what we wanted to do.

Ugly peninsula (and counter top).

Hole in the floor tile.

An after picture; I'm really proud of this project.

Work it

This weekend, we painted the second bedroom (two coats) and the dining room (only needed one coat, hurrah!). We liked the paint the previous owner had used but unfortunately, while she left us her paint, the second bedroom color was missing and the dining room color had entirely congealed.

So we went with one of our favorites, Navajo Sand by Glidden. We like that it's a bright neutral that shifts in color just a bit depending on what kind of light you get in the room. And take my word for it, it's not a boring renter's beige at all.

We also got the dining room curtains shortened to the correct length. These are our curtains (yes from Ikea, I swear we are a poster family for Ikea), and the directions for hemming the curtains pretty much tell you to just cut them off, no hemming, to the correct length. You can't iron the fabric because it will melt, so normal hemming is challenging. I did hem them for the apartment we rented but couldn't do that again. While they were too long for their current location, they weren't long enough for me to turn up a proper hem. Kent cut them to size with our big rotary cutter mat. I was too nervous to do it myself, I tend to get jagged lines with the rotary cutter but Kent's mastered it.

Here's the room after the painting and shortening. We have another picture to hang off to the left (off camera) above the sewing cabinet. We also need to hang the five black framed mirrors we have and they'll go to the right, off camera.

Photo bomb by Chloe

Next weekend, we'll tackle the entry and long hall.