Laying the Tile

With the sub-floor installed, the men started tiling!

All of the pictures above were of the tile un-grouted.  The picture below is the floor with gray grout.  

Tomorrow and the next day the stair guys will come to install the stairs.  THEN we'll need to get baseboard up to finish off the room.

I have a hard time remembering what this room used to be (here and here are a few old pictures).
I guess my worries of nothing having a foyer floor are now answered, thanks to Tom and Eric's hard work this past weekend.

Foyer Weekend...Whew

Here's a glimpse into our most recent Friday night...

Eric and I rushed home from work to begin taking up the tile in our foyer, in preparation of laying down a new floor the following day.  Sweet little Charlotte was a great sleeper with the help of ear plugs during our few hours of hammering away.  (And don't worry...I watched her on the monitor, to make sure she didn't eat the ear plugs, until she fell asleep.)

Then, Saturday morning Tom and Madison arrived to help on the foyer.   Here are a few pictures, along with a timeline, of our eventful day.

8:30 am - Tom sees how uneven the floor was with the old tile ripped up.  Shaking his head, like he does when he shares bad news, he tells us the entire sub-floor needs to come up.  This is a HUGE job that we wanted to avoid, so we settled on the fact that we would have a very messy house come time for Charlotte's 1st Birthday party 7 days later.

11:00 am - My husband is amazing, and got the entire sub-floor up within 90 minutes!  Tom helped clean up the mess (hundreds of pounds of tile and concrete), and we're now in business to put down a new sub-floor.  What a pleasant, unexpected surprise and blessing!

What a mess... right about now I was getting nervous.

The house was getting messy, so the ladies took a stroll to the park. Charlotte loves being with her cousin Madison and being outside.  Who would have thought January would have been this kind to us so far?!

11:30 - The men finish cleaning up the mess (sorry to our next door neighbors who can see it stashed away on the side of our house).  Note on the 4th picture we lose our bottom step (Can you feel me getting more anxious as the day goes on?).

2:00 - After a run to the store to rent a truck and purchase the materials to build the new sub-floor, the men begin the process.  First went a layer of 1/2" plywood, followed by 1/2" durock.  

4:00 - What!? Even though we expected to just get to this point this weekend, we're actually ready to begin tiling....I cannot believe it.

We got the majority of tile down today, but have a few cuts to make tomorrow morning, followed by grouting around the tile.  I'll post more pictures tomorrow once I take them, but I was so excited about how productive Tom and Eric were today that I had to share :)

It looks like we'll have a foyer floor for the party next week after all!  Now we're just hoping the staircase company doesn't cancel on us again, and are able to come and fix our step in the next week!

Although we've been at home renovation projects awhile, we love seeing the transformation of rooms after we put in a lot of hard work.  This room in particular has been one we've been patiently waiting to work on, so it's a joy to see the changes happening today!

Good night friends,
Courtney

Tile

This weekend has been one we've planned for for a while!  To kick off the weekend, a package was scheduled to come into the mail today, but they ended up rescheduling for tomorrow morning.  A little anticlimactic, but exciting nonetheless.

Tile for our foyer!

After going back and fourth about whether to tile or put wood down in the foyer, we opted for tile.  It's more durable and easier to install in our instance, since we don't have to re-do the sub floor if we're just replacing the tile from our current foyer floor.

We love carrara marble, so we picked out 16x16 inch honed carrara marble as the tile for our foyer.  It will hopefully make a statement when you walk in!

I think the sizing will be perfect for the room dimensions, although I'm not the most skilled in furniture placement and sizing.  I guess we'll wait and see what the outcome looks like.

The tile will also match the marble in the living room located to the right of the foyer.  It's called bringing it together (or trying...).

The foyer now is making a statement... (yikes)!

But we're going to change that statement from gaudy to simple elegant with a few updates.  We have already taken down the wallpaper, the closet (as you can see in the second picture above), and have had the entryway replaced.

Once the tile gets installed by the talented Tommy Bley (aka Poppy), we'll have our stair case installed!

Charlotte will be ONE in a few weeks, and with her climbing the stairs at any free opportunity, I think it's time for some railings.

I'm taking pictures every step of the way to remember where we have come in the time we've lived in our little house. I'll post them soon!

Wish us luck this weekend and next week that we can complete these projects before Charlotte's birthday party!

Courtney

Yet Another Trip to RH Outlet

Eric and I had a date this weekend...to the outlet mall.  We stopped into Starbucks, and off we went on a long car ride to visit the RH Outlet in Wisconsin.  It actually only took up 45 minutes to get there, but we went out of state so it felt long.

I love time with Eric in the car because there are no distractions.... and of course we love fixing up our house and decorating in our free time (which has been non-existent for the last few months); this was a perfect date!

Recently we finished putting up the paint, doors, and door knobs in the master bedroom (pictures to come), but didn't have anything to put in the room!  We've had our eye out for some furniture at Restoration Hardware, but couldn't bring ourselves to spend the money.  The outlet is hit or miss, so I decided to call ahead to check what they had in stock.  On the other end of the phone I heard "we're loaded with furniture and everything is an additional 20% off".

So off we went!

Check out what we ended up scoring....

RH Portman Dresser

Two months ago it was listed at 20% off, then 30% the next week and so on, all they way down to 70% off.  Two of the drawers didn't fit right, and it was a little dirty.  Eric and I switched out the drawers, and they fit perfectly in their new spots!

We also picked up one matching nightstand.  The nightstand is originally $695 but we got it for well under $280...and it's in perfect condition minus one little scratch.  Nothing a little espresso wood pen couldn't fix.

Anyway, I'll put pictures up once we get everything set up.  I have some other pictures of the master bathroom to post as well.

Thanks for joining us on our adventures of home renovation and decoration!

Now onto another room...

Courtney

Hey there.

I have neglected my blog.  It happens to everyone, right?

At this time every year though, with the sunset earlier and earlier in the evening, I find myself more excited to catch up on posts (mostly from other people), sharing preparations and excitement for the holidays.  Something about cozying up to the fireplace with a warm blanket and tea might also have something to do with it.

And that is exactly what I did last night.  Eric was away at a work event, Charlotte went to bed early, so I had the evening to read, relax, and enjoy a little solitude.

I asked the question to friends about their Christmas Eve dinner traditions.  I'm going to try to be intentional about planning out our meal this year in hopes to start a long lasting tradition that our family can remember.

Criteria for Christmas Eve dinner: simple & not time consuming & delicious...that's it.

I'm thinking...

Pioneer Woman's Bacon Wrapped Meatloaf

with her Duchess Potatoes

If you would like to share your dinner traditions on Christmas Eve, please pass them along!

I typically don't plan this far ahead, but we'll be in Mexico half of December so I wanted to get a head start.  I also ordered our Christmas cards already! I know myself and I would just forget to send them out if I waited until after our trip.

Here are two pictures of us that didn't make our card, but I love anyway!  Thanks so much to Amy George for the fun photo session.

Until my next opportunity of relaxation...

Courtney

Cleaning Up

With the rewards of home renovation, also comes the inconveniences of updating a house.

My biggest "inconvenience" was taken away today, and I couldn't be happier!

Can you say HOARDERS? 

The men at our church came and spent part of their Saturday helping us load the dumpster.  We are so thankful for our supportive group of friends that took time out of their weekend to serve us through their time and labor.

Thanks everyone!

Courtney

1, 2, 3...

One:

Two:

Three:

No tree AND new windows- all in the same week!!! I'll post more pictures later, but I was so excited that I couldn't wait.