Backyard firepit

Basically, Ryan came to live at our house and while he was there he redid our backyard and built us a firepit. That's the short version of the story. He and Phil worked long days to craft a gorgeous brick patio out of old bricks that were mostly just hiding under the dirt in our jungle of a yard. They excavated them and re-laid them all out, taking the time to build us a beautiful firepit in the middle.
They also bordered in all the trees and lined a walkway with slate chips all around.
We should have broken the bottle of champagne over the pit to inaugurate it like an ocean liner...but we decided to drink it instead.
It glows like a little lantern at night.

These floors were made for walking

The new floors match my favorite boots almost perfectly.They are reclaimed heart pine--probably about the same age as the original floors. They're a little bit lighter at this point but will darken up with age. I actually prefer them this way anyhow. There isn't any stain--just three coats of tung oil and then a water-based finish. Delicious. I'm totally into it.I should show off a couple other things that got finished this week, while we're at it...for example, now we've got some storage up over the fridge. These wood shelves are actually from Harry W. Schwartz Bookshops, where I worked for years when I lived in Milwaukee. They're sized to hold the favorites in my cookbook collection--the bookshop is gone now, so it's nice to have a little piece of it built into the house, especially to keep on holding books.And what's this? The World's Smallest Bathroom© is almost done!We need a mirror to go over the sink and also to get the faucet to stop leaking. The cabinet is painted up like the rest of the ones in the kitchen.And here's a better look at the pendant lights.Looking good, right? I think they're sort of awesome.Only one big-ish thing left--backsplash for this wall behind the stove and sink. We have some glass subway tile ordered, so that will look pretty cool.

So close we can taste it

Well it's really almost there. Phil's so sure of it that he finally pulled all the protective covering off the new stove hood. He wasn't really willing to do it until he felt fairly certain no more major banging around was going to happen. The counter tops are all in as you can see--they're Silestone in a really nice light brown/grey color. I'm going to have to try and get a better picture of them soon, but here's the lovely pendant lights we got. They're white onyx cylinders and give off a gorgeous, warm light. Perfect little luminaries.Here's the butcher block counter top--it makes a great prep station. My knives hang up right there for easy access.Coming soon: floors!

Cabinets! Painted up.

Cabinets were hung up and we spent a weekend painting them up. They're the same linen white as the rest of the house, just glossy instead of eggshell finish. Even though we're sort of over the whole reno thing at this point...there's still that sense of pride that we did so much of it ourselves.Here's what the old hardware for cabinets looks like...it's not bad, it's just not right for this kitchen.So Phil changed it all out for stainless bar pulls. They're pretty awesome looking.Our contractor ended up building these box shelves for either side of the glass cabinet piece. Primed and painted they look pretty great!The glass fronts went in with OCD precision...meaning I was not involved. I'm good at painting wide stuff. Totally untrustworthy for this kind of detail.Painting cabinets sucks. Don't let anybody tell you otherwise. But we saved a ton of money doing it ourselves...and I gotta say, I love the results.

Starting to look like a real room

We primed and painted the drywall last weekend! I never really appreciated walls so much in my whole life. I guess I'd gotten really used to the skeletal look of frames so it was kind of a shock to come home from work one day and see a real room again. And as you can see, some of the cabinets are here! These were salvaged by a contractor friend of Phil's. They are far higher quality than what we could have afforded ourselves, so I'm pretty thrilled. Also awesome--keeping these gorgeous, custom-built pieces out of the landfills. We are absolutely changing out the pulls though--you can't tell in these pictures but they're pretty heinous. I just want something simple and streamlined.The cabinets and walls are all going to be painted Ben Moore's Linen/Lennon White, just like the rest of the house. The cabinets will be in gloss though, while walls will be eggshell. That was Phil's mom's idea. She's good like that.Ahahaha, we meet again, World's Tiniest Bathroom©! It just keeps getting smaller, doesn't it? Although, I must say I do like the kaleidoscope effect that the glass blocks play onto the opposing wall. Seems like just the thing to cheer you up when you're locked up in The Hole for solitary.

But what has Billie Jean been doing this whole time?

Furry feet under the door.She'd love to see what's going down on the other side, but she's not allowed in the kitchen until it's all done.

Frame it up!

Phil is in his civvies--no more dirty work for him! Our awesome contractor Paul steps in to begin framing up the kitchen and new bathroom.This is where the new left wall to the kitchen will be--it got widened by a few feet.And here is what will be the World's Smallest Bathroom©! Without any walls it still feels deceptively roomy...But once the insulation goes in, you start to think "hmm, how do I do in small spaces?"Feeling a little...claustrophobic? The glass block helps. I hope. Four can lights are up in the kitchen ceiling. We'll have a couple of pendant lights as well, eventually.
Here's that same shot, for perspective so you can see how far we've come. So much more open now!And it comes Mason Dixon approved.